There are two articles that I read that deal with the positive and negative effects of Online Friendship. The two articles were The Problem with Online Friendship by Jeff Goins and 6 Reasons Why Online Friends Are the Best by Lynn Morrison.
In The Problem with Online Friendship, the article begins by talking about how when online friendships take a turn for the worst, then end up falling apart. Reasons for this fall out can be due to one of the parties being offended or put in a weird spot. The author talks about how in true friendships, each party relies on each other being able to be able to make amends when dealing with friction on various topics. He notes that people that meet face to face have an easier time making up and continuing their friendship compared to those friendships achieved through online medium. He talks about the recent developments of online meetings between strangers which occur can have both negative and positive impacts but mostly targets the negative interactions of them.
In 6 Reasibs Why Online Friends Are the Best, the article begins with a personal story about her relationship with one of her friends she met online. She goes in to explaining why she prefers to have these online friendships compared to the traditional face to face connection. She talks about how her personal life such as parenting responsibilities, job, and hobby take up much of her free time that would be invested in meeting new people. Some of the reasons that she prefers online friends are; easily can pick your friends, open availability, freedom of expression, and a huge amount of people to meet just to name a few. Her outlook in general drastically contrast that of the previous article’s author who viewed online relationships and friendships as being nothing but negative.
These articles relate to the lecture in class about the topic of friendship. In lecture we discussed the various needs that friendships require such as utility, affirmation, ego support, stimulation, and security. In the first article the author talks about how when two parties offend each other or put the other in an uncomfortable situation the relationship tends to fail. Based on the needs of a friendship it is safe to assume that these relationships tend to to fail because ego support and security between the two parties are broken or strained. However in the second article the author talks about how her friendships that are made online are able to flourish. The reasons that could lead to this opposite interaction can be the result of affirmation and stimulation. In this situation both parties seem to be able to respect one another without making the relationship seem receptivity type of friendship. Where one of the parties has more power than the other but instead have a relationship in the form of a reciprocity type of friendship. Additionally, it appears that the two parties found in article two seem to stimulate one another, since they can share various topics such as shared interests or personal experiences.
It is up to you personally whether or not online relationships and friendships should be considered good or bad. For each person it is different which can be clearly be seen through the two articles. Take what you have read and make your own choices and views of online relationships and friendships, no one should force you to see it in a particular way.
