The political experiment of friendship by the internet is read trough the light of Baruch Spinoza's theory of affections: the body is essentially relational and it is in its relationship to others, and also through how it affects and is affected by them, that it gives the condition of possibility of resistance against sorrow and affirmation of joy - which are both understood as a decreasing and an increasing power to think and act. We interviewed adults regarding their internet-mediated stories of friendships. The results have shown that the bonds between friends by the internet not only express a way of experiencing a political quality of friendship, regarded as a possibility of relativization of thinking, but also engendered vigorous gestures of solidarity that mobilize bodies to act in defense and in affirmation of its power.
friendship; internet; experimentation; alterity; Spinoza