I have been blessed to live in two eras: the years before social media and today’s world of Facebook and Messenger. Communication has become easier, yet I find myself wondering whether friendship has become deeper. Looking back, I believe I had more true and faithful friendships when staying connected required greater effort.

Perhaps what I miss is the willingness to give time, share ordinary life, and remain present through difficulties. We could not follow someone’s life through a screen. We had to ask, listen, visit, and remember. Friendship grew as we came to know one another beyond first impressions.

Social media certainly brings blessings. It reconnects old friends, bridges distances, and allows families to share their lives across oceans. But it also gives us opportunities to manage appearances. We can display kindness without practicing it, announce faith without living it, and collect friends without accepting the responsibilities of friendship.

Of course, privacy is not hypocrisy. Nobody needs to publish every weakness or personal struggle. Yet genuine friendship needs room for truth. If we must always appear successful, agreeable, or spiritually impressive, how can another person truly know us? Trust deepens when we acknowledge our imperfections and take responsibility for our conduct.

Paul’s instruction, “Let love be genuine” (Romans 12:9), challenges us in either era. Love bears burdens, practices hospitality, and perseveres when relationships become inconvenient. Jesus embodied such love by giving Himself for us and calling His followers to love one another.

The past had its pretensions too, and social media alone cannot explain every friendship we have lost. Still, easier communication deserves closer examination when it leaves us with less meaningful companionship. I am grateful for today’s technology, but I long for friendships marked by honesty, presence, and faithfulness. Whatever tools we use, friendship grows when we give one another something of ourselves.