Social Capital and Facebook Friends | W6 Q2 | Forum

Ellison et al. uses several techniques to persuade readers of the importance and practical impact of her findings. For instance, Ellison et al. defines social capital and the role that social media plays in its formation and maintenance, assessing three dimensions of social capital: bridging social capital, bonding social capital, and maintaining social capital. While two of these dimensions are grounded in previous research (bridging and bonding social capital), Ellison et al. builds on this and introduces a new dimension (maintaining social capital) to further identify the ways in which Facebook (as a social network site) offers social and technical affordances to its users. In order to frame the importance of her research, specifically in its focus on the affordances of Facebook (as a social media network) in positively impacting social capital, Ellison et al. completes a thorough literature review of research on social capital and social networks sites. Further, Ellison et al. continually reiterates the importance of her study in terms of the timeliness and relevance of the research being conducted by reminding readers that social media networks, Facebook in particular, are in widespread use amongst young people, specifically college students (the sample used in the study) for social purposes and, as such, its usage is in need of further research to establish an understanding of its implications. As such, Ellison et al. find that Facebook use is related to higher levels of self-reported bridging social capital, particularly for students who reported low levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction. This is an important finding as it highlights the interaction that Facebook usage has with measures of psychological well-being, particularly for students that are struggling with low self-esteem and life satisfaction in college. The practical impact of this finding is that it offers colleges and universities a lens in which to understand the important role that social networking sites (in this case, Facebook) have in forming and maintaining social capital for students, particularly those students experiencing issues with self-esteem and satisfaction in college and are arguably at the highest risk of being isolated and falling behind in college. As such, this offers universities with a way of encouraging students to build their social capital through social networking sites. Further, this study illustrated the ways in which Facebook maintained a larger network of “weak ties” wherein college students were able to keep in touch with high school friends that they normally would have lost communication with in their moves and transitions from high school to university, allowing for the maintenance of useful connections with people who can potentially serve as sources for new information and resources, as well as subsiding feelings of “friendsickness” that might occur without the social networking site (Ellison et al., p.21). Ellison et al. makes the case for the practical impact of her research by highlighting the ways in which Facebook facilitates socially relevant interactions amongst a large network of weak and/or latent ties.