Nicole B. Ellison, Charles Steinfield, Cliff Lampe, The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Volume 12, Issue 4, 1 July 2007, Pages 1143–1168
The authors present a comprehensive review of the concept of social capital and its creation and maintenance via Facebook. They explain social capital being, “the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition’’
The authors used several regression analyses to answer their research questions. The paper does a great job of explaining the concepts of social capital and how facebook can be a tool in its formation or maintenance. However, it’s been 10+ years since this study was published, I believe the dynamics may have changed. The potential changes I would expect to see now are, more reinforcing examples and stories of how Facebook, as a tool helped build and maintain social capital, However, I believe, that the golden era of Facebook is coming to an end. There might be other factors that influence the manipulation of social capital on Facebook such as its privacy policy or other paid advertisements even. Furthermore, a part of the older generation may still not use Facebook at all, while some have used it to stay connected with lost mates and maintain social capital. However, I feel that newer platforms and dynamics might be at play here.
Speaking from my personal experience, I helped a fellow sophomore at my undergraduate university with some HCI@VT questions, etc on Instagram rather than LinkedIn or Facebook. That being said, I feel there might be more to explore on the front of social capital on Instagram, and communications that are interleaved with banter or important discussions!
A finding of theirs that I approach with some skepticism is that Facebook Usage was linked with measures of psychological well being. Well, with the current scenario, I don’t believe that can be still said. Especially after Facebook itself rolled out an experimental depression detection in user posts.
I don’t think it relates very deeply to my projects, but it was fun and interesting to read this paper, look at the concepts and analyses that were presented.