Web 'not path to close friendships'
Updated on 10 September 2007
Close friends are unlikely to be made through social networking web sites such as Facebook and MySpace, research suggests.
The ability to "make friends" in cyberspace has put people in touch with hundreds or even thousands of new contacts.
But face-to-face meetings are still needed to foster genuine "real" friendships based on trust, say scientists.
One reason, according to researcher Dr Will Reader, from Sheffield Hallam University, is that "it's very easy to be deceptive on the internet".
Social networking sites have exploded in popularity in recent years. Facebook has an estimated 34 million users worldwide while more than 200 million people subscribe to MySpace - now part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
However, the sites may be having less impact on people's social lives than might be expected, according to the research.
Previous studies have suggested an average friendship circle consists of around 150 individuals, who may be contacted from time to time, but only five close personal friends.
This is thought to be partly because very large numbers of friends are difficult to keep track of. Social networking sites have artificially expanded the ability to maintain contacts to an enormous degree. But Dr Reader's ongoing study of more than 200 social networking site users shows that even they have only around five "close friends", and these are almost always made through face-to-face meetings.
"Although the number of friends people have on these sites is can be massive, the number of close friends is approximately the same as in the face-to-face real world contact," he said at the BA (British Association) Festival of Science at York University.
Ninety per cent of the contacts study participants regarded as close friends were made face-to-face, said Dr Reader. People invested time and effort cultivating close friends in the hope of seeing a social return, he said. "What we need is to be absolutely sure that a person is really going to be there for us," he told the meeting. "It's very easy to be deceptive on the internet. What we need are cues that are indicative of investment. Does a person have resources, and is that person likely to give up their resources?"
These news feeds are provided by an independent third party and Channel 4 is not responsible or liable to you for the same.
