"Friendboat issues"

I shall be writing on a few issues revolving friendship for the next few posts.

a) The functionalist perspective (so sociological rite...ha)
b) Labelling theory (another sociological concept)
c) Platonic friendship
d) Old vs new friends

[Note: the use of 'he' wld be adopted instead of 'he/she' in my posts for convenience and simplicity.]

a) I would like to start of with the functions of friends. Different friends serve different functions. U gain different level of satisfaction from the interaction with different friend. This is what bring two strangers together in the first place and having them to continue to keep in touch year after year. On top of that, friends bring out the different personalities in you. One may find himself behaving differently with different friends. Notice that with some friends, you have to be extra sensitive b4 saying anything, while with some others, you can more of speak out ur mind in the same way as he does ( reciprocity). With certain friends, you are more of a listener while with some others, you will talk more.

One thing that ultimately separate a good friend from a normal friend is probably that the former serve more functions than the latter. It is due to certain functions in that friend which cannot be replaced by any other friends that make him a good friend to you. Ultimately it's the satisfaction that u get from the friendship that defines its functional importance. Make sense?

(I think my soci tutor wld be so proud of me for making use of the functionalist perspective that I've learnt in sch.)


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Today Stella and bf Ben ended up givin me some personal training on tennis after witnessing my atrocious play. haahaaz...... feel rather funny/paiseh when stella initiated ben to give me some personal training before we continue the game any further. wah so stressed...hahzz....imagine 2 of them on the other side of the court, me on my side with a "nice" pose getting ready for their throws. Not to forget a row of standing passengers on the mrt platform just opposite my view. so stressed. Aahhhaa...But I must say I realli did learnt something from them cos I never know my mistake until they pointed it out. All thanks to the lovely couple. (dun puke, stella)

A skill is so hard to learn than stuff in the books I have realized!! haaazz