The Effect of the Internet on Offline Friendships

Hello again! Today I will share with you the first topic: What the effect of Internet use has been on friendships that were formed in person.
Face-to-face communication is the foundational and primary means of communication that we as humans have developed. We employ verbal, visual, and sometimes physical cues to help other people understand the message which we are attempting to convey. This form of communication is conducted entirely in real time. Because of this, once something is spoken, it cannot be undone. Communication in person also affords a person the opportunity to quickly discern and interpret the attitude or response of the person receiving his or her message.
Contrastingly, the Internet has brought with it an easy and convenient way for people to communicate without being in each others' presence, and without having to respond instantaneously. This has literally revolutionized communication in many ways. One of the most important ways this has occurred is in the realm of friendships.
A study(1) on social networking websites and the quality of friendships discussed how "offline" relationships have been impacted by the Internet. It emphasized that friendships develop primarily as a result of proximity, similarity, and social attraction. Proximity is the geographical closeness of two people, similarity refers to how alike two people are, and social attraction is a term used to describe the way two people are drawn to each other to form a friendship. The study also characterized how important each of these factors is both in online and offline friendships. Here are its conclusions:

1. Proximity: Proximity is essential to maintaining a friendship offline. However, in online friendships it no longer matters.
2. Similarity: The Internet has made similarity much more important to developing relationships online than it has been in person. However, people feel that their offline friends are much more similar to themselves than their online friends are.
3. Social Attraction: Social attraction is a very important part of forming offline relationships. However, in online relationships, it is not so important.

I largely agree with this study's conclusions about proximity and social attraction. It reveals that as people have more frequently turned to the Internet for friendship in recent years, the very ways in which friendships have formed have evolved. This has been demonstrated by my life, in which most of my in-person friendships have formed as a result of proximity and social attraction, while my online friendships have formed mostly as a result of similarity.
The Internet has virtually eliminated the necessity of proximity in a relationship. This has led to the development of friendships that exist only online, which I will discuss in a future post. However, it has also allowed for relationships that were formed in-person to be extended into the online world. Although two people may not be in each other's physical presence, they can still interact with one another. The previously mentioned study referred to such relationships as "mixed-mode" relationships. These individuals know each other in person but often interact online. This has created a fascinating effect in which individuals may be "connected" to other people through their technology, and yet in physical reality be completely alone!
Another effect is that the Internet has made it significantly easier for similar individuals to connect with one another than it may be in real life. However, this effect is more pronounced in online situations that are limited to text communication, and less significant in online situations that employ images, videos, and face-to-face communications (such as social networking sites and services such as Skype).
Finally, the importance of social attraction initially waned in the early days of the Internet (when text-based communication was the main method employed) and has gradually increased in importance with the advent of social media websites such as Facebook and Google Plus.
I believe that the Internet has in many ways been very beneficial to relationships that were formed in-person, for many of the reasons stated above. However, it has also had some detrimental effects. In the upcoming posts I will explore the ways the Internet can and has affected marriage and dating relationships and whether the effects are largely positive or negative.

Notes:
1) Antheunis, Marjolijn; Valkenburg, Patti; Peter, Jochen. "Friendships Among Users of Social Network Sites: The Quality of Online, Offline, and Mixed-Mode Friendships." Conference Papers - International Communication Association Annual Meeting (2010): 30. Print.