What, You Mean my 500+ Facebook Friends Aren’t Really My Friends??
100 friends on Facebook? just THREE will stick by you in a crisis
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:00 PM on 29th April 2009
It’s the age of social networking internet sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, you might think we would cultivating an increasing number of friends.
But the reality is that Britons have just three people they can rely on in a crisis, a survey suggests.
Despite living in an age of rapid communication via the internet, most of us have just three friends who will stick by us through thick and thin, a survey has found
The average Briton claims to have 16 friends, but nearly half of the 18 to 45-year-olds quizzed in the poll – 48 per cent – admitted that most of these were kept ‘out of habit’ rather than actually being close.
After losing touch with an average of 36 people over the years, most of us are left with just three friends who will stick with us through thick and thin.
More than half of the 3,000 people questioned by OnePoll.com blamed hectic lifestyles for their failure to keep in touch with friends. Four out of ten said they had ‘just drifted apart’.
A spokesman for www.OnePoll.com said: ‘Long working hours and hectic lifestyles means Brits feel tired and a real effort needs to be taken to keep in touch with each other.’
The survey also highlights the damage done by bitter arguments, with 43 per cent admitting they have cut a former friend out of their lives completely over a disagreement – most often about love, money or jobs.
More than one in four confessed to neglecting old friendships – with one in three saying they would not contact someone again after a ten-year break and one in ten giving the limit as a year.
But 68 per cent said they wish they had kept in touch with old school friends and regret letting them slip away.
The poll found that text messages, e-mails and social networking sites are now the most popular ways to communicate with friends on a daily basis – with one in three people preferring to go online to chat rather than go out and meet new friends.
The advantage – apart from not having to get up from your chair – is that social websites provide ways of identifying people who share your interests.
Friends Reunited popularised the use of the internet to trace former acquaintances. According to the new poll, 41 per cent of people would contact an old friend if they saw their profile on a website.
The also found that three quarters of people have had a friendship with a stranger they only know through online chat-rooms and social networking sites.
