Online friendships are a hot item. Many is written about this subject, but can true friendships be formed online? When Internet was new it seemed impossible to make real friends online. Today, Internet has grown and developed, it offers many options for computer mediated communication. A lot of studies have been done on online friendship, many of these studies show that true friendship can be formed online.
Research indicates that it is possible to form a close friendship through computer mediated communication. However, forming an online friendship will take longer than forming a friendship in real life. The reason that it will take longer to form an online friendship is that impressions and cues (non-verbal communication) take longer to communicate (Walther & Parks, 2002). Cues that are shared through computer mediated communication are different than the cues that are shared in face-to-face communication. The cues that are shared online are emoticons, avatars, nicknames, abbreviations like LOL, identity markers and multimodality (Skype, webcam conversations). These cues take longer to decode than “normal” non-verbal communication.
Face to face friendships are usually stronger than new online friendships. However, after a year the online friendship will be even strong as a face-to-face friendship. In some cases online friendships (mainly friendships between people with different genders) are even stronger and better than face-to-face friendships.
All and all, there can be concluded that friendships can be formed online. However, I still prefer “old fashioned” face-to-face friendships. What do you prefer?
Sources:
Chan, D.K.-S. & Cheng, G.H.-L. (2004). A comparison of offline and online friendship qualities of different stages of relationship development. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. 2004; 21; 305.
Walther, J.B. & Parks, M.R. (2002). Cues filtered out, cues filtered in: Computer-mediated communication and relationships.
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