Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Issues of Trust: How Do We Decide On a Friend?

A good therapeutic relationship is a kind of friendship where there are boundaries that do not exist in ordinary friendships but, like friendships, trust, loyalty, acceptance and affection are important. This is why a friend can be our best therapist.


Trust is one of the fundamental elements of a good friendships. In the real world, before deciding who a real friend is, there must be a face to face interaction. People take into consideration physical contact through effective communication, by hanging out together, going to lunch and dinner and socialising together. Our friends are essential to our enjoyment of life. They support and validate our sense of self http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/08/choosing-friends-friendship-breakdown.


Due to advancement of technology, friends are made easier than you can think of. We meet friends on facebook, twitter and friendship starts right away with text messaging and online chatting. I believe this link explains how to choose friends on real or virtual world http://www.helium.com/items/85594-ten-qualities-every-friend-should-have On the other hand, we should be careful when choosing friends online. I know of a 14yr old girl who met someone online and thought she had found a friend, not knowing that person was a 40 year old man. There are consequences to some of these friendships. So if I may know, what do you look for in a friend?

1 comment:

  1. Online we are able to choose from hundreds, or even thousands of potential friends. Because of this, I think we tend to gravitate towards those with the same thoughts, opinions, likes and dislikes as us. Generally, we are not looking for a debate partner but for someone to validate the way we feel.
    Graham Jones is an Internet Psychologist, who writes an interesting and helpful blog that gives advice on how to choose online friends. You can read his blog at http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/blog/internet-psychology/choose-your-online-friends-with-care.html

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