What has the Web done to friendship, a feature of functioning society that both keeps us accountable to one another and provides us with the emotional support we psychologically need? Do we devalue our close friends by widening our social circles out to hundreds of "friends" on social networks? Can the Web serve as a replacement mechanic for the bonding that happens with face-to-face experience? Or does it connect us with people we'd never have met otherwise?
This fortnight's Untangling the Web column delves into the function of friendship, and the form it takes online.
Have you unexpectedly made a bff online, or has a social network left you with emotional anemia? Send your thoughts and stories to aleks.krotoski.freelance@guardian.co.uk or ping me on twitter @aleksk with the hashtag #friendship.
Follow the Untangling the Web tumblog for all the research and interviews that will feed the column over the next two weeks.
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