A Comparison of Offline and Online Friendship Qualities at Different Stages of Relationship Development

The present study was designed to compare offline and online friendship qualities at different stages of relationship development. The sample consisted of 162 Hong Kong Internet users. They were asked to think of two friends, one they knew through face-to-face interactions and one they knew through the Internet, and then describe the qualities of their offline and online friendships. Results revealed that offline friendships involved more interdependence, breadth, depth, code change, understanding, commitment, and network convergence than online friendships. However, although the qualities of both online and offline friendships improved as the duration of the relationship increased, the differences between the two types of friendships diminished over time. Furthermore, contrary to the evidence typically found for offline friendships, the qualities of cross-sex online friendships were higher than that of same-sex online friendship. These results suggest that the influence of the structural and normative constraints typically found in face-to-face interaction may be different in the online setting.