Mata 1

Kaitlyn Mata

T. Briones

English 1302.261

28 January 2024

Relationships via Internet (Annotated Bibliography)

Briggle, Adam. “Real friends: How the internet can foster friendship.” Ethics and Information

Technology, vol. 10, no. 1, Mar. 2008, pp. 71–79,

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-008-9160-z.

In this article, Adam Briggle defends virtual friendship and states that not only is it

attainable, but it is, in some circumstances, better than some friendships in real life. This

article was written in response to another journal, “Unreal Friends” by Dean Cocking and

Steve Matthews. In “Unreal Friends,” the authors argue that it is virtually impossible to

form a genuine friendship across the internet. Briggle argues that offline friendships can

be disingenuous and limiting due to the proximity of the two parties. He states that being

able to be distanced via the internet promotes bold and authentic behavior that in-person

interactions just do not elicit. He also states that offline relationships can be shallow, and

the virtual alternative can evoke deeper emotional responses. Finally, Briggle counters

that some relationships just do not work on the internet, but not for the reasons that

Cocking and Matthews’ “Unreal Friends” article gives.

Butt, Asma. “University Students’ preference regarding social media content, internet usage and

online friendship patterns.” Asian Association of Open Universities Journal, vol. 15, no.

2, 26 Aug. 2020, pp. 239–249, https://doi.org/10.1108/aaouj-01-2020-0002.

In this article, Asma Butt does a study on a sample of 320 students. Butt seeks to
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determine if the amount of internet content an 18-22 year old university student digests

daily has any sort of impact on their real-life and virtual interactions. The study took

place at the University of the Punjab in Pakistan, and all sample students were selected

randomly and across eight different departments at the school. In his findings, Butt

discovered that the students preferred to use the internet for social networking sites. He

also found that the most common device used amongst the group of students was the

mobile phone for internet access. He also determined that they talk more easily on a

variety of subjects online as opposed to face to face. The end result established that there

is no difference between spending time with friends via the internet or real life.

Di Gennaro, Corinna, and William H. Dutton. “Reconfiguring friendships: Social relationships

and the internet.” Information, Communication & Society, vol. 10, no. 5, 16 Oct.

2007, pp. 591–618, https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180701657949.

Written by Corinna Di Gennaro and William H. Dutton, this article explores to what

degree individuals will use the internet to form new friendships. They are looking to

identify when the new relationship formed on the internet begins to transition to a real

world setting. The analysis presented uses data from a 2005 national probability sample

survey consisting of those 14 and above in Great Britain. The results determined that

20% of internet users have formed friendships with people they met on the internet. In

addition, half of that percentage goes on to meet one or more virtual friends in person.

They also looked at factors that could contribute to a greater inclination to make friends

on the internet, such as being single and shaping patterns of internet use. Finally, they

explore the different ways that those who make online friends use the internet as opposed

to those who do not.

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Fröding, Barbro, and Martin Peterson. “Why virtual friendship is no genuine friendship.” Ethics

and Information Technology, vol. 14, no. 3, 6 Jan. 2012, pp. 201–207,

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-011-9284-4.

This article, authored by Barbro Fröding and Martin Peterson, is against the belief that

people can form genuine friendships via the internet. The basis for this article is

Aristotle’s theory of friendship. In this theory, Aristotle states that a friendly relationship

is built on reciprocal respect, goodwill, and being aware of each other's mutual feelings

toward each other. The authors label a relationship that only exists on the internet as a

“virtual friendship.” On the other hand, they label a friendship that includes considerable

real life communication as a “genuine friendship,” completely disregarding any other sort

of communication styles for other friendships. They state that the main message of their

article is to label “virtual friendships” as less valuable than “genuine” ones in the eyes of

Aristotle’s theory.

Lima, Maria Luisa, et al. “All you need is facebook friends? associations between online and

face-to-face friendships and health.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 08, 30 Jan. 2017,

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00068.

Maria Luisa Lima writes this article to discover the differences in health between those

that have established friendships through the social media platform Facebook and those

who formed those relationships in real life. Lima states that her hypothesis is that a

greater association with health is linked to face-to-face relationships. They tested two

large groups of people, with one group consisting of 350 urban residents and the other

consisting of 803 individuals from both urban and rural settings. They made sure to take

certain attributes into account such as age, gender, education, if they lived alone, and
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even socioeconomic status. After the studies were conducted, the results showed that the

pattern recognized gains of real life interaction over online friendships in terms of an

individual’s health status. Therefore, Lima’s hypothesis was proven correct with the data

collected.

