Society
80% of people lack real friends: survey
By Quan Li (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-11-11 14:36
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According to an Internet survey on the social networking in China, 80 percent of people said they have few real friends and 76 percent polled claimed more people tend to make friends for the purpose of personal interest.
The online survey, mainly targeting the post 70s and 80s generation, was jointly launched by the Chinese news portal Sina.com as well as minyi.net.cn, the social research center attached to China Youth Daily. Over 2,000 people took the poll.
The survey found that 99.6 percent respondents considered true friendship is fading, while 6.7 percent said they had no real friends.
"Friendship is viewed differently and not as simple as before," said Chen Zhixia, a social psychology professor of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Mutual aids and benefits between friends are valued the most today, unlike the traditional Chinese concept that association between real friends should be pure but solid, she said.
As for the merchantlike tendancy of social networking, the survey found that 75 percent of the people attributed it to the utilitarian environment of society, while 52.4 percent regarded it as the importance of human relations and 36.4 percent blamed social stress.
Most people consider friends part of their social resources and deliberately seek companions from official and business circles. Meanwhile, with the quickened pace and increased stress of life, people have less time and energy to make friends besides attending to their families and careers, said Professor Chen Zhixia.
The report didn't offer an error margin of its survey nor a detailed demographic description of the respondents.
