Are We Entering the Era of Artificial Friendship?
February 5, 2025
In the beginning, there was the Facebook “friend.” In 2006, when Facebook became available to anyone with an email address, it changed our understanding of friendship in subtle yet permanent ways. Accumulating Facebook “friends” became a way to publicize and garner attention for one’s connections. “Friends” signaled one’s status in the online world, but it also made such relationships more instrumental and automated. Facebook would remember friends’ birthdays for you, and the introduction of the “Like” button in 2009 allowed users of the platform conveniently to scroll through content, rewarding their “friends” with a brief bit of attention before moving on. Online friendship was a more convenient and controlled experience, and the habits of mind we formed through daily use of social media platforms prepared us to accept more mediated relationships.
Whatever amount of time one spent interacting with Facebook “friends” and, later, Instagram followers or Snapchat subscribers, few people, if asked, would have suggested that those interactions were proper replacements for one’s fellow human beings.
