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The social relationships and social networks that we create and transform over the course of a lifetime define not only what we were, but who we are now, and what we become in the future. But it is not only social networks, how many people that we know, that define us, but also the quality of the social relationships that we resolutely build over time that matters to how we grow and develop as human beings. However, several prevailing theories proscribe how these social relationships and social networks will transform themselves as we age. First, Cumming and Henry (1961) suggested that an inevitable part of the aging process is a disengagement from social networks and social relationships in preparation for the final endpoint: death. Cumming and Henry reasoned that people begin this withdrawal when they realize that their life is limited. Disengagement theorists, like Cumming and Henry, believe it is the unambiguous realization that life is drawing short. This universal awareness provides the impetus for the individual and society to modify and reduce the number of social roles that the individual plays. In contrast to disengagement, Havighurst (1961) reasoned that social withdrawal is not a