McKenna, Katelyn Y., et al. “Relationship formation on the internet: What’s The big attraction?”

Journal of Social Issues, vol. 58, no. 1, Jan. 2002, pp. 9–31,

https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-4560.00246.

This article was jointly written by Katelyn McKenna, Amie Green, and Marci Gleason.

The three of them hypothesized that people who are more authentic when interacting in

an online setting versus an in-person one are more likely to bring said relationships into

their real lives. There were two separate studies done for this article. In the first one, they

determined randomly selected internet newsgroup users who are genuine online are more

likely to have formed close online friendships and move them to an in-person setting. The

second study, which took place two years later, discovered that most of those online

relationships were still intact. Finally, a laboratory experiment was done that found that

New York University undergraduate students liked each other more following an internet

meeting instead of a face-to-face one.

Sjolie, Hege, et al. “Attachments or affiliations? the impact of social media on the quality of peer

relationships—a qualitative study among Norwegian high school students.” Youth &

Society, 23 June 2023, https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118x231171180.

In “Attachments or affiliations?...,” authors Hege Sjolie, Cecilie Olsen, and Marte

Hempel examine the impact of social media as a whole instead of a specific media site.

They set out to ask if the rise of social media is negatively impacting the quality of
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adolescent peer relations. They determined this by conducting interviews with twelve

Norwegian high school students. Ultimately, the end result showed that not only changed

the quality of peer relationships, but also online and offline communications. They also

took into account if the student they were interviewing had both online and offline

friends. They found out that online relations tend to be considered an “affiliation” rather

than an actual friendship. They think it may negatively impact their social skills,

particularly for those whose main relations are on the internet.

Smahel, David, et al. “Associations between online friendship and internet addiction among

adolescents and emerging adults.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 48, no. 2, 1 Mar.

2012, pp. 381–388, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027025.

Written by David Smahel, Lukas Blinka, and B. Bradford Brown, this article aims to

analyze not only internet relations, but an addiction to the internet as well. The age frame

that they are examining in particular ranges from as young as 12 to as old as 26. They

examined three different types of friendship in Czech adolescents and young adults:

strictly in-person, face-to-face orientated, and internet orientated. This was categorized

by a relative percentage of online versus offline peers. Interestingly, the study determined

that the rate of internet addiction did not differ by age or gender, but rather their

communication tactics, friendship approach, and the amount of time they spend online.

The amount of addiction and friendship approach were mutual, as those who spend more

time online, have internet friends, and their preference of virtual communication is

related to an increased risk of internet addiction.

Taylor, Samuel Hardman, et al. “Social Media and close relationships: A puzzle of connection

and disconnection.” Current Opinion in Psychology, vol. 45, June 2022, p. 101292,
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.12.004.

This article, jointly written by Samuel Taylor, Pengfei Zhao, and Natalya Bazarova,

examines the impact that social media has on the close, existing relationships of an

individual. The authors argue for a sense of duality, as social media can both increase and

decrease relational connections. They also seek for more research on the interplay of

social media behaviors.

Underwood, Heather, and Bruce Findlay. “Internet relationships and their impact on primary

relationships.” Behaviour Change, vol. 21, no. 2, 1 June 2004, pp. 127–140,

https://doi.org/10.1375/bech.21.2.127.55422.

This article, written by Heather Underwood and Bruce Findlay, focuses on the romantic

aspect of virtual relationships, and how this would affect existing marital relations. This

study involved 75 married adults responding to a survey of individuals who were

involved in extramarital affairs via the internet. They found that there were more females

than males who communicated with their virtual partner daily. Most of those responding

had talked to their partners on the telephone and knew what their partner looked like. In

addition, a third had met their partners in person. Most also reported that they were more

satisfied with their online relationship than their face-to-face one. Only a quarter stated

that their primary relationship had been affected by their infidelity, but those participants

also admitted to lying about the true nature of their online relations. They concluded that

even if their extramarital affairs take place on the internet, they still serve a risk to the

primary relationships at hand.