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(NaturalNews) Modern society seems convinced that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter keep them connected and thriving socially with their friends and peers. But a new book called Alone Together by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Sherry Turkle says otherwise, purporting that social networks are more like mutual isolation networks that detach people from meaningful interactions with one another and make them less human.

"A behavior that has become typical may still express the problems that once caused us to see it as pathological," says Turkle in her book, referring to the near-total obsession with the digital world in today's society. She and others say that the online social world is destroying real communication, dumbing down society, and leading to a society of people that have no idea how to actually function in the real world.

Turkle emphasizes her belief that more people need to put down their phones, turn off their computers, and learn to communicate with one another face-to-face. She writes, "We have invented inspiring and enhancing technologies, yet we have allowed them to diminish us." And many others in research and academia share her views.

One major indicator of the chilling decline in communication values is the case of Simone Back, a Brighton, U.K., woman who announced her suicide on her Facebook status. None of her more than 1,000 "friends" contacted her in response to the posting, and many simply argued with one another back and forth on her "Wall" about the legitimacy of her posting and whether or not Back had the freedom of choice to kill herself.

This sick display of meaningless Facebook "friendship" is only fuel for the fire to the many who say it represents the "writing on the wall" of worse things to come. If individuals cannot learn to interact and develop meaningful relationships outside the narcissistic, soap opera-environment of the Facebook "News Feed," then society is in for some major trouble down the road.
Sources for this story include:
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Social networking leads to isolation, not more connections, say academics

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(NaturalNews) Modern society seems convinced that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter keep them connected and thriving socially with their friends and peers. But a new book called Alone Together by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Sherry Turkle says otherwise, purporting that social networks are more like mutual isolation networks that detach people from meaningful interactions with one another and make them less human.

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Social Media or Social Isolation? Or is there a third way?
http://0-search.ebscohost.com.innopac.lib.bcit.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=99957637

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The mother of a teenage girl from Nova Scotia who killed herself after allegedly being raped and photographed by four boys is speaking out, to tell the story behind her daughter's tragic death.

Rehtaeh Parsons, 17, died on Sunday in hospital after attempting suicide a few days earlier.

"Rehtaeh was a very sensitive person and very insightful. She was a critical thinker, she thought outside the box. She was always a deep thinker, she ran, always understood the plight of others. She had great compassion. That's who Rehtaeh was," said her mother, Leah Parsons.

In 2011 when Rehtaeh was 15, she went with a friend to a small gathering with other teenagers and started drinking vodka.

Parsons said Rehtaeh only remembered bits and pieces of the night, but does remember throwing up out a window.

While one of the guys was allegedly having sex with her another yelled, "Take a picture, take a picture."

"That picture began to circulate in her school and community three days later," said Parsons.

Online tormenting

Then the online backlash and bullying began.

"She walked into the school and everyone started calling her a slut," said Parsons.

She said her daughter broke down a few days later and told her what happened. They called an emergency health team and the police.

Parsons said after a year of investigating, police told her it was a "he said she said" case and there was not enough evidence to lay charges.

RCMP confirm they investigated the allegations and consulted with the Crown, and it was determined there was not enough evidence to proceed.

"We have to deal in facts and not rumours," said RCMP Cpl. Scott MacRae. "We may not be able to go down certain roads because of the tragic circumstance.

"I feel like the door is always open for people to talk to a police agency."

The family said they were told the photographs were not a criminal issue even though Rehtaeh was underage.

The family moved from Cole Harbour to Halifax, and her mother said Rehtaeh tried to keep her head up high but was depressed.

'I think kids today listen to a story and if that's the most sensational story to go with they jump on that and they don't care how it hurts other people.'-Leah Parsons

"She was never left alone. Her friends turned against her, people harassed her, boys she didn't know started texting her and Facebooking asking her to have sex with them since she had had sex with their friends. It just never stopped," said Parsons.

Rehtaeh admitted herself to the hospital in March because of suicidal thoughts.

