Inequality and Stratification Commons^™

Exploring Cyberfriendship Formation Among Malaysian Youth, Abu Sadat Nurullah

Abu Sadat Nurullah

Cyberspace has become a common place for youth to involve in online networking and to make new friends. This paper focuses on: a) the dynamics of cyberfriendship formation; b) the role of self-disclosure, alienation, and frequency of online interaction on formation of cyberfriendship; and c) the extent of satisfaction achieved from that relationship. A stratified random sample of 250 youth (Mean age = 21.16, SD = 1.36) studying in different undergraduate faculties from a large Malaysian university responded to self-tailored questionnaires. The results revealed that 85.6% youth have formed online friendship using multiple communication channels. Major findings of this research …