ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects ideals of friendship and the voluntary nature of friendship to suggest the behavior that helps maintains friendship entails mutual concern, trust, honesty, equality, learning about the other. Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT) can help us frame our experiences of friendship because of a focus on central and marginalized discourses in relational life and how meaning is constructed from the interplay of discourses. Discourse references cultural and personal talk about relationships, such as what we say to one another and what we see in movies and magazines. Public breakups of friendships, such as being unfriended on Facebook can be painful. However, Becker found that geographic distance may change a close relationship into a more distant one, but individuals are able to maintain their friendships. These researchers suggest people consider a friendship to be flexible than fragile; that is people alter their friendships through changes in commitment and maintenance behaviors to accommodate their needs inside and outside their relationships.
