As our social circles migrate from real-life interactions to blocks of text and images on a website, there are a myriad of subtle nuances that affect us in our everyday lives. A specific implication of social networking I plan to focus on in this post is the issue of “friends.” What constitutes a friendship between two individuals, and what consequences do online actions have on relationships?

A “friend” has been a pretty easily definable word – until now. In elementary school, I would classify my friend circle as people I enjoyed being around and could hang out with. Strangers would be people I wouldn’t see as often or converse with. Online, however, the line between the two is blurred – there are people on Facebook who friend request you, yet you’ve never met them in your entire life. You both may share a small number of mutual friends, but that’s about as far as your relationship goes. So, if you accept your friend request, what category does this individual fall under? He’s neither a friend nor a stranger, but I would conjecture that he’s more of the latter. In essence, Facebook has been desensitizing the intimate connections that all discrete individuals share with others. Nevertheless, there exists an interesting phenomenon where behavior on a social networking site still has enormous implications on relationships.

Conventions of friendship have transferred to social media – declaring couples, friendships, apologies, etc. Society now gives people the power to break off friendships online, without even a word to the former friend. Is it proper for Facebook to facilitate a culture where friends are disposable? “Defriending” another person seems to be an awfully simple way to terminate a connection. Interestingly, society has devolved to allowing bonds to be controlled with the click of a button. This movement can be further investigated and other sociological effects can be pinpointed. For example, your interactions with others over Facebook can be used to infer your inner and outer social circles – social media is not only cheapening relationships, but appears to be even replacing its conventional form. A recent study showed that Americans are more likely to know their online friends’ names than their neighbors – a striking comparison between the virtual and real world. With such a transformation in social policy, one can only wonder what Facebook will revolutionize next.