Selves, Friends and Identities in Social Media

Abstract

This chapter is a discussion of online selves when they are interacting with one another. This phenomenon is widely known through the spread of social media, where users log on and add “friends” to their repertoire of people they are interacting with. I argue that genuine friendship can indeed develop on these social media sites. This sounds counterintuitive, but a close investigation of Aristotle’s view on friendship, a beacon by which whatever passes as genuine friendship is judged, shows that there seems to be nothing in online friendship that cannot qualify as an instance of genuine friendship. The argument hinges on the idea that friendship is constituted through close and constant communication, something that can readily take place online. I also discuss the views of several scholars who have also written on the topic.