friends and Friends

[tamaranth]

Dr Will Reader, a researcher at Sheffield Hallam University, has been conducting research into the new types of friendships being fostered online ... he said that the huge contact lists of some members of Facebook and MySpace belied their real social status. "Although the number of friends people have on these sites can be massive, the number of close friends is approximately the same as in the face-to-face real world contact."

Well, d'uh. I'd be more interested if he'd explored how real-world and internet friends sets overlap, and how differently they behave, and how the same friendship can work differently online and offline. (How many of you read the LJs of people you can't stand in real life?)