As social creatores, human beings cannot live without friends. old friends can make an emotional reliance while some newly made friends are ingredients spicing up our lives, Thus, a heated debate has arisen about which following ability to make a lot of new friends. As far as I'm concerned, the former ability overweights the latter one. My reasons and examples are given below.
Firstly, the friendship with a small group of people is more solid and stable. In our lives, we have known a good many people for social purpose, and most of them are no more than "situational friends." who just come and go. Taking my father for example, he is a salesman with complicated social connections, who has to show up in all kinds of social occasions, but he cone told me that he could not even remember his new friends' names. Thus, in this sense, I would rather spend time maintaining the relationship with someone I really trust.
Secondly, maintaining the friendship with a small number of people can bring long-term benefits to us. With limited time and attention, we are unlikely to keep a large circle of friends and invest emotionally in each one of them equally. On the contrary, if we take good care of a couple true friends, they will also treat us sincerely in return. For example, I have several congenial friends, who hold the same values as I do. Every time I feel confused and disappointed about my life, their comfort and encouragement always make me full of energy.
Admittedly, I am not denying the importance of making new friends quickly. In fact, this kind of ability does have its value. For instance, when you are in troubles, new friends could probably help you out if they happened to be useful. However, in most cases, if a new friends helps you, he or she must want something back from you. It;s like a deal. Besides, the relationship with new friends is not stable, because it has not experienced the test of time.
To put it in a nutshell, the ability to maintain old friends outweighs the ability to get to know new people. As a famous quote goes, God gave us relatives, but thank God we can choose our friends. Truth be told, the quantity of friends does not matter. What really matters is the quality of friends.