"Every text, every negative thing she would read to me. It was hard," Parson said. "She tried and she kept trying."

Rehtaeh tried to kill herself on Thursday and was put on life support. She was taken off on Sunday.

Parsons said the justice system failed her daughter.

"I think she would have had some satisfaction that it was real [if there were charges], because no one believed her," she said.

Parsons also blames her daughter's bullies.

"I think kids today listen to a story and if that's the most sensational story to go with they jump on that and they don't care how it hurts other people. It's just too easy to Facebook and text, to say and do mean things," she said.

"They just jump with the rest of them."

Parsons created a memorial page on Facebook to share her daughter's story.

"She made my life complete," she wrote.

"When Rehtaeh was born, I dedicated everything to her and promised her the world. Others in this world took that away from her."

Justice minister investigating

After Parsons took her daughter's story public, people expressed outrage that more had not been done to help the teen.

An online petition demanding an inquiry be called into the police investigation garnered more than 2,000 signatures by Tuesday night.

Nova Scotia's Justice Minister said late Tuesday night he was asking his office to look into what actions they could take on the case.

"This situation is tragic, I am deeply saddened - as I think are all Nova Scotians - by the death of this young woman," Ross Landry is quoted in the release.

The statement adds that Landry hopes to meet with Leah Parsons in the coming days.

"It's important that Nova Scotians have faith in the justice system and I am committed to exploring the mechanisms that exist to review the actions of all relevant authorities."

Meanwhile, a psychiatrist at the IWK Children's Hospital in Halifax said adults need to do more to support teens in an evolving society.

Stan Kutcher said what allegedly happened to Rehtaeh used to be the type of story that was kept hush-hush, but social media has changed that, creating a forum for bullying.

"There's really no place for a young person to hide," he said. "We have to be able to expand the number of doors that kids can knock on while they are experiencing these problems."

Kutcher is advising parents to take an active role when it comes to the online behaviour of their children.

"We spend an awful lot of time teaching kids how to drive, we spent an awful lot of energy ensuring that they can drive responsibly, and we need to do the same with social media."

While teens may be advanced when it comes to using technology, Kutcher said adults need to teach them how to use social media responsibly.

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Rape, bullying led to N.S. teen's death, says mom

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The mother of a teenage girl from Nova Scotia who killed herself after allegedly being raped and photographed by four boys is speaking out, to tell the story behind her daughter's tragic death. Rehtaeh Parsons, 17, died on Sunday in hospital after attempting suicide a few days earlier.

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Facebook: Friend or Faux?
http://0-search.ebscohost.com.innopac.lib.bcit.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=67285954

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Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech

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24% of teens go online "almost constantly," facilitated by the widespread availability of smartphones.

Aided by the convenience and constant access provided by mobile devices, especially smartphones, 92% of teens report going online daily - including 24% who say they go online "almost constantly," according to a new study from Pew Research Center. More than half (56%) of teens - defined in this report as those ages 13 to 17 - go online several times a day, and 12% report once-a-day use. Just 6% of teens report going online weekly, and 2% go online less often.

Much of this frenzy of access is facilitated by mobile devices. Nearly three-quarters of teens have or have access to a smartphone and 30% have a basic phone, while just 12% of teens 13 to 17 say they have no cell phone of any type. African-American teens are the most likely of any group of teens to have a smartphone, with 85% having access to one, compared with 71% of both white and Hispanic teens. These phones and other mobile devices have become a primary driver of teen internet use: Fully 91% of teens go online from mobile devices at least occasionally. Among these "mobile teens," 94% go online daily or more often. By comparison, teens who don't access the internet via mobile devices tend to go online less frequently. Some 68% go online at least daily.

African-American and Hispanic youth report more frequent internet use than white teens. Among African-American teens, 34% report going online "almost constantly" as do 32% of Hispanic teens, while 19% of white teens go online that often.

