ABSTRACT
To understand the importance of how being part of a friendship is more than just two friends, this chapter begins by looking at the nature of dissolution and loss. The positive effects of our friendships are acknowledged while also remaining mindful of the negative effects of friendships and the benefits of friendship endings. Many friendships are fleeting, and their ending is not always negative. The chapter then examines the role of social media on friendship dissolution and suggests that while there are similarities, there are also some unique qualities of friendship dissolution in our age. They are that 1) unfriending online is more self-focused than relationship- or other-focused and 2) the process of unfriending online is different from unfriending in the physical realm. After noting these effects, the chapter then investigates the Aristotelian notion of sunaisthesis. Using Flakne’s translation, sunaisthesis is conceptualized as the synecdochal activity of friendship, in which two individuals become a “we.” It is developed through performing communicative acts together and made evident in storytelling. It involves joint perception, and as an activity that occurs through communication, the chapter then proposes that this is possible through mediated settings alone. However, the chapter concludes by recognizing that relationships are hybridized and sunaisthesis takes place across all settings.
