According to an article in The Washington Post, we may be confusing our real friends with Friends on TV. Writing in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior, sociologist Satoshi Kanazawa posits that we have not yet evolutionarily adapted to the false intimacy of television programs and contends that viewers “fail to distinguish between real friends and the imaginary ones they see on TV” and “people who watch certain types of TV are more satisfied with their friendships, as if they had more friends and socialized with them more often”.
Kanazawa, who teaches at the apparently geographically misplaced Indiana University of Pennsylvania, writes “When we watch TV and see people having a good time, we feel like we are with friends having a good time, we are participating and we have friends.” He also cites differences between the genders: women tend to feel like they have more friends and a better social life if they watch more sitcoms and family dramas, whereas men feel more socially connected to news anchors, imagining them to be on the same level of friendship as coworkers. Also, men like sports and porn.
This is a controversial conclusion, and one that I am sure is on its way to be over-analyzed by the media. To explore this theory, I called a few of my close friends and asked them about social bonding in the TV age. Here are a few of their responses:
MR. SPOCK: I have learned never to underestimate the human capacity for reaching emotional conclusions based on fragmented evidence. I find this analysis to be illogical.
HOMER SIMPSON: Beer is my best friend.
COSMO KRAMER: Hey, all my friends are on TV. You got any milk?
RINGO STARR: What would you do if I sang out of tune?
references:
- Richard Morin, Our Virtual Pals, The Washington Post, June 23 2002, page B05
- Satoshi Kanazawa, Bowling with our imaginary friends, Evolution and Human Behavior, Volume 23, Issue 3, May 2002, pages 167-171