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The Commodification Of Friendship
Is it a connection or a transaction?
I was having a routine conversation with my childhood friends four years ago, when, in the middle of the conversation, she mentioned how one of her guy friends does not have a ‘best friend’.
As someone who has never really known a life without a best friend, I thought she was joking.
I could never believe someone did not have a best friend. It shook me, scared me, and made me incredibly, almost embarrassingly, grateful for my friends.
But over time, this disbelief turned into an unfortunate acceptance of the fact that not having close friends is normal.
The idea of a ‘best friend’ has lost meaning amidst treating connection, relationships, and emotional bonds as commodities — a give-and-take transaction.
We don’t know how to inconvenience ourselves for each other anymore because social media and internet therapists are influencing us to choose ourselves over everything else.
I’ve witnessed people call each other ‘close’, but the slightest inconvenience throws that label right out the window.
Do we really think we can sustain friendships without messing up our schedules, initiating uncomfortable conversations, and canceling plans?
