“The Facebook Friendship: Is there a Facebook effect?” Dr. Katrin Döveling and Jana Fischer, M.A. will present current research results at the ECREA conference in Lugano “Interpersonal Communication and Social Interaction”. The paper has been peer-reviewed and scored by independent reviewers.
“Beyond doubt, as the call for papers highlights, interpersonal communication is an essential basic human characteristic and vital in building and maintaining friendships (cf. e.g. Allison & Schultz 2001). Additionally, we are increasingly confronted with friends at a distance, thus relying on computer-mediated communication, most popularly Facebook to keep in touch (cf. Cummings & Kraut, 2006; Urista et al., 2009). When it comes to interpersonal communication there still is a lack of research, esp. regarding questions as how it is used and with what effect on the degree of intimacy in friendships. The analysis reveals: The answer to the question: ‘Is there a Facebook effect?’ is not that simple and opens new research domains in interpersonal communication. The presentation thus provides new answers and insights in mediated friendship communication.”
