xii Foreword
relationships and roles exist, in effect prescribing who is allowed to care for whom,
to what degree, and in what ways. Of paramount concern are the social identifi-
cations affecting friends’ respective lived experiences and opportunities, as well as
the support their friendship receives in its social milieu. Perceptions by third par-
ties and the friends themselves of each person’s ability, age, ethnicity, gender, race,
religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status remain vital considerations
shaping and reflecting the experiences and possibilities of friendship. How personal
and political friends recognize, address, and navigate the contingencies of such
social identifiers potentially demonstrates the edifying world- shaping potentials
of friendship (Monsour & Rawlins, 2014; Rawlins, 2009). Nevertheless, identity-
related actions also may reveal the ways in which friendships fall short of their ideals
and prey to oppressive social dictates.
Further, we must attend to interrelationships of friendship and stages of the
life course. Important social cognitive developments and tests are associated
with friendship and peer relations across childhood and adolescence. Achieving
a mature grasp of friendship cannot take place to any meaningful degree without
actual involvement in friendships. I have noted that from late adolescence across
the life course, persons describe three enduring expectations of a close friend as
somebody to talk to; to depend on for help, support, and caring in times of need;
and to have fun and enjoy doing activities with (Rawlins, 1992). While these val-
ued qualities of close friends remain the same, the circumstances, significance, and
challenges of their achievement vary throughout life. Once persons have developed
mature understandings and communicative practices for accomplishing friendship,
the most common reasons for friendship termination across the life span involve
peripheral factors and relationships (Rawlins, 1992). Events such as getting mar-
ried or divorced, taking or losing jobs, moving away, or having children all threaten
to displace the centrality of specific friendships in participants’ lives. During later
life, close friendship and companionship are cherished sources of life satisfaction
and feelings of well- being, which are positively related to overall health (Rawlins,
1992; Uchino, 2004). Meanwhile, the mortality of friends and diminished abilities
to share their presence are increasingly reasons for sorrow.
We believe that such persistent and consistently met expectations across our
lives will remain key indicators of close friendship— a way to discern true versus
false friends. But perhaps core characteristics for defining and experiencing friend-
ship may be evolving along with the cultural and mediated conditions for their
achievement— starting with early childhood. In that case high- minded conceptions
of friendship could prove to be mere nostalgia and a reason for disappointment in
the context of proliferating social media for achieving and living as friends irrespec-
tive of time, distance, or physical presence.
In this day and age, how do mediated or virtual friendships compare with friend-
ships that are originally or primarily experienced face- to- face, or voiced in shared
real time? Social media tangibly have changed definitions and ultimately conditions