From Vis-á-Vis to Face(book)-to-Face(book) Interaction. A Study on Friendship Between Young Students

This article presents the main results of an empirical research conducted on two places where young students make friendly relationships: school and Internet. It is obvious that two different places symbolize two different levels of reality. Are they complementary or contradictory? Are the friends of this real world equal to Facebook friends? Can we consider school friendship the same as the friendship accepted, and removed, by a simple click? The author tries to pinpoint the hidden mechanisms through which the virtual reality is actualized. By the social relational ontology, it’s possible to understand better and deeper the link between social capital of the young students and the continuum passage from on-line to off-line friendship.