ABSTRACT
The ability of the Internet to facilitate online contact, especially with geographically remote people, has caught the popular imagination and the empirical attention of researchers studying online relationship formation. In this chapter, the authors focus on one important aspect, namely, the similarities, differences, and overlaps between online and offline social relationships. Because of this perception that online life can be contrasted to Offline life, the people start this chapter with a summary of the perspectives that explain online relationships formation. Studies present some interesting evidence on the association of personality characteristics and online relationship formation. The authors discuss how online spaces are used in the context of relationship formation and the creation of friendship ties by means of ICT. Heterogeneity in adolescents’ social networks, occurring more often when the origin of the friendship is online, has developmental implications that require further investigation.
