Face, Voice and Intimacy in Long-Distance Close Friendships

Living temporarily abroad, as a student, changed the ways in which Malaysian students practise intimacy with family and close friends. Face-to-face interactions became impossible and social media was used as an alternative medium for interactions with close friends who live at-a-distance. Nevertheless, the students reported that interactions via social media lack of social cues and emotional impression. This qualitative study using friendship maps, diaries and in-depth interviews as research methods seeks to explore whether social media lead to less intimate interaction and friendship between the students who live temporarily abroad with their family members and close friends back home. This study shows that physical distance does affect the ways in which the students practise intimacy. However, infrequent contact does not change the intimacy level between the students with some of their long-distance close friends as intimate relationships are already established and are not affected by distance.