The popularity of social networking sites such as Friendster, MySpace, Orkut and Facebook hit the Internet community by storm. These Social Networking sites are now one of the most favorite sites among Internet users. In fact, more and more social networking sites are joining in the top 20 list by Alexa. This is most especially true to Myspace, Friendster and Orkut.com.

One great feature of these sites is that it connects you to your network of friends. But the question is, do these social networking sites help promote close intimacy and build a close friendship?

According to a British researcher, social networking sites are unlikely to promote close friendship. One of the reasons is that people feel that they still need a face-to-face contact with the person in order to develop trust and confidence.