FSS-DSOC Luncheon Seminar Fall 2025 #4 & Mini-Methods Meeting (M3)

Using General Social Survey data, we aim to compare the relative importance of close family ties and close friendships in shaping happiness in the age of liquid love. In contrast to the “solid” modernity of previous eras where social structures, institutions, and life trajectories were relatively stable and predictable, liquid modernity is marked by the dissolution of enduring frameworks that once anchored individual identity, collective purpose, and social cohesion. Applying Giddens’ concepts of the pure relationship and confluent love, along with Bauman’s notion of the commodification of intimacy, we explore how close relationships have been transformed under the pressures of individualization and capitalist rationality. We then compare the relative importance of close family ties and friendships in promoting happiness among men and women. Our findings show that females who turn to family first when feeling down report greater happiness than those who turn to close friends. Males who turn to family when sharing a happy social occasion also report greater happiness than those who turn to friends. We conclude that in postmodernity—characterized by fluidity, reflexivity, and the erosion of traditional structures—close family ties may become more, not less, significant.