Friendship & Romance in a Highly Transactional World

According to these two articles on contemporary friendship & romance/dating by Elle Hunt, the same social forces are affecting both types of relationships and warping them into more transactional, commodified forms than they should be. This is of course a relative appraisal, since there have certainly been many past eras and locations where transactional values and criteria were used to judge all relationships. But whatever the right or wrong of it, it’s widespread and an interesting sociological phenomenon to discuss:

Friendship:
https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2024/feb/21/when-end-friendships-toxic-self-care

Romance/Dating:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/17/materialists-dating-market-film-money-relationship

~Michael