The experience of friendship and its importance are defined according to each specific historical context, which includes the social aspects, but also from family, gives religion, gives politics and of the culture of each particular season.
Some authors claim that friendship relationships have undergone significant changes today: the exchange of experiences and moments of coexistence and fun, which in the past were centered on moments of Family living, are now facing the social relationships, especially among peers. Peers are people who share some type of characteristic, such as age, O sex Or the schooling.
We can then say that, historically, greater importance has been given to extra-family relationships, in peer groups. These groups end up becoming the main socializing agencies of individuals, since it is from the enrollment in groups that these subjects can share your experiences. It is also from this process that they are learned standards and rules of life in society, therefore, the
group of friends is considered by some authors to be the main behavioral reference source of many children and teenagers.The relationship with friends at some stages of development can be described as the main mediation between individuals and the world: it is from shared representations that the signifiers of each experience are constructed everyday.
Surveys around the world have sought to explain the importance of friendship in extreme situations such as: family problems (separation, divorce, death of a relative), physical illnesses and moments of psychological distress. According to some authors, friendship relationships would work as exhaust valve. For others, they would be an important object of investment of libidinal energy, becoming a priority in some stages of development, which are characterized precisely by this preference for relationships beyond the family environment, in this case friends from school, work and many other groups, since the subjects are in search of certain autonomy in relation to their parents, seeking to find their place in the world.
Insertion in these different groups of friends provides an expansion in the social universe of children and adolescents, as it favors experiences in new ways of seeing the world, based on the relationship with social and affective interactions different from those established with the family. According to some surveys, the time that children and teenagers spend surrounded by friends is three times bigger than that of adults.
Contemporary society still experiences new forms of social relationships, such as friendships experienced from social networks and other communication technologies. Investigations into the structure and functioning of these networks show that they depend, to a great extent, on the maintenance of "links weak": colleagues, random friends, acquaintances, contacts, since these types of ties favor adherence to different groups many different. These surveys show the importance, for example, of “common friends” that multiply the number of “friends” of a person in almost unlimited scales. Some research in neurology even points to a brain adaptation to that kind of relationship. According to these studies, the human brain would be being prepared to deal in the same way with face-to-face and virtual friendships.
Other studies point to differences between these relationships. In their conclusions, researchers indicate the affective insufficiency of these relationships, making the contacts artificial and with little intimacy.
As divergent as the opinions may be, we cannot rule out the potential for influence of human relationships. Regardless of the way the relationship takes place, it ends up being decisive for the insertion of the individual in a specific way of seeing, feeling, knowing and sharing the world, and this dimension is fundamental for the constitution of the human being.
Juliana Spinelli Ferrari
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Psychology from UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista
Brief psychotherapy course by FUNDEB - Foundation for the Development of Bauru
Master's Student in School Psychology and Human Development at USP - University of São Paulo
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/psicologia/as-amizades-influenciam.htm