Some people prefer to make few
friends, and it is undeniable that it is easy to build more close friendships
when people have few friends. However, I believe it is better to make befriend a lot of people. In the following paragraphs,
I will illustrate in detail why I think this way.
To begin with, making a lot of
friends helps people to be more competitive in the job market. Nowadays, if
people desires to get profitable and rewarding jobs, they cannot avoid
intense competition with others. This is due to the fact that other people may
also want to get such jobs, so they apply for the jobs same ones. Therefore, it is essential to be relatively
competitive from employers' perspectives in order to get decent jobs.
Considering this, making a lot of friends is a great
way to increase competitive advantages. This is attributed to the fact that
people who have a lot of friends are usually considered to be more social and
generous, so they are preferred by employers. A survey conducted by Tokyo
University demonstrates this is true. According to the survey, 78 percent of
the CEOs of the top 150 companies considered as the best places to work
answered they favored those who have a lot of friends. The CEOs explained why
they showed such tendencies. They said that they believed those people tended
to be social and generous, and these characteristics enhanced work performance
in the long run.
On top of that, making a lot
of friends helps people live happier lives. According to a study conducted by
Tokyo University, the proportion of Japanese people saying they are living
happy lives has decreased since 2000. There are various plausible theories
trying to explain what brings this change. However, the theory that steadily
reduced opportunities to interact with others have had negative impacts on overall
happiness is relatively uncontentious. Considering this theory, making a lot of
friends is a great way to live happier lives. This is due to the fact that having many friends gives
more opportunities to interact with others. A study which followed after the
study I mentioned above demonstrates this is true. Researchers performed the
follow-up study with the people who said they were not living happy lives.
Researchers required them to make more friends. After 6 months, researchers
asked them whether they got happier and what made this change. Most of them
answered that they got happier because having more friends enables them to
converse and share thoughts with more people.
To sum up, the
more friends people have, the more possibility to be competitive in the job
market and be happy in their lives people have.
In this regard, I firmly believe that making a lot of friends is more
beneficial for people.