Moderate pace, please.
Friendships have become more important than family relationships
Evidence seems to suggest that more value is attached to friendships nowadays than to family. A recent UK survey found that two-thirds of twentysomethings turn to friends first for advice. In addition, marriage is on the decline and increasingly, young people choose to live alone rather than in their parental home. Despite this, however, it would be wrong to argue that family relationships are less important than friendships.
The first point to bear in mind is that most friendships are short-lived. Many are formed at work or in clubs to which we belong: when we change jobs or cease to take part in a group activity, the friendships end. Our family, by contrast, is one of the few constans in a fast-changing world. We can be sure it will allways be there.
A further point is that friendships require hard work and frequent attention, luxuries we often have little time for in our busy lives. Contact may be restricted to emails or text messages, secondary forms of communication which lack depth. Family ties, on the other hand, are based on unconditional love, guaranteeing the strength and survival of the relationship, even when regular visits are not possible.
Finally, friendships have limits. It is generally agreed, for example, that one should never lend money to friends, as this can only lead problems. This is not, however, the case with families, who are usually more than willing to help in times of financial need.
To conclude, whilst some argue that the importance of the family hs declined, it nevertheless remains the one solid relationship on which we can depend when everything else, including a friendship, fails. Clearly, the family is as important as it ever was.
