ABSTRACT
Building and maintaining relationships is arguably the most fundamental activity shared by people across all eras. But what are relationships? Chapter 6 begins by examining the types of relationships, the notions of strong ties versus weak ties, and the directionality of relationship. The chapter further investigates the role of social media in different stages of relationship development, from early idealization to development and maintenance, until dissolution. How social media complicates relationship-making is explicated in each of these steps. The chapter also addresses some of the problematic uses of social media in a relational context as well as using social media for professional relationship building.