Facebook is the most popular and frequently used social media platform among teens; half of teens use Instagram, and nearly as many use Snapchat

Facebook remains the most used social media site among American teens ages 13 to 17 with 71% of all teens using the site, even as half of teens use Instagram and four-in-ten use Snapchat.
71% of teens use more than one social network site
Teens are diversifying their social network site use. A majority of teens - 71% - report using more than one social network site out of the seven platform options they were asked about. Among the 22% of teens who only use one site, 66% use Facebook, 13% use Google+, 13% use Instagram and 3% use Snapchat.

This study uses a somewhat different method than Pew Research Center's previous reports on teens. While both are probability-based, nationally representative samples of American teens, the current survey was administered online, while our previous work involved surveying teens by phone. A great deal of previous research has found that the mode of interview - telephone vs. online self-administration - can affect the results. The magnitude and direction of these effects are difficult to predict, though for most kinds of questions, the fundamental conclusions one would draw from the data will be similar regardless of mode. Accordingly, we will not compare specific percentages from previous research with results from the current survey. But we believe that the broad contours and patterns evident in this web-based survey are comparable to those seen in previous telephone surveys.

Facebook remains a dominant force in teens' social media ecosystems, even as Instagram and Snapchat have risen into a prominent role in teens' online lives. Asked which platforms they used most often, the overall population of teens in this sample (ages 13 to 17) reported that Facebook was the site they used most frequently (41% said that), followed by Instagram (20%) and Snapchat (11%).

Boys are more likely than girls to report that they visit Facebook most often (45% of boys vs. 36% of girls). Girls are more likely than boys to say they use Instagram (23% of girls vs. 17% of boys) and Tumblr (6% of girls compared with less than 1% of boys). Older teens ages 15 to 17 are more likely than younger teens to cite Facebook (44% vs. 35% of younger teens), Snapchat (13% vs. 8%) and Twitter (8% vs. 3%) as a most often used platform, while younger teens ages 13 to 14 are more likely than their older compatriots to list Instagram (25% vs. 17% of older teens) as a platform they visit most often.

Middle and upper income teens lean toward Instagram and Snapchat

The survey data reveals a distinct pattern in social media use by socio-economic status. Teens from less well-off households (those earning less than $50,000) are more likely than others to say they use Facebook the most: 49% of these teens say they use it most often, compared with 37% of teens from somewhat wealthier families (those earning $50,000 or more).

Teens from more affluent households are somewhat more likely than those from the least affluent homes to say they visit Snapchat most often, with 14% of those from families earning more than $75,000 saying Snapchat is their top site, compared with 7% of those whose families earn less than $30,000 annually. Twitter shows a similar pattern by income, with the wealthiest teens using Twitter more than their least well-to-do peers. It should be noted that some of these differences may be artifacts of differences in use of these sites by these different subgroups of teens.

Smartphones facilitate shifts in teens' communication and information landscape

As American teens adopt smartphones, they have a variety of methods for communication and sharing at their disposal. Texting is an especially important mode of communication for many teens. Some 88% of teens have or have access to cell phones or smartphones and 90% of those teens with phones exchange texts. A typical teen sends and receives 30 texts per day

And teens are not simply sending messages through the texting system that telephone companies offer. Some 73% of teens have access to smartphones and among them messaging apps like Kik or WhatsApp have caught on. Fully 33% of teens with phones have such apps. And Hispanic and African-American youth with phones are substantially more likely to use messaging apps, with 46% of Hispanic and 47% of African-American teens using a messaging app compared with 24% of white teens.

Girls dominate social media; boys are more likely to play video games

Teenage girls use social media sites and platforms - particularly visually-oriented ones - for sharing more than their male counterparts do. For their part, boys are more likely than girls to own gaming consoles and play video games.

