The Risks & Pleasure of Friendships Expert Answer

Introduction

Friendships are considered to be the ultimate expression of choice in today’s contemporary consumer societies where the identities of the individuals are produced through the connections amongst people with whom they express the affection and affinity. However, friendships can be complicated given its fragmented role in the social world today. According to Sinanan & Gomes (2020), friendships provide the affective reinforcement and practicality towards self-development and identification in the social setting within which individuals choose to share and nurture their time together. Given the level of trust, emotional support and kinds of resources shared by the friends, it can be debated that friends can have an influence on each other’s’ personal preferences and the lifestyle they lead.

Pleasures of Friendship

Friendship was clearly defined by Rebughini (2011) as an affective relationship that can influence people and let them re-position their perspective and presumptions of life. The author analyzed the friendship dynamics between the emotions and trials. It was argued that friendship emerges out to be stronger in the period of trials (being put to test). It was noted that friend’s availability during difficult times represented a primary meaning of evaluating the whole solidity of the relationship on which friendship is based. However, it was argued that not all the friends are same and the associated emotions & experiences can dwindle across different personalities.

The analysis of friendship bond between the physically & socially challenged individuals gained much attention in the recent literature. Rossetti (2011) carried on the analysis of how friendship is shaped and nurtured by the high schools with & without autism or development disability. It was noted that the peer support and peer interactions amongst the students with severe disabilities tend to rise when they get support from classmates rather than by the educators. Surprisingly, it was found that the friends who shard disabilities were more able to overcome the key potential barriers related to experiences of disability including inability to communicate, social anxiety and lack of transportation.

Study by Salmon (2012) also put light on how disabled teens negotiated and overcame the stigmas while creating lasting friendships. The friendships of disabled teens are considered to be complicated as research indicated that they tend to go out less and feel it difficult to make best friends. Hence, the disabled youth reportedly feel powerless and alienated as compared to the other nondisabled peers. This indicates towards teens having less access to protective functions of friendship including sense of belonging, self-esteem and confidence.     However, the study by Salmon (2012) reported that the disabled teens disrupted the oppression by following and creating enduring relationships with people who shared the disabilities. Hence, it was debated that disabled youth uses the self-exclusion as a strategy for creating sustainable friendships in the context of oppression while promoted social inclusion by disrupting ableism.

Risks of Friendship

Although, friendship has the above identified benefits, it comes with certain negative and risky aspects to it as well. Smart et al. (2012) overviewed the negative aspects of friendship and provided a debate over how friendships can go wrong and challenge one’s own sense of self while producing ontological insecurities. The feelings of guilt and not being able to emerge out as a supporter during difficult times can alter the way one feels towards the other. The feelings of guilt might get triggered amongst friends due to not being able to respond to perceived demands of friendship that can then produce discomfort amongst friends. It was argued that when things go wrong between friends, people can become unsettled and enter into the phases of self-reappraisal and self-doubts. Hence, on one hand friendships can build self-appraisal while on the other hand, it can create self-doubts and trigger feelings of guilt amongst friends given the inability to fulfill the demands of the friends during difficult situation.

Friendships can also result in positive and negative habit adaptation as per discussed by MacLean (2015). However, it has been debated that the pattern of alcohol consumption are found to be flowing from one person to another when there is friendship amongst them. It has been reported that the transmission of drinking habit, either intentionally or unintentionally occurs as a result of “influence” that people might have over their friends. The question is, why alcohol drinking habit has become a norm in the friendship circles. The answer is also put forth by MacLean (2015) that it is done for sustaining a friendship for which one must continually constitute the relationship by engaging into friendship-making practices. Hence, it was argued that alcohol use is the result of influence or contagion effect that causes the transmission of drinking patterns and alternative attitudes between friends.

Conclusion

Given the above discussion, the joys and risks of friendship were unfolded given the different circumstances. It can be concluded that friendships, like other relationships are able to build and break one’s trust and self-appraisal. Despite the challenges and risks posed by friendships, it was apparent that enduring and long-lasting friendships evolved when the two persons shared circumstances (may it be social setting, physical/social disability or other events).

References

MacLean, S., 2015. Alcohol and the Constitution of Friendship for Young Adults. Sociology, 50(1), pp. 93-108.

Rebughini, P., 2011. Friendship Dynamics between Emotions and Trials. Sociological Research Online, 16(1).

Rossetti, Z. S., 2011. ‘‘That’s How We Do It’’: Friendship Work Between High School Students With and Without Autism or Developmental Disability. Research & Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 36(1-2), pp. 23-33.

Salmon, N., 2012. ‘We just stick together’: how disabled teens negotiate stigma to create lasting friendship. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 57(4), pp. 347-358.

Sinanan, J. & Gomes, C., 2020. ‘Everybody needs friends’: Emotions, social networks and digital media in the friendships of international students. International Journal of Cultural Studies , 23(5), pp. 674-691.