ABSTRACT
Relationships are important to all of us. They provide us with support and companionship and, in many, cases love and affection. The authors have chosen to look at four factors affecting attraction: sharing similar characteristics; having attraction reciprocated; physical attractiveness; ability to maintain a close and secure relationship. These are all factors that have been studied many times by a variety of researchers but have mostly been conducted in lab-based experiments with artificially created scenarios that only lead to hypothetical conclusions based on how someone ‘might’ react. The introduction of the internet and the growth of social media have changed the kinds of relationships. One area of research concerns virtual relationships in social media and one is able to form both friendships and romantic relationships online through the internet and maintain them through social media. This has a number of advantages and disadvantages when compared to face-to-face relationships.
