Category: Basic Training

Can technology and social media help you make closer friends? Depending on who you ask, the answer is “Yes”. But I might suggest the answer is also a resounding “No”! Sure, this statement seems strange in the era of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the plethora of social media options. On one hand, social media is good for keeping in touch. According to Pew Research’s study Using Social Media to Keep in Touch, roughly two-thirds (67%) of social media users say staying in touch with current friends and family members is the major reason they use social media sites. About half use it to reconnect with old friends. On the other hand, we frequently hear that over use of social media is having a negative impact on brain development of our youth and is weakening our interpersonal skills to the point that it affects our friendships. As I have written previously

Ralph Waldo Emerson may have offered the best advice for making and keeping close pals: “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” Then, why do so many men have a hard time making and keeping friendships? The honest answer may be that many of us don’t know how to make friends. In my last post, Finding Your First God Buddy, I suggested you need to overcome the fear of rejection. You can start the path toward friendship by finding commonality with another guy. You can also try pursuing friendship with someone you admire. Both mean taking a little risk. So what keeps us from reaching out to someone with whom we want to develop a friendship? David Smith, author of the book Men Without Friends may have given the best reasons in his list of six characteristics that prove to be barriers to friendship for men: