Understanding Friendship as Social Discourse
Abga Maina Mackson
Faculty of General Studies,
Federal University Dutse, Jigawa State, Nigeria
Email: abgamainamackson@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Friendship is a kind of relationship that has been nurtured since time immemorial, it is something that is found in every society and culture; it is a relationship of mutual affection between two or more people, a bond that is usually never broken. The idea of friendship can best be thought of as two people side by side looking forward towards a common goal, or a relationship between two people who like each other and enjoy each other’s companion. At a higher dimension and more interesting level, the idea of friendship contains not only the component of association but also that of loyalty; the highest level of friendship contains the components of association and loyalty along with affection, this would greatly help in the emotional , psychological, and social development of the individual. However, any relationship needs constant nurturing and development from all the people that involved in one ; this means, friendship cannot survive if one person makes all the efforts to sustain it without any mutual recognition from others, because both positive and negative experiences refine the personality of the individual, it is of paramount essentiality that we find friends who are compatible with our aims and goals in life and that concerted and mutual effort should be made to sustain it.
Keywords: Agentic, Acquaintance, affection, affinity alliance, Association, attachment, bond, closeness, comrade, Companion,
