THEMATIC ANALYSIS

Thematic Analysis of Interview Transcript Data

Thematic Analysis of Interview Transcript Data

Thematic Analysis

The themes of the interviews conducted were based on exploring how, where and why people make friends. The interviews conducted were to explore the nature of friendship, the place people often make friends, reasons for their lasting friendship and others. Friendship is a relationship which has its basis on trust, love and affection. Friendships can develop between two or more people who interact and enjoy each other's company, and who like to have something in common, for example in the form of interest. Sympathy, empathy and honesty are important factors of friendship. For humans, it is important to have someone on their side when they are going through the hard times. This is because people are basically a social being, it is important to have the company of someone. If a person is totally lonely, it can lead to depression and mental problems.

The interviews conducted reveal that all three participants of the survey has a special friend in their life, with whom they love to spend time with, love to share their thoughts, feeling, happiness, sorrows. The friendship has been considered by religion and popular culture as a vital human experience, including having been sanctified by various religions. The friendship may have a survival instinct origin of the species, with the need to protect and be protected by other beings. Some friends call themselves best friends, as indicated in the survey. It has been found that best friends often know more than their own relatives and spouses, functioning as a confidant. To achieve this degree of friendship, trust and loyalty are much deposited.

It has been revealed through the coding, that most of the people make their best friends in educational institution. However, social media has been identified as another important tool for making good friends. There are several studies showing that interacting with other people, especially friends are what most people do on the internet. Only Facebook has more than 500 million users, who together spend 700 billion minutes per month connected on the site. The internet is the most powerful tool ever invented in relation to making friends. This fact indeed has been endorsed by the responses of the participants of surveys. This is transforming the relations, making it easier to keep in touch with friends and meet new people.Another factor identified from the responses is that none of the respondent had ever engaged in the fight with the person they claim to be their best friend. This is perhaps they both understand each other. The survey also shows that the emotional support offered by friends in the networks exceeds that provided by a partner as a girlfriend or wife in a normal relationship. People in face use social networking service to keep in touch with their best friends and distant acquaintances.

Summary of the Analysis

From the thematic analysis of the survey, it has been identified that the main theme of the survey is ...