MySpace friends just nodding acquaintances, not close pals

Social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace doesnt help you make more genuine and true friends, a new research has suggested.

London, Sep 11 : Social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace doesn't help you make more genuine and true friends, a new research has suggested.

Social networking sites are the fastest growing internet phenomenon, and allow people to make hundreds and even thousands of new contact.

But, Dr Will Reader, of Sheffield Hallam University, says that out of this huge network, only a handful are genuine, adding that face-to-face meetings are still needed to cultivate a true relationship.

"People find that face to face communication is essential if they are going to be friends," the Daily Mail quoted Dr. Reader, as stating at the British Association Festival of Science at York University.

One reason, according to researcher Dr. Reader, is that "it's very easy to be deceptive on the internet".

Social networking sites have exploded in popularity in recent years. Facebook has an estimated 34 million users worldwide while more than 200 million people subscribe to MySpace. However, the sites may be having less impact on people's social lives than might be expected, according to the research.

Previous studies have suggested that an average friendship circle, regardless of whether the person is a social networking user, consists of around 150 individuals, who may be contacted occasionally, but out of these 150, only five are close personal friends.

This is thought to be partly because very large numbers of friends are difficult to keep track of. And here's where social networking sites claim to have expanded the ability to maintain contacts to an enormous degree.

But Dr Reader's ongoing study of more than 200 social networking site users shows that even they have only around five "close friends", and these are almost always made through face-to-face meetings.

"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," he said.

ANI