Frientances can have the power of friendship with the benefits of acquaintanceship. Social media plays a key role in frientanceships.
Frientances don't have to have common interests, common values, and the relationship might not be equal. In saying that, a good frientance is committed to your
happiness and the frientanceship doesn't take president over the principles and morals of the parties involved. Frientances have a common
history that binds them together. They are people who have left a legacy in your life.
The frientance has arisen due to social media. For people who have more than 150
friends on social media, it's impossible to be
friends with all of them. Social media allows frientanceships to endure as frientances can follow each other and take part in each other's virtual lives. This virtuality is a key characteristic of frientanceships.
A good frientance treats everyone like a frientance and when the relationship transitions to the virtual space of social media, frientances engage in each other's experiences in a positive manner. You're not entitled to favours by your frientances, but they might be the connection you need for a new
job, business opportunity, collaborator etc. Frientanceships can be powerful since they are a stronger form of
weak ties and
weak ties are great for networking.
Frientanceships are easy going. You can make as many frientances as you can, and some might evolve into friendships, but a good frientance
will never turn into a stranger.
"How do you know that person?"
"He's a frientance... I helped him with his assignment when his
uncle passed away a few years back. He was so nice, he gave me a gift as a sign of his gratitude and he always likes my profile pic updates on Facebook ... I bumped into him the other day and we had a quick chat... good
guy!"
"....we had such a good
time at that party that we became friented . I later found out that she worked at a really
cool place. So I messaged her my resume and that's how I got my internship!!!"
