Social Media and the Virtuous Friendship:The Altering and Undermining of Friendship Through Expectations of Availability

Brendan Rowe
brendanrowe@trentu.caMarch 21st, 2015

Trent Philosophy Symposium Paper

In this paper, I will be answering the question as to whether social media has informationally enriched friendships. That is to say, I will be considering whether social media has changed both the nature of, and improved both the conception and activity of friendship. James H. Moor coined the term 'informationally enriched' in his influential paper Reason, Relativity and Responsibility in Computer Ethics when he writes Once in a place computers can be modified to enhance capabilities even further...the processing of information becomes a crucial ingredient in the performing of and understanding of the activity, when this happens, both the activity and conceptions of the activity have become informationally enriched,1Moor, James H. Reason, Relativity and Responsibility in Computer Ethics. ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society (March 1998), 28 (1), pg. 14-21.

. We can take the ways how computer technology and networking has influenced the concept and activity of the way we listen and purchase music as examples of this phenomenon. We can see that music has been informationally enriched as we are now able to purchase digital individual songs files rather than whole physical albums, and are able to carry our music around with us at all times through the use of mp3 players and phones. With regards to social media however, it is my position that while social media has greatly altered the concept and activity of friendship, it has not improved friendship, and has in fact undermined it. Therefore, it is my position that social media has not informationally enriched friendships. In forwarding this argument, I will first outline relevant terms, namely what I mean specifically when I use the terms social media and friendship. After establishing these definitions, I will move forward to argue that social media has changed both the conception and activity of friendship by creating an Expectation of Availability. In showing that the activity and conception of friendships have not been improved by social media, I will be explicating how, in light of Aristotle's view of friendship, social media does not make the virtuous friendship any more realizable as it does not involve shared activity or close interaction. Moreover, I will conclude my argument against the informational enrichment of friendship by explicating how expectations of availability may in fact undermine the virtuous or excellent friendship.

Section I Defining Our TermsSocial MediaToday, social media is a term most often used to reference social networking sites and applications such as Facebook and Twitter. However, it is best to consider social media as being defined as forms of electronic communications, which users can create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages and other content,2Social Media. Meriam- Webster, n.d Web., 21 March, 2015.

. This allows for a much wider range of online communities and technologies to be considered as social media. For instance, through this definition simple online forums, and text-messaging systems are to be recognized as social media. The breadth of this definition proves it's worth when considering the expectation of availability. FriendshipWhile forwarding a definition of Friendship is never a simple task, I find it most appropriate to take Aristotle's account of friendship into consideration when discussing friendship, given that from a philosophical account, Aristotle presents one of the most robust and in-depth explanations of friendship. While Aristotle names three different forms of friendships; friendships of utility, friendships of pleasure, and finally friendships of good character. I will be considering most of all friendships of good character, or virtue. While friendships of utility and pleasure do merit discussion, especially in relation to social media, I am choosing to highlight friendships of virtue because these are the friendships which are most worthy as being regarded as friendships, according to Aristotle.To be very succinct, the main features of what Aristotle refers to as the virtuous friendship are: mutual caring, close interaction, shared activity and mutual recognition of the good character. These characteristics will be spelled out in more detail as they prove to be relevant to my arguments, but it is important to keep these qualities in mind from the outset.Section II Expectations of AvailabilitySocial media, especially since the creation and rise in popularity of sites such as MySpace and Facebook, have greatly changed the way our relationships form, and how individuals, namely friends, interact with one another. This is because Social Media has created an Expectation Of Availability. Simply put, this means that those forming or involved in relationships expect others to be available to them through social media. This is true regardless of whether we are considering friendships of utility, pleasure, or virtue. David Smahel recognizes this when he concludes that younger people are relying on the internet as a source of friendships.3Smahel, D. Brown, B.B & Blinka, L. (2012) Associations between Online Friendships and Internet Addicition Among Adolescents and Emerging Adults. Developmental Psychology, 48,2. 381-388. doi: 10,1037/a0027025

. This conclusion signifies that people, namely those in their developing years, expect their peers to be available to them in a virtual context whether that be through e-mail, text messaging or social networking sites. This means that those who are connected to social media are more likely to develop relationships with others, as they are readily available to others. This can be shown through an examination of our personal lives.For those, such as myself, who grew up with the internet and social media at our fingertips, we can recognize the expectation of availability when we consider the relationships and friendships we established during our formative years. When person A met person B and either one of them desired to pursue some level of relationship with the other, they would generally turn to Facebook, or other forms of social media in order to open the lines of communication with one another. This is done on the premise and expectation that the other will be connected to, and thus available, through social media. Although beginning here, the expectation of availability goes further than this first interaction. As relationships and friendships progress, people expect to be able to communicate with one another through social media outlets. If friend A has an idea, plan or question for friend B, they expect to be able to express these concerns to friend B through means of social media, and subsequently for that friend to respond in a fairly quick manner. Even the coordinating of real-space plans or activities is generally done through social media.This phenomenon is rising to a critical point, as there has been a dramatic increase over the last fifteen years of people with access to the internet. Smahel notes that consequently there has been a rise in applications and functions which allow for connectivity to other peers easily and quickly, solely for social purposes4Ibid.

. I believe this is correlated with rising expectations of availability. Because of the rise of this expectation for others to be immediately available to us, it has become a necessity, especially for those in their formative years, to have access to social media in order to create and maintain friendships. We can see then that the expectation of availability, created by social media, changes the very nature of friendships, as it changes how we pursue friendships and engage with one another. It changes both the conception and activity of friendship precisely because we require friends to be available to us through social media. Having shown that social media has changed the nature of friendships, it will have to be shown that both the conception and activity of friendships have also been improved by social media to be deemed informationally enriched. This is where I argue social media has failed in informationally enriching friendships.

