英语阅读：校园交友数量直接影响日后财运
You may have found many friends through Internet networking, but how manyof them are real friends?
A NEW study from the University of Essex in Britain has shown that the more
friends you have at school, the more money you'll earn later。
The researchers noted that if you want to get ahead in life, social skills
and networking are easily as powerful as talent
and hard work。
Maybe that's why we now find ourselves in the age of *Friendaholism. Call
me uncool, but I think of a friend as an actual person with whom I have an
actual history and whom I enjoy actually seeing. It seems, however, that this is
no longer the definition
of "friend"。
A friend is someone on your Facebook page or in your Twitter circle. A
friend is someone you might know personally but who could just as easily be the
friend of a friend of some other Facebook friend you don't actually know. The
idea of friendship, at least among the growing population of Internet social
networkers, is to attain
as many of these not-really-friends as possible. Quantity *trumps
quality。
Recently, I heard a woman complaining that Facebook's 5,000-friend limit
was too low for her vast reserve of social contacts. At the time, this struck me
as advanced-stage friendaholism. But in light of the University of Essex study,
I'm wondering if her salary is two percent higher for every extra friend she has
on Facebook? If so, why is she driving a used car?
I can't *presume to know the answer. But it's worth noting how many people
these days regard "friends" as a form of currency。
That's not necessarily a bad thing. Social ties *grease the wheels of life.
Without friends, we'd have fewer memories, not to mention less to remember。
Granted, even on Facebook, the currency of friends comes in different
*denominations. If real-life friends feel like $100 (683 yuan) bills, those
*random strangers amount to little more than loose change. But the fact remains
that here, the dollar is losing its value. These "friendships" require a lot of
maintenance. You have to keep instant-messaging and texting lest you become a
bad "friend". As a result, for friendaholics, socializing is less about sharing
life experiences than sustaining a never-ending *volley with multiple partners
in a giant electronic tennis game。
In a poll conducted in 2004, where Americans were asked how many "close
*confidants" they had, the most common answer was zero. As depressing as that
is, it's hardly surprising. In the mind of the friendaholic, having one friend
you can count on apparently just isn't as fun as having thousands of friends to
count up. Considering how labor-intensive the new friendship frontier is, maybe
people with wider social circles do deserve to earn higher salaries。
Too bad one thing money can't buy is a real friend。
英语词汇解析
commencement
毕业典礼
confidant
知己、密友
denomination
货币单位
friendaholism
滥交朋友
grease
润滑
meddle
干涉
presume
冒昧地做某事
random
随意的
snub
怠慢
terminate
终止trump
胜过
volley
截击
BONUS
count on
指望、依靠
I know I can count on you to help me with this. After all, we've been best
friends since high school。
我知道能指望你帮我这个忙。我们毕竟从高中起就是好朋友。
toady (up) to
奉承、谄媚
Although he needs money badly, he says that toadying to his rich brother is
the very last thing he would do。
他说，虽然急需钱，他也决不会去巴结他那有钱的兄弟。
页:
[1]