Contents
Psychology
Since we are children, friendships are a fundamental part of our lives. We are social beings, so we need contact with others for our survival, so form friendships it is very beneficial for our mental health.
If there is something important in friendship relationships, it is trust, feeling that we can be who we want to be, being able to trust them with our deepest problems or secrets, and this is something that on a psychological level, as Lidia G. Asensi, a health psychologist, says At the Cepsim Psychological Center, it “generates great well-being”, although it is also a privilege in reverse: to see that others trust and count on us when they need it.
Do you remember how the days of confinement were? Although there are those who have “gaps” of those days without leaving home, others remember them perfectly because they dedicated them to making phone calls, sending messages, video calls … In short: to ensure that relationships, in this case those of friendship, continue to fill up of memories and shared experiences.
We are more selective
So long without socializing personally made us realize who those people are that we most wanted to see. Perhaps many even concluded that they spent time with people they really did not want to be with, and that has made us much more selective today.
«We are more selective when deciding who to meet due to possible contagion. Therefore, we are going to meet those most trusted people. These friendships are going to be much stronger, because we feel the need to see these people and spend time with them, ”says Lidia G. Asensi.
Many may have different groups to meet with or do certain activities. Within these groups, there are those who are our narrowest group and other groups with whom we usually do not meet regularly.
Friendship fractures and stronger ties
Do you defend that time is not something decisive? Has it happened to you that you have met someone and after a few days you feel that you have known each other for a lifetime? It is possible that sometimes we have the feeling of connecting more with known people than with long-lasting friends and this happens because, at first, we do not know their defects so much, nor this person ours, and because on many occasions the novelty of meeting a new person prevails and share something with it, where at the beginning everything is more fun and enigmatic because we still lack things to notice.
«The difference between an acquaintance and a friend is established in trust. We can connect a lot with an acquaintance and have a good time, but we are clear about who our trusted people are and who we can go to, ”says the psychologist from the Cepsim Psychological Center.
For the psychologist Lidia G. Asensi (@ lidiag.asensi), today the following situations are being generated:
Greater union of friendship. We miss our usual groups of friends a lot and this situation is generating a greater union. “We are realizing how important our social circle is and how much we need it. We miss our usual group plans and we are limited when it comes to meeting: we can not hug and kiss or because we are more people than allowed. This helps to strengthen the ties of our friendship, ”he says.
Fractures with those who they are not so much in our day to day. On the contrary, it is possible that there are fractures with people who did not share so much with us before the pandemic… “When it comes to limiting contacts, it is possible that these people are the chosen ones. This does not mean that the friendship is broken, but if there is a greater distance.
Also the situation may help some people to realize the type of relationship that he had with some friends or acquaintances and this has been able to help him reduce his circle of friends, realizing that perhaps with these people he did not feel well.
However, the pandemic does not have to be a reason to lose our friends. It is true that we do not have as much physical contact or as much possibility of seeing each other, but there are other ways of maintain communication and relationship, and it is important to find new ways of relating.
Friendship relations at a distance have always existed, for example, friends who live in other countries, if both parties take care of the relationship, friendship will work.
Given the situation in which we find ourselves, it is important to take care of our friends. This should be a reciprocal behavior: caring and being cared for. “The distance and not seeing each other should not be a reason for our friendships to break: if this happens it is because perhaps there was a previous problem or perhaps it was not an established friendship”, concludes the psychologist Lidia G. Asensi.