Section III The Failing of Social Media To Realize The Virtuous FriendshipsIn theory, social media allows us to connect to individuals we may have never come into contact with before the information age, and thus provides more opportunities for friendships. However, this is not what actually occurs. So, social media does not improve the conception or activity of friendships. I argue that social media does not improve the conception and activity of friendship , and in fact undermines Aristotle's conception of an excellent friendship. This is because, firstly, the excellent friendship is made no more realizable through social media, as it does not increase shared activity or close interaction. Secondly, the expectation of availability undermines the excellent friendship because we are not recognizing the good character of others when we form and have these expectations.

Subsection 3.1 Shared Activity & Close ContactOne of the central questions to understanding whether social media allows us to realize the friendship of virtue is whether social media is, or consists of shared activity. The question is of importance in light of the fact that Aristotle believes that friendships of virtue requires both parties to engage in a great number of shared activities5Kraut, Richard Aristotle's Ethics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),

. So, if we recognize social media as a shared activity then the rise of social media will give way to more virtuous friendships, as shared activity is more easily realized. I argue that social media is not a form of shared activity, nor does it consist in it. This is because the communication that takes place via social media is not worthy of being called shared activity, as it is unlike standard conceptions of shared activity. This is because communication via social media is asynchronous and discreet, both of which lead to some form of distancing between friends. It is for this reason I am unwilling to claim communication via social media to be categorized as shared activity.Social Media is inherently a form of asynchronous communication. This is to say that only one-party participates in the communication, or activity at a time. This is indicated through heavy use of time-stamps in conversations and content-sharing forums, as well as the use of time-lines on networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. This distances relationship precisely because the interactions between friends occurs separately rather than simultaneously, as occurs in face-to-face conversations or physical interactions . This forces distance, rather than intimacy onto a friendship. This characteristic of asynchronicity does not sound like an aspect of shared activity, nor is it intuitive to say that close interaction occurs through asynchronous settings. Interrelated, and perhaps made possible through the this asynchronocity, is that communication via social media is a form of discreet communication. By this, I mean that conversations and interaction are generally guarded. Because of the asynchronous nature of social media interactions, it is the case that individuals are able to carefully deliberate and consider the appropriate response to anothers call to communicate. Because one has time to determine an appropriate response, there is a sense in which communication via social media undermines the virtuous friendship, and leads to some level of detachment between friends. This occurs because this discreet aspect of social media causes individuals to determine optimal and appropriate response, as it is advantageous to the responding individual. This appears to be more in line with the relationship of utility or pleasure than it does any conception of the virtuous friendship. Thus, I do not believe that social media, or communication via social media, causes or makes more realizable the virtuous friendship.As mentioned, the asynchronous and discreet nature of social media lead to a more distant interaction, rather than close, and therefore does not make the friendship of excellence any more attainable or realizable. This distant interaction is a consequence of social media's attempt to overcome long physical distances between friends. Being that social media is a tool that is designed to, and allows its users to communicate from across great physical distances, and keep in touch with one another it is clear that Social media is intended for quick bursts of communication rather than close and intimate interactions. This is why Twitter has a 140 character limit to their tweets and direct messages and why people physically meet and call one another when they desire closer and more intimate interaction. For this reason, it is generally not used for these purposes. Being that social media is intended, and is most inclined, to the be used for quicker bursts of interaction, rather than meaningful shared activity it is the case that communication does not promote the virtuous friendship. Thus, social media does not satisfy the second necessary criterion of the informational enrichment. So, social media does not informationally enrich friendship. Moreover, it may in fact undermine the virtuous friendship.

Subsection 3.2 Expectation of Availability and the Undermining of the Excellent Friendship

One of the most severe consequences of this expectation of availability is that it may in fact undermine the virtuous or excellent friendship. This is because the expectation of availability is precisely an expectation. When we create this expectation of availability, we are not acting as one should within a virtuous friendship, but rather it appears we are acting on characteristics that are more likely to be found in Aristotle's two lesser form of friendships the friendship of utility or pleasure. As Aristotle writes and to a friendship of good men, all the qualities we have named belong in the virtue of nature of the friends themselves; for in the case of this kind of friendship the other qualities are alike in both friends.6Aristotle. The Internet Classics Archive | Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle. The Internet Classics Archive | Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle. MIT, n.d Web. 21 March. 2015.

. This is to say that the excellent friendship involves individuals who recognize that their friend is one of good character. When one expects another to be available to them through social media, they are not recognizing the good character of the relevant other. It appears then that the emphasis is on utility, because it is beneficial to us for that person to be accessible through social media. In this way, there is a shift, at least in some aspects, from a friendship of virtue to the inferior forms of friendships, namely the friendship of utility. In this way then, social media, rather than improving conceptions of friendship, undermines the virtuous friendship. Thus, social media runs the very real risk of diminishing the conception and activity of friendship. This being the case, it cannot be said that social media informationally enriches friendship.

Section IV: ConclusionIn this paper, I have argued that social media has not informationally enriched friendships. While I do believe that social media has greatly affected our conception and activity of friendship, the conception and activity remains unimproved by social media. Having not met the sufficient conditions, friendship has not been informationally enriched. I showed firstly that social media greatly affected the ways in which we think of and perform activities of friendship, by creating an expectation of availability which is to say we expect others to be available to us through social media. However, I then proceeded to show that social media does not improve the activity or conception of friendship as it does not make the virtuous friendship any more accessible or possible to us, as it does now allow for either further shared activity or close contact. Furthermore, I concluded the argument by showing that expectations of availability in fact undermine conceptions and activity of friendship through a lack of recognition of good character between friends.