Data for this report was collected for Pew Research Center. The survey was administered online by the GfK Group using its KnowledgePanel, in English and Spanish, to a nationally representative sample of over 1,060 teens ages 13 to 17 and a parent or guardian from September 25 to October 9, 2014 and February 10 to March 16, 2015. In the fall, 1016 parent-teen pairs were interviewed. The survey was re-opened in the spring and 44 pairs were added to the sample. For more on the methods for this study, please visit the Methods section at the end of this report.

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Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015

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24% of teens go online "almost constantly," facilitated by the widespread availability of smartphones. Aided by the convenience and constant access provided by mobile devices, especially smartphones, 92% of teens report going online daily - including 24% who say they go online "almost constantly," according to a new study from Pew Research Center.

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Assessing middle school students’ knowledge of conduct and consequences and their behaviors regarding the use of social networking sites
http://0-search.ebscohost.com.innopac.lib.bcit.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=52701450

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We'll never know, when the fifteen-year-old Amanda Todd, of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, decided to make last Wednesday the last day of her life, whether she expected that that act would turn her into a household name. If she imagined her fame at all, she must have felt ambivalent at the prospect. In her short life, Todd had already learned that notoriety had a dark side. A certain kind of fame had already found her, and with it came a certain kind of life she plainly convinced herself that she couldn't escape.

In a YouTube video she left behind, Todd told the tale by flash card, set to a maudlin song called "Hear You Me." Her story is this: A few years ago, she was chatting with someone she met online, a man who flattered her. At his request, she flashed him. The man took a picture of her breasts. He then proceeded to follow Todd around the Internet for years. He asked her to put on another show for him, but she refused. So he'd find her classmates on Facebook and send them the photograph. To cope with the anxiety, Todd descended into drugs and alcohol and ill-advised flirtations and sex. Her classmates ostracized her. She attempted suicide a few times before finally succeeding, last week.

Todd's suicide is easily analogized to Tyler Clementi's, mostly because the public has diagnosed both cases as the result of "cyber-bullying." Yet, as a descriptive term, "cyber-bullying" feels deliberately vague. Somewhere in the midst of the "mob" there is usually at least one person whose cruelty exceeds the tossing off of a stray insult. In Clementi's case, the magazine's Ian Parker chalked the harasser's motives up to "shiftiness and bad faith," the kinds of things that criminal statutes can't easily be invoked to cover. But with Todd's harasser, the malice is unquestionable. Anyone who has ever been to high school knows what they are provoking by distributing photographs like that.

It is a cultural myth-one particular to the Internet-that the methods of a harasser are fundamentally "legal," and that the state is helpless to intervene in all cases like this. The systematic way the harasser allegedly followed Todd to new schools, repeatedly posting the images and threatening to do it again, makes it textbook harassment regardless of the medium. Indeed, in Todd's native Canada, cyber-harassment is prosecuted under the general harassment provision of the Canadian criminal code. And in the United States, most states have added specific laws against cyber-harassment and bullying to their general legislation of harassment. At the federal level, there is the Federal Interstate Stalking Punishment and Prevention Act, which covers harassment that crosses state and national lines. While all of these laws are subject to the limitations of the First Amendment, the First Amendment generally doesn't protect threats and harassment. If people are not being prosecuted for these acts, the fault lies in the social alchemy of law enforcement, the way the human prejudices of judges, juries, and prosecutors inflect the black letter. Put otherwise, the power is there-the cultural mores are what is preventing the laws from being successfully invoked.

There are, after all, consequences to the widespread belief that these acts of harassment are regrettable but not ultimately punishable. Specifically, it obscures truths about the practice-first, that this kind of thing is not merely the province of children who know not what they do. While the police have yet to confirm the identity of Todd's harasser, the "hacktivist" group Anonymous has identified an adult man who lived nearby as the culprit. (He denies the harassment, though he told a Canadian television news crew that he did indeed know Todd.) It remains to be seen whether they've pointed the finger at the right person. But the theory-that an adult would have targeted a teen-ager for such abuse, that he would have tricked her and been indifferent to the price she paid-is not merely plausible. It is a thing that happens every day on the Internet.

