Interactions - July/August 2014

Social media has become globally ubiquitous, transforming how people are networked and mobilized. This forum explores research and applications of these new networked publics at individual, organizational, and societal levels.

— Shelly Farnham, Editor

Insights
→ Social capital describes the benefits
we get from those in our social
networks, such as information
and support.

→ First-generation students may lack access to college-related information in their household.

→ Social media may provide a way to connect adolescents with valuable sources of information and support.

he would be the first in his immediate family to graduate from college. He lives with his mom, who is struggling with debt and working on an associate’s degree; his father did not go to college.

The kind of hands-on help many with college-educated parents might receive—reminders about personal essays or how to select a portfolio of colleges to apply to—is unlikely to be available to him in his home. When viewed through the lens of social capital, Andy’s lack of support around college-going behaviors is directly related to the composition of his social network and the kinds of interactions he is exposed to.

SOCIAL CAPITAL
AND SOCIAL MEDIA

According to some, we are in the middle of an era of unprecedented communication, in which interacting with different kinds of people should be as easy as opening a Web browser.

Collectively, social media sites are hosting millions of conversations on a daily basis, everything from young people in a poor Kenyan settlement looking for work to new moms in New York City sharing their babies’ first words. Facebook is one of the largest social media sites—currently it has more than 750 million active daily users—but there are thousands of other ways for people to connect with one another online to request help, information, or social support—or to just share quotidian experiences, like watching a pretty sunset.

So, compared with previous
generations, we have more
opportunities to communicate—but
Andy feels he has benefited from talking
to these friends about their lives, and he
considers their diverse experiences as he
tries to make his own plans around life
questions such as whether and when to
go to college. As he told us, “Just talking
to [Xbox] friends and their experiences
in colleges and their experiences with
life kind of gives me more of a look on
what my future has to show…. It’s a
good way to kind of piece everything
together and try to set up a little sort of
an outline on life.”
Andy’s comments were captured
as part of an ongoing research study
that explores the role of social media
and other Internet tools in reshaping
college-access patterns in the U.S.

For Andy, the connection with older teens and adults through Xbox was particularly important because he perceived his friends at school and his family as representing only a small portion of the possibilities life could offer. Knowing people who were different from his day-to-day network enabled him to gain information and insight that he would not otherwise access.

The concept of benefiting from
social ties is known in the academic
literature as social capital. There are
two types of social capital. Bonding
social capital describes the resources
one often gets through strong ties, such
as emotional support or big favors like a
financial loan. Bridging social capital, on
the other hand, speaks to the resources
one accesses through “bridging”
ties—individuals who interact with,
or connect, two groups of people who
wouldn’t otherwise be connected.

Studies have shown that these weak connections are more likely to provide access to new information, people, and worldviews. For individuals who face systemic bias and are disadvantaged by the circumstances of their position in the larger society, bridging ties may be especially useful, as these connections can provide information and other resources that their day-to-day circles often lack. As social capital scholars note, bonding social capital is important for getting by, but bridging social capital is critical for changing one’s life circumstances and getting ahead.