The Importance Of Close Friendships

Friendships can be maintained through mediation between friends who are temporarily separated. However, it is established that, according to Cocking and Matthews (2000), purely mediated close friendships are impossible. The internet presents structural impediments to the formation of exclusively online close friendships as they inhibit an essential feature of close friendship, this being relational identity. The internet allows an individual to choose their identity rather than being forced into non-voluntary self-disclosure. Individuals are capable of distorting filters onto themselves that are normally revealed to friends in an offline encounter and when the relationship is online, the crucial mutual interpretation and shaping of

The general definition of friendship and its features which are accepted across the world involves that which is characterized by mutual affection, a desire to engage with another in shared activities, and a complexion to assist in the welfare and wellbeing of the other (Cocking and Matthews, p 224). In an attempt to recognize a friendship, interpretations of the friend’s character and how they act indicate whether that friend shares a mutual interpretation of the others character and holds a common placement in a close friendship. Cocking and Matthews (p 224), indicate that these interpretations are the dynamic materials that both ordinary and significant expressions of friendships are made of, and in a virtual world, these signals are unable to be processed, making this form of friendship impossible. The internet is making personal relations based primarily on voluntary self-disclosure, and is eliminating many significant aspects of involuntary self-exposure, which is that given unconsciously and diffusely (p 227).

These kind gestures make friendships less ideal since they are not being open and nurturing nor developing a relational identity (p 75). For example, a friend may not agree with the choice the other made regarding her boyfriend, but in an online friendship the friend can be supportive through a half-truth. In an offline friendship, the other would interpret the friend’s character and see they truly do not agree, and are instead lying to them. In an offline friendship, there is a distance between the two which allows for little reason for small lies to be said and developed. Similarly, it offers a comforting buffer that may reduce feelings of vulnerability, creating greater courage in overcoming any fallacy that does originate. Internet friendships allow for individuals to find this courage and humility to overcome the ignorance’s most offline friendships acquire (p