To wit: only two days after Todd's suicide, the Gawker reporter Adrian Chen identified a man named Michael Brutsch as one of the moderators of certain venal sub-threads on the "social news" Web site Reddit. Some were dedicated to "creepshots" and "jailbait." They functioned chiefly as vehicles for the delivery of pictures of young women, many of whom did not consent to either the taking of the photograph or this particular mode of dissemination. The jail-bait photographs, typically of teen-age girls in the theatrical (if minimally clothed) poses that used to be the exclusive province of bedroom mirrors, tended to be stolen from teen-agers' Facebook pages. The "creepshots," by contrast, were usually taken furtively, without the notice of the subject who, leaning over a table, or sitting in a chair, did not imagine herself to be giving a show.

Brutsch and co., who are merely a small subgroup of a large and vocal population, argue that they do nothing wrong in posting-or facilitating the posting of-these images. They are, they say, merely engaging in the vaunted American tradition of "free speech," which is what makes their activities "legal." Any consequences are therefore "illegal." Any civil or criminal liability of his own-under, say, Texas Penal Code provisions that prevent the non-consensual taking and transmission of photographs "to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person," or even a suit for copyright infringement from a young woman whose image he has re-posted-has not even crossed Brutsch's mind. The only kind of lawyer he has hinted at hiring is a plaintiff's attorney who would work on a contingency fee and help him sue Gawker. On what grounds, he didn't say, but one guesses that he's thinking about the so-called reputational torts-suits for defamation, or invasion of privacy. Irony has no dominion here.

What you could call the Brutschean world view-which takes anonymity as the only meaningful form of privacy, and a key element of free speech-is nearly an article of faith in these lower levels of the Internet. But it has tentacles that extend to higher, more powerful places. Scholars often approvingly quote EFF.org founder John Perry Barlow's " Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace," which, among other utopian visions, holds that "our identities have no bodies, so, unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion." The founding myth of the Internet was its offer of a way to escape physical reality; the freedom to shape yourself, to say anything, became a sort of sacred object.

But, as the scholar Mary Anne Franks has observed, women haven't actually achieved this "bodiless" freedom online. They are embodied in distributed pictures and in sexual comments, whether they like it or not. The power to get away from yourself, like everything else, is unevenly distributed. Women have become, as Franks put it, "unwilling avatars," unable to control their own images online, and then told to put up with it for the sake of "freedom," for the good of the community. And then they are incorrectly told, even if the public is behind them, that they have no remedies in the law. They are shouted down by people with a view of freedom of speech more literal than that held by any judge.

You can, of course, take these points too far. It is dreadfully easy, nowadays, to turn tragedy into a one-note martyrdom. In "The Savage God," the critic A. Alvarez observes, "A suicide's excuses are mostly casual." Her real motives "belong to the internal world, devious, contradictory, labyrinthine, and mostly out of sight." But whatever Amanda Todd might have been thinking, whatever else might be true, she did get one thing out of this: Amanda Todd did manage to, just once, tell her own story. She got to drown out the version of her that strangers had put out on the Web. It's a small comfort. But it was perhaps the only one she had left.

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We'll never know, when the fifteen-year-old Amanda Todd, of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, decided to make last Wednesday the last day of her life, whether she expected that that act would turn her into a household name. If she imagined her fame at all, she must have felt ambivalent at the prospect.

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Facebook Fatalities: Students, Social Networking, and the First Amendment
http://0-search.ebscohost.com.innopac.lib.bcit.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=60797301

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Is There Social Capital in a Social Network Site?: Facebook Use and College Students' Life Satisfaction, Trust, and Participation

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¹
Earlier versions of this study were presented at the 2008 International Symposium on Online Journalism and the 2008 APSA Preconference on Political Communication. For intellectual and financial support on this research, we thank Sharon Strover. Helpful comments at various stages were provided by Jeff Gulati and Talia Stroud. Corresponding author: Sebastián Valenzuela [ sebastianvalenzuela@mail.utexas.edu]

Abstract
This study examines if Facebook, one of the most popular social network sites among college students in the U.S., is related to attitudes and behaviors that enhance individuals' social capital. Using data from a random web survey of college students across Texas (n = 2,603), we find positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and students' life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and political participation. While these findings should ease the concerns of those who fear that Facebook has mostly negative effects on young adults, the positive and significant associations between Facebook variables and social capital were small, suggesting that online social networks are not the most effective solution for youth disengagement from civic duty and democracy.

