Want a close friend? Better log off the Internet

By Michael Kahn

YORK, England (Reuters) - Having a huge network of online buddies does not mean you have any more close friends than the rest of us, a British researcher said on Monday.

Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are changing the nature of how people connect by making it easy to collect hundreds of friends and acquaintances online.

"Our data suggests weak ties are (more common) but there is no difference in the number of close friends people have," said Will Reader, an evolutionary psychologist at Sheffield Hallam University.

"Nearly all our close friends require face-to-face contact," Reader told a meeting sponsored by the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

The researchers focused on Facebook and MySpace, two of the most popular sites where millions of people express themselves online with personal photographs, musings and other content while adding "friends" to their network.

In their study, Reader and colleagues asked people a series of questions about their attitudes toward friendships and found 90 percent of individuals said it was imperative to know somebody face-to-face to form the tightest bonds.

The key it seems is face-to-face interaction where people can interpret social clues such as laughs and smiles that help determine if others are friends to be counted on, Reader said.

"That weird experience of laughing together where people can find they have similar goals and experiences is necessary," Reader said.