Through the years, it has not only been in real life that people could make friends.

Technology
has made it possible for individuals to have friendship in the virtual world.Friendships can be formed
and nurtured in the internet in various ways. The interaction between them can often be an exchange of
personal information, just like how a person in real life would do.

Aristotle has stated that in order for a person to have a good life, one must consider philia
(friendship) as a major player. Friendships takes a big role in human development and it influences
people in their everyday life. It is stated by a research from the Journal of Epidemiology and Community
Health that the well being of a person has been depending on the circle of friends. The absence of
friends in a person’s life shows that they have lower levels of psychological wellbeing.

The theory of friendship that was proposed by Aristotle was divided into three kinds.To start off,
friendships of utility are attained when a person has a relationship with them due to advantages or
goods that the other person brings. An example of this is being friends with a known lawyer or a
generous businessman. Second, friendships of pleasure are the kinds of friendships that has been
thriving because of their certain interest. Connections that can be considered as friendships of pleasures
are relationship that was created due to their love for literature or playing basketball. The final kind of
friendship is based on mutual admiration and the sharing of the same values. This type is regarded as
the highest form of friendship for it is all about the mutual concern of each person for each other’s sake.
The previous type of friendships were all about self-interest however this is all about genuine care for
the other person even if they do not benefit from them.

It has been an argument between scholars and researchers if virtual friendship can be classified
as real friendship. The millennials however has considered and viewed it as a form of friendship . This
generation has manage to intricately woven social media to their life that they have created their own
cliques in the internet. The millennials has classified the friendships they made on the internet as a real
friendship because they all contain the necessary aspects that defines friendship.

Starting this, millennials consider a person a friend if they accepted them.The world nowadays is
full of people who will judge a person in every move they make which is why millennials who are often
having troubles in socializing in the real world find the social media as their way to socialize with others.
The thing that the millennials enjoy in virtual friendship is that they could not be judged by their flaws
and weaknesses, and somehow they felt accepted by the online world.For example, people who has
physical disabilities that are treated in real life with pity, can be seen in another light with the people of
social media.

Virtual friendships are also defined by the millennials as a real friendship because they believe
that they can confide with their friends. There are a lot of youth who seeks help from other people in
dealing with their personal problems. Most of the times, they have feelings that they could never
express in real life for the fear of being judged by others. They feel much comfortable to release their
emotions to the people of the internet.In return, the person on the other side will give out advices and
helps them to discuss solutions to their problems. The understanding between the two individuals
creates a bond that seems very alike to a physical friendship. Such that even if they are from the other
sides of the world, they can still feel connected with one another through social media. This kind of
friendship is what the millennials consider to be Aristotle’s third kind of friendship.
 Another concept of friendship that exists in the virtual world is that an individual uses social
media to approach someone they are intimidated to approach in reality. Conversing in the internet and
introducing one’s self is much more easier for them because it lessens the anxiety of the person.In doing
this, they gain confidence after their virtual conversation and there is a high possibility that the person
could approach the other party in real life. This action highly benefits the millennials because the friends
they have virtually can be converted into friendships beyond the screen.

Additionally,friendship is considered as one if the individuals manage to keep notified about the
happenings in the other’s life.One of the major benefits from social media is that individuals could
sustain a relationship with old friends or friends that are now living far away from them. With the use of
social media, they could connect and catch up with them. The closeness of two friends could never
waver since they are connected virtually and with the emergence of different social media application it
is as good as being together physically. One example of this is old high school classmates who has been
studying in different countries, they can reconnect with each other by the means of messenger or
facebook.

Yet even after all this, people are still insisting that social media has changed the concept of
friendship. Many have argued that the reason why millennials does not seem to interact with real
people is because they are too enamoured to the interaction happening in the virtual world. They blame
the internet because nowadays if a person does not have any social networking sites, the millennials
find it difficult to connect with them.

More importantly, social media has been shaping the way of communications of millennials. In
social media, a person can stop for a moment to think about his next message but there is no such thing
like that in reality. A person cannot pause while in the middle of a conversation with other people. A
person could also erase messages in their conversation but again that is impossible in the real world.
Once a person speaks before they think, they could never undo what they say, no matter how hard they
try. This is one of the reasons why a millennial could not sustain a friendship outside of the virtual world

“As a species we are very highly attuned to reading social cues,” says Dr. Catherine Steiner-
Adair, a clinical psychologist and author of The Big Disconnect. “There’s no question kids are missing out
on very critical social skills. In a way, texting and online communicating—it’s not like it creates a
nonverbal learning disability, but it puts everybody in a nonverbal disabled context, where body
language, facial expression, and even the smallest kinds of vocal reactions are rendered invisible.”

Social skills are one of the key ingredient in creating and maintaining a friendship, and many has
said that it is being robbed away from the millennials because of the amount of time they spent hiding
behind a screen. They stated an example of a person who is popular in twitter and instagram is
struggling to communicate with others in real life even if they have been famous in the platforms of
interactions.

In summary, one could say that the definition of friendship is just what it was, it is merely the
way that the millennials are conducting it has changed. The flourishing of the different social networking
sites has paved a new way for them to make friends and they are only seizing the opportunity to make
the best out of it