Lab #6

Lab #6 was a lab requiring me to explore social capitol by taking a poll. I decided to ask local teenagers in my community how many close friends they had. I would tally their number under one of these four categories- 1-2 friends, 3-6 friends, 7-10 friends, or 10+ friends. I decided it would be a good idea to define a "good" friend since some teenagers' definitions are drastically different than others. I defined a "good" friend as someone one could sit down at Krankies with on a sunday and talk to, hold an interesting conversation with, and hang out that afternoon without anything being awkward. When i began polling some people were surprised that this was even a serious question..."I have tons of good friends!" they replied. To this response I was surprised. I found that most people I asked had between 3-6 good friends. I expected that. The second largest range was 10+. When I repetitively acquired 10+ answers I began pondering this question: Are the teenagers who have 10+ good friends mostly from UNCSA? If so, (which most ended up being from) is that because the UNCSA students have similar personalities and characteristic which allows them to be more outgoing or persistent or able to manage their time with many different people. By being at UNCSA alone I believe students are forced to adapt to a group of diverse student body and live with others on a daily basis. These aspects of being independent yield UNCSA students the skills required to become friends with a larger group of people on a deeper level.