[Air-L] literature on friendship

[Eden Medina]

A colleague of mine in computer science wants to develop a deeper
understanding of what friendship means in online environments and how it
compares with understandings of friendship in offline environments.  She is
specifically interested in the following two questions and is looking for
literature suggestions:

1)  Is there research that characterizes friendship in either qualitative
or quantitative ways?
2) Is there research that distinguishes the characteristics of online
friendships based on the nature of the origin (i.e. was the friendship
established prior to online interaction vs during the online interaction)?

All literature suggestions appreciated.

Many thanks!

--
Eden Medina
Associate Professor of Informatics
Adjunct Associate Professor of History
School of Informatics and Computing
Indiana University, Bloomington
edenm at indiana.edu
www.edenmedina.com

Learn about "Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in
Allende's Chile" (MIT Press, 2011) @ www.cyberneticrevolutionaries.com