Ask yourself this question…
Could you handle one thousand friends?
Imagine the mental toll of remembering their birthdays, their kids’ names, and what they did last weekend. Would you be able to keep up with the events of even one hundred people’s lives? Consider hosting a party and weigh the financial and emotional costs.
Women typically build friendships face-to-face through deep conversation, emotional vulnerability, and consistent communication. Men often bond through shared activities, sports, and mutual hobbies, creating connections focused on action rather than emotional disclosure.
It takes time to build meaningful relationships.
Sadly, this point seems lost on many young people today. There’s a generation of young Australians seeking way too much validation online. There’s an old saying about looking for friends in all the wrong places, and it certainly applies to social media. Platforms encourage users to collect followers and friends as if relationships were nothing more than Pokémon trading cards.
The reality is that many “friends” couldn’t care less about you. Some may be busy with their own lives, and others aren’t even real. Social media is swarming with bots, and rumour has it that there are millions of fake accounts or even CIA accounts casually hanging out on social media, happy to be “your friend”.
It’s not just the younger generation either. For some oldies, the thought of leaving home without a phone would leave them in a cold sweat. Today, we tap and scroll and switch between apps in search of entertainment and friendships. We compare ourselves to the perfect lives of our neighbours and ask ourselves how they manage to keep their grass so green.
Many teenagers feel pressure to be like their heroes, chasing hundreds or even thousands of online connections to appear popular. But this idea is unrealistic, and for young people it’s very unhealthy.
Author J. Luna asks readers to think about the difference between friends and acquaintances.
He says:
“Remember that old high school bully who made your life miserable? Or that creepy classmate who told lies about you behind your back? And people like this now want to be your friend? How many true friends do we normally have in life? Can you count them on one hand, or two at most? When someone claims to have 1000 friends, do you really want to be 1 of the 1000?”
Young people today need to understand the value of genuine human connection. Instead of chasing likes and followers, they should appreciate the real friends and family members who support them in everyday life.
True friends are the people who listen, encourage, and stand beside us during difficult times — not a number on a friend or follower list.
In the end, having a few loyal and meaningful friendships in the real world seems far more valuable than a thousand online acquaintances.
Chitchat Newspaper. June 2026.