The Notion of Friend between Offline and Online on Facebook

In recent years, 'Facebook' is considered a widely used social network site, used by a vast cross section of persons worldwide, regardless of age, job and education level. Facebook was commenced in February 2004 as a social networking site for Harvard students and expanded to all over the world, thus offering an extensive attain within a defined geographical area, unlike most internet sites (Lewis, J. West, A. 2009). It is the practically 'universal social networking site and it has the highest share of users' daily visits' (Hampton, K.N. et al et al, 2011). As a result, it made communication with different people and groups in various locations possible and easy. 'Facebook's mission' is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected' (www.facebook.com). In this paper, my interest is in the term 'Friend' on Facebook. Especially, in the way it is socially shaped, and how the users are using it and understand it. In addition, the aims of this essay are to explore reasons for having friends on Facebook, and methods or ways that have been used by users to select friends. It also aims to illustrate types and main themes of conversation and chatting with friends on Facebook. However, the main purpose of the paper is to critically compare the notion of friend online and offline, via a quantitative data collection and interviews with the Facebook users. [For the complete volume, "Proceedings of International Conference on Studies in Education and Social Sciences (Antalya, Turkey, November 11-14, 2021). Volume 1," see ED625228.]