Lia Giancristofaro, Department of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences, “G. D’Annunzio” University, Chieti – Pescara, Italy
Abla Xhaferi, Department of Political Science and International Relations, European University of Tirana, Albania
dx.doi.org/10.12835/ve2023.2-130
Abstract
Socio-anthropological studies observe the intimacy in various areas of life.
This article focuses on young male friendship after an ethnographic and
visual research authors carried out between 2018 and 2023 among a group
of young men in Tirana. Here, friendship is a “discourse” the protagonists
imagine and practice both in real life and in virtual life, namely on Face
book and on other virtual networks. It emerges that on the public screen
of Facebook the interactions are functional in making new acquaintances.
However, virtual friendship is less then face-to-face friendship, considered
“true” and referred to “blood”. The meanings of “true friendship” reveal the
Albanian traditional masculine friendship, his egalitarian ideals, his deep
complicity, and solidarity over the time. Through the ethnographic and
visual examination of local articulations of intimacy and the public dimen
sion offered by Facebook, the authors note that, compared to the “face
to-face friendship”, the online friendship is freer but not strengthened by
the opportunities enjoyed; therefore, online friendship is fragile. The pat
terns and constraints of male friendship still have a strong weight on male
choices and traditional models: the informants give absolute priority to the
emotional harmony of long-standing relationships which are interpreted,
imagined, and cultivated as “brotherhood”.
Keywords
Ethnography; Generations; Gender; Friendship; Tirana.
