What

In 2023, a study by Chinese social software Soul showed that young people aged 17 to 27 have an average of 2.5 friends, nearly 60% of them have less than 2 friends, and 12.04% of them think they do not meet any friends at this phase (Law, 2023). The friendship recession appears to be a societal trend wherein individuals may gradually lose the ability to develop and maintain intimate relationships with others.

Why

Personally, I experienced difficulty establishing long-term intimate relationships after growing up. Friendship is crucial to an individual’s mental health, especially as a young person grows up. Friendship recession may lead to mental health problems such as loneliness, depression, and anxiety (Cleary et al., 2018). By studying how to alleviate the problem of friendship recession, the mental health of China’s younger generation can be improved.

How

In contemporary society, amidst fast-paced lifestyles and significant life pressures, China’s young people aged between 18 and 27 are tired of dealing with complicated personal relationships but long for the emotional support of companionship (Yang et al., 2021). As a result, this group starts to seek for mutual companionship without disturbing each other based on common interests or needs (Fu, 2018). Numerous social applications have been developed, capitalizing on this trend. However, even precisely matched friendships can fail to meet expectations. The low emotional engagement and strong purposefulness in this type of social interaction may also bring about low-quality friendship and deeper loneliness (Corsano et al., 2017). Therefore, this study hopes to create a community that deepens intimacy by creating shared experiences, emotional interactions, and physical contact between friends. In traditional Chinese culture, sharing food serves as a means of expressing emotions, where the sensory experience of taste conveys care, love, and friendship (Zhang, 2023). Meanwhile, specific spices tend to evoke memories, triggering emotions and experiences associated with a particular moment, place or situation (Holtzman, 2006). This connection stems from neural connections in the brain between smell and memory, allowing us to build intimacy by recalling the experiences associated with a particular spice.

Therefore, this study will begin with creating a social account that will be used to promote the community and sell food spices. By sharing knowledge about spices, it will stimulate people’s interest in spices. I will also include the QR code of the online community when customers place orders, and customers who buy the same spice will join the same group. In the group, I will share diverse recipes of the same spice in different cultures. Participants in the group will also share their own creative recipes, promoting friendships through the medium of food. When participants meet interested people in the group, I will design an offline gathering with different spices as the theme, where everyone can participate in the design and tasting of the food. In this way, participants’ shared memories and emotional interactions will be created, thus testing whether food spices as a medium can be one of the ways to help people get out of the friendship recession.

What if

This study brings many positive implications and potential for the friendship recession among the younger generation (18 to 27 years old) in China. Firstly, it will improve the mental health of this group and reduce the incidence of mental health problems, including loneliness, burnout, and anxiety. Secondly, by building deeper friendships and relationships, individuals’ social support systems will be enhanced, making them more able to manage life’s challenges and stresses. In addition, these skills will develop young people’s ability to communicate, co-operate and express their emotions, which will have a positive impact on both the individual’s professional and social life.

Reference

Cleary, M., Lees, D. and Sayers, J., 2018. Friendship and mental health. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 39(3), pp.279-281.

Corsano, P., Musetti, A., Caricati, L. and Magnani, B., 2017. Keeping secrets from friends: Exploring the effects of friendship quality, loneliness and self-esteem on secrecy. Journal of adolescence, 58, pp.24-32.

Fu, J., 2018. Chinese youth performing identities and navigating belonging online. Journal of Youth Studies, 21(2), pp.129-143.

Holtzman, J.D., 2006. Food and memory. Annu. Rev. Anthropol., 35, pp.361-378.

Law, J. (2023) How gen Z app soul is tackling China’s ‘Friendship recession’, Jing Daily. Available at: https://jingdaily.com/posts/soul-social-app-china-friendship-recession (Accessed: 15 May 2024).

Yang, P., Xu, G., Zhao, S., Li, D., Liu, J. and Chen, X., 2021. Shyness and psychological maladjustment in Chinese adolescents: Selection and influence processes in friendship networks. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50, pp.2108-2121.

Zhang, K., 2023. Food as a medium: The framework and cross-culture implications of short videos of overseas Chinese sharing Chinese food in foreign countries. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 167, p. 02017). EDP Sciences.