DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE FRIENDSHIP IN DIFFERENT SOCIAL SPACES

Abstract

With the development and widespread use of the Internet, more and more people make friends online. Such friendship can shift to other settings. For example, many online friends also meet each other face-to-face. Therefore, online friendship can be performed in different social spaces. The relationship between online friendship and the social spaces where it is performed has rarely been discussed. Based on a study of seafarer-partners’ friendships formed on a discussion website, this paper demarcates friendship performed in three different spaces: the website itself, another online setting, and offline space. It suggests that the more spaces the friendship expands into, the more intimate and rewarding it becomes. This paper also explores the implications of each setting for maintaining performing friendship.

Keywords:

• cyberspace
• friendship
• social space

Notes

MSN Messenger is a free instant messaging computer program developed and distributed by Microsoft. Recently, it has been renamed as Windows Live Messenger. QQ is the predominant instant messenger in China. Although little used outside China, QQ's domestic users number as high as 270 million.