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PR03170 28 Nov 2003
Time Pressured Brits Make 396 Friends In Their Life...But Lose 363 Of Them
London - UK - 28th November - Friends have overtaken money, career and even family as the most important thing in the lives of over half the UK population (58%) according to new figures released today by MSN Messenger. The ‘MSN Messenger – Anatomy of Modern Friendship’ research is the result of a comprehensive study of friendship patterns of over 10,000 Brits.
The research also reveals that although friendship is a priority the average Brit today only manages to stay in touch with one in twelve of the 396 friends they make in a lifetime – a situation that over two thirds (68%) call one of their ‘biggest regrets in life’.
The ‘Anatomy of Modern Friendship’ study was undertaken by MSN Messenger and investigates friendship types, numbers and patterns.
MSN Messenger has established itself as an indispensable friendship tool with over seven million people in the UK now using MSN Messenger and thousands of new users signing up for the free service every day as hectic Brits latch on to instant online conversations as the way to keep friendships alive.
MSN’s friendship research also reveals:
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33 is the magic number
According to the results of MSN Messenger’s figures, the average number of friends a person has today in Britain is 33. However, the research also unearths a strict hierarchy of friendship with only a fifth of those 33 friends (six) typically making it into the inner sanctum of ‘close’ friends and the remaining four fifths being seen as ‘social friends’.
Close but not so close
But in a bizarre twist identified by MSN Messenger as ‘converse closeness’ social friends are seen far more frequently than close friends. Women will see their social friends on average every 3.5 days whilst men wait an average five days to see their social friends. However both men and women only meet up with their close friends once every eight weeks, just six times a year on average.
The changing definitions of friendship and the rise of the ‘Silent Friend’
The increasing challenge of meeting up physically with close friends face to face has led to the rise of a new social phenomenon – the ‘Silent Friend’ – a friend that is rarely seen or spoken to directly but is kept in touch with using new online communications tools such as Instant Messenger.
MSN Messenger estimates that up to a third of the UK population in their twenties and thirties have friends that fall predominantly into the ‘Silent Friend’ category.
Clare Bolton, MSN Messenger Marketing Manager commented: ‘With hectic work schedules, physical distance and pressured social lives making friendship get-togethers increasingly difficult, more and more of us are cultivating ‘Silent Friendships’ and keeping in touch with our friends – often several times a day - using Instant Messenger, email and SMS.’
And the research identifies that ‘Silent Friends’ are becoming increasingly active and creative in the way they communicate. Many ‘Silent Friends’ are in touch up to four times a day and one in ten use webcams with MSN Messenger so they can see their friends as they share instant online chat.
Are you a Friendship Cultivator, Pruner, or Harvester?
The MSN Messenger ‘Anatomy of Modern Friendship’ research reveals that despite our very different friendship patterns, Brits fall into four key friendship categories:
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The MSN Messenger Friendship results reveal that ‘Friendship Pruners’ are typically aggressively climbing the social and career ladder and are rarely found beyond the twenties age group.
A decade later, physical distance becomes an increasing potential barrier to friendship making most Brits in their thirties conscious of the need to nurture friendships more carefully. Whereas those under the age of 25 typically live in the same area as 80% of their friends, by the age of 35 that number has halved for women (47%) and dropped by a third for men (58%).
In fact, with an increasingly global business community and trend towards living abroad, one in six of men’s friends and one in ten female’s friends will live overseas by the time they’re over 35, spurring them to become ‘Friendship Cultivators’ or at the very least ‘Friendship Harvesters’.
MSN Messenger’s figures also revealed that while men typically claim to have 20% more friends than women, they are more likely to fall into the sporadic contact patterns of ‘Friendship Gatherers’ and ‘Friendship Harvesters’, while as many as two thirds of women (60%) fall into the ‘Friendship Cultivator’ category and only describe people they contact on a weekly, daily or even hourly basis as friends.
However, with the communications technology revolution and advent of easy, instant communication services such as MSN Messenger, many men that previously fell into the ‘Friendship Harvester’ group are widening their patterns of friendship contact. Instead of only contacting friends around key calendar dates such as football matches and birthdays an increasing number are becoming ‘Friendship Cultivators’ and sharing jokes, banter and news with their friends on a daily basis.
Clare Bolton said: ‘New communications technology such as instant messaging and SMS means that it’s never been easier to stay in touch with friends. It’s fascinating to see the way in which communications services such as MSN Messenger are shaping friendships today and acting as modern day social superglue.’
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