I  have found that my own perceptions on how media fosters unhealthy  models of friendships are quite simple. Films and television typically  create friendships or situations that have minimal or zero complexity to  them. For example you have a group of people who are from different  social groups that magically become friends over the course of a day in  detention such as in the movie The Breakfast Club. In the movie you have  five students who really only share one thing in common but by the end  you find that they have much more in common than you think. This is a  great example of how a film attempts to show people from all walks of  life can become friends if they are open to the idea of friendship.  Although I agree with the movie’s overall message, I find that it’s not  as simple as the movie makes it out to be. As Vernon (2010) stated, “The  spirituality of friendship is not something that can simply be ceded to  the market. It must be recovered because it captures the attitude best  able to negotiate the ambiguities of friendship we have discussed, and  make friendship nothing less than a way of life” (pp. 222-223). So that  begs to question how five individuals can form everlasting relationships  after only nine hours together. Now I am not say that the movie said as  much, however it opened the viewer up to this possibility. There are  many other examples that might be better than The Breakfast Club, but  considering how marketable and classic the movie has become most people  can relate to its message. So how do we challenge and question the  mainstream notions of friendships? We most certainly can attempt to look  past the marketable and try and take them for face value. We must see  them for what they are, a snapshot in time that tries to fit years of  complexities into a shorten timeline that has been molded for  entertainment value. Everyone enjoys a happy ending and in many film and  books author and producers do their best to facilitate these outcomes.  Once again we must understand this is not reality in many cases. Michel  de Montaigne argues that not every individual is even capable of soul  friendship and with that soul friendship is even rarer. (Vernon, 2010,  pp.224-225) However, many films and books who lead people to believe  that soul friendship is an everyday possibly and occurrence given the  situation one finds them in. I think it sends mixed message. Can people  find friendship in all situations? I believe they can but they must  understand that a soul friendship is rare and complex that it is likely  that those friendships are nothing more that friendships of utility or  pleasure.

REF:

The Breakfast Club. (1985, February 14). Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088847/.

Vernon, Mark. The Meaning of Friendship (pp. 222-225). Palgrave Macmillan UK. Kindle Edition.