READING

DIFFERENT ATTITUDES TOWARDS FRIENDSHIP

Speaker 1When I was a kid, I made friends for, what seemed like arbitrary reasons. My best friends were the kid who lived down my street, and the boy who sat next to me in class, whose name was next to mine in the alphabet. When I think about it, it’s strange that we remained friends for so long. But since I moved away, we’ve inevitably drifted apart. Their lives and mine are just so different now. It seems like I’ve moved on, but they’re still doing the same things we did together when we were 17. Going to the same old bars, playing computer games, you know. That stuff doesn’t interest me any more.

Speaker 2I must say that I’ve been finding it difficult making friends lately. After we’ve gone through the usual small talk – Nice day today isn’t it, what did you do at the weekend - I can’t think of anything else to say. So going out has seemed more like a chore than a pleasure of late. That’s why I wasn’t that bothered about going to my school reunion. But in the end I decided to go, and I’m glad I did. As soon as I met up with my old pal Barney, we just picked up from where we’d left off. There weren’t any social graces. Within minutes we were teasing each other just the same as we had done ten years ago.

Speaker 3Whenever I meet up with new people, even briefly, I always get their email address and hook up with them online. People say it’s stupid and these aren’t real friendships. ‘A friend is someone you spend time with, face to face’ – they say. I don’t think that’s strictly true, as people have written to penfriends for decades, and I’m sure most people consider people friends even if they only see them once in a blue moon. I love going online, reading people’s posts and seeing what they’ve been up to. We get into random conversations and comment on interesting topics. I know that without the Internet, our friendships would never have withstood the test of time.

Speaker 4I remember reading when I was a kid in a magazine ‘Relationships come and go, but a good friendship can last a lifetime’. At the time, I was sceptical, but over the years, my friend Hannah helped me out through so many ups and downs of life that I came to believe it. That’s why, when she broke up with her long-standing partner after 7 years and lost her job at the same time, I welcomed her into my flat and made sure she was okay. Six months later, she was still there and wasn’t making any effort to contribute to the bills, not matter how much I asked. In the end, I had to ask her to leave. It wasn’t pleasant, and we haven’t been in contact since, sadly.

Speaker 5I was at an anniversary dinner party not long ago, where I didn’t really know anyone except my parents. I was on a table of young people in their late teens and early twenties, which I thought was nice. After all, I didn’t want to hang around with my parents all night. But it soon became apparent that the oldies were having a far better time than we were. I tried to make conversation, but everything I said seemed to fall flat. The people on my table all had

their smart phones switched on, and they spent the whole evening texting. They barely said a word. My parents had a whale of a time and by the end of the night, they’d been invited to three more social engagements with people they’d only just met. I came away with nothing, and felt profoundly miserable.