Moral panic is a common reaction to new forms of communication ( Chalaby, 2000; Winston, 1986). The advent of television spawned fears of mass escapism ( Klapper, 1960; Pearlin, 1959). In the 1990s, critics held the diffusion of Internet as evidence of individuals' increasing alienation from society and public life (see Kraut et al., 1998; Turkle, 1996; White, 1997). The story with Facebook, MySpace, and other social network sites (SNSs) is not any different. Unsafe disclosure of information, cyberbullies, addiction, risky behavior, and contact with dangerous communities are popular concerns raised in the mainstream media about the use of SNSs (e.g., Hodgkinson, 2008; Koloff, 2008; Stone, 2007).

We used original survey data to test several hypotheses regarding the relationship between Facebook use and college students' social capital-a multidimensional construct that includes civic participation, political engagement, life satisfaction, and social trust. We opted to focus on Facebook only for two reasons. First, at the time of the study, Facebook was the most popular SNS for the population under scrutiny ( Bulik, 2007). Second, it has been found that different segments of the population choose specific SNS platforms for distinct purposes ( Hargittai, 2007, p. 277). If there is a problem of selection bias (e.g., Facebook attracts people with more social capital, while MySpace attracts people with less social capital), then it would be unwise to aggregate use of specific sites into an overall measure of SNS use.

It is important to study the relationship between using an SNS and developing attitudes and behaviors that promote social capital and democratic citizenship. Social trust facilitates associative behavior, fosters a strong civil society, and makes political institutions and officials more responsive, all of which translates into a more effective democracy ( Putnam, 2000). Similarly, when people participate, they have a voice in public affairs, they can hold authorities accountable and they are empowered to act on their own behalf ( Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995). Because young adults have been at the forefront of declining levels of participation in the U.S. and elsewhere ( Nickerson, 2006; Putnam, 2000), studying how a popular online service can promote their engagement in public affairs is particularly significant.

Defining Social Capital

There seems to be a consensus that social capital is an important feature of healthy, effective democracies ( Putnam & Goss, 2002). But what exactly is social capital? A cursory review of the literature on the subject shows that researchers have defined the construct in terms of social networks, trust, civic engagement, life satisfaction and a variety of other concepts ( Bourdieu, 1983; Brehm & Rahn, 1997; Coleman, 1988; Dekker & Uslaner, 2001; Lin, 2001; Newton, 2006; Putnam, 2000). The core idea of social capital, however, is straightforward: It is the resources available to people through their social interactions ( Lin, 2001; Putnam, 2004). Individuals with a large and diverse network of contacts are thought to have more social capital than individuals with small, less diverse networks. Although people often accumulate social capital as a result of their daily interactions with friends, coworkers, and strangers, it is also possible to make conscious investments in social interaction ( Resnick, 2002). This is what transpires when people report that their main reason to join Facebook and to spend time on the site is to keep in touch with old friends and to strengthen bonds with colleagues. By using SNSs, individuals seek to maintain and increase their social networks ( Ellison et al., 2007; Joinson, 2008).

Investment in social networks enables individuals to develop norms of trust and reciprocity, which are necessary for successful engagement in collective activities (e.g., participation in neighborhood associations). In other words, trust facilitates working with others on common issues ( Putnam, 2004). Social capital also allows individuals to access information and opportunities (e.g., job openings) that are otherwise unavailable ( Lin, 2001). This means