Sociable

In what was are social capital and socail media linked?

Everything that humans interact with is connected to media. As technology progresses, we find new ways to entertain, educate, finance and socialize etc. (Bryant, 2018). It affects people’s beliefs and attitudes, and the ways in which we interact with each other. Utz and Muscanell state in their 2015 article “Social Media and social capital: Introduction to the social Issue” that in the last ten years, social network sites such as facebook have grown rapidly. The link between social media and social capital have both positive and negative sides.  While social media can allow new connections, maintain strong ties with close friends and relatives as well as distant acquaintances, it can also “blur audience boundaries” (Utz & Muscanelle, 2015).

Almost every year there has been advancements in computers since the concept began in 1801 in France by Joseph Marie Jacquard. With these increasing advances in technology and its association with media and interpersonal relationships, the more prevalent it becomes in humans everyday lives, especially in adolescence.  Aaron Bryant’s article “The Effect of Social Media on the Physical, Social Emotional, and cognitive Development of Adolescents” published in 2018 reports that only 12% of teenagers between the age of 13 to 17 have no type of cell phone. 92% of adolescence go on social media daily, while 24% of that statistic go online “almost constantly” (Bryant, 2018). With such frequent use of social media through technology, one can wonder the effects social media has on interpersonal relationships, and  its effects on social capital. In page 160 of Flew and Smith’s “New media: An introduction” published in 2018, they state that Putman defines social capital as “features of social life-networks, norms, and trust that enables participants to act together more effectively to pursue shared interests”. Flew and Smith express that there are three types of social capital:

1. Bonding Social Capital: A strong social bond between individuals. For example, members of family, a local community, or an ethnic community.
2. Bridging Social Capital: Characterized by weaker, less dense but more cross cutting families and communities.
3. Linking Social Capital: Connections between those with different levels of power and social status. For example, between political elites and the general public, policy makers and local communities, and individuals from different social class.

Utz and Muscanelle’s research on social capital has shown many benefits people get from social networks including: strong ties which provides them with bonding capital, weak ties provide them with bridging capital. Facebook for example, helps users get more social capital from their weak ties by allowing them to engage in direct communication and employ relationship management strategies (Utz & Muscanelle, 2015). Online networking also allows individuals to self-disclose more often in comparison to face to face interactions. This method of self disclosure allows for ties to be maintained and “allows a for a certain level of trust to be reached” (Utz & Muscanelle, 2015), in turn facilitating exchange of social capital.