Abstract
This chapter is a discussion of online selves when they are interacting with one another. This phenomenon is widely known through the spread of social media, where users log on and add “friends” to their repertoire of people they are interacting with. I argue that genuine friendship can indeed develop on these social media sites. This sounds counterintuitive, but a close investigation of Aristotle’s view on friendship, a beacon by which whatever passes as genuine friendship is judged, shows that there seems to be nothing in online friendship that cannot qualify as an instance of genuine friendship. The argument hinges on the idea that friendship is constituted through close and constant communication, something that can readily take place online. I also discuss the views of several scholars who have also written on the topic.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aristotle. (1962). Nichomachean ethics (M. Ostwald, Trans.). Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill.
Briggle, A. (2008). Real friends: How the internet can foster friendship. Ethics and Information Technology, 10, 71–79.
Cocking, D., & Kennett, J. (1998). Friendship and the self. Ethics, 108, 502–527.
de Montaigne, M. (2003). Of the art of discussion. In The complete works (D. Frame, Trans.) New York: Knopf.
Cocking, D., & Matthews, S. (2000). Unreal friends. Ethics and Information Technology, 2, 223–231.
Foucault, M. (1994). In P. Rabinow (Ed.), Ethics: Essential works of Foucault 1954–1984 (Vol. 1). London: Penguin.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Anchor.
Hongladarom, S. (2011). The overman and the arahant: Models of human perfection in Nietzsche and Buddhism. Asian Philosophy, 21(1), 53–69.
Kierkegaard, S. (1991). You shall love your neighbor. In M. Pakaluk (Ed.), Other selves: Philosophers on friendship (pp. 233–247). Indianapolis: Hackett.
Lippitt, J. (2007). Cracking the mirror: On Kierkegaard’s concerns about friendship. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 61, 131–150.
McFall, M. (2012). Real character-friends: Aristotelian friendship, living together, and technology. Ethics and Information Technology, 14, 221–230.
Metzinger, T. (2009). The Ego Tunnel: The science of the mind and the myth of the self. New York: Basic Books.
Miner, R. C. (2010). Nietzsche on friendship. Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 40, 47–69.
Munn, N. J. (2012). The reality of friendship within immersive virtual worlds. Ethics and Information Technology, 14, 1–10.
Nietzsche, F. (1990). Unmodern observations (W. Arrowsmith, Trans.). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Pahl, R. (2000). On friendship. Cambridge: Polity.
Panaïoti, A. (2013). Nietzsche and Buddhist philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rosen, C. (2007). Virtual friendship and the new narcissism. The New Atlantis, 17, 15–31.
Sherman, N. (1987). Aristotle on friendship and the shared life. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 47(4), 589–613.
Søraker, J. (2012). How shall I compare thee? Comparing the prudential value of actual virtual friendship. Ethics and Information Technology, 14(3), 209–219.
Stone, B., & Frier, S. (2014). Facebook turns 10: The Mark Zuckerberg interview. Bloomberg BusinessweekTechnology. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-30/facebook-turns-10-the-mark-zuckerberg-interview#p3
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hongladarom, S. (2016). Selves, Friends and Identities in Social Media. In: The Online Self. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39075-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39075-8_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-39073-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-39075-8
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)