Friendship Can Be Good - and Bad - for your Health
You may think your friends feel about you the same way you feel about them. But guess what? Maybe not. A new study says that someone you think might be your friend might really not be so keen about you, according to The New York Times. The study analyzed friendship ties among 84 people and found that the feelings were mutual about 53% of the time (good, right?) but their expectation of reciprocity was a whopping 94%. Why the disconnect? And why does it feel so bad? The article says that the possibility of non-reciprocal friendship challenges one's self-image. Who wouldn't feel bad to know the friend whose (bratty) kids you took for a weekend so she and her husband could go away really doesn't even consider you a close connection? Friendship has become somewhat commoditized, experts say, these days. How could it not, when "friend" has now become a verb? And we try to collect as many as we can when we're on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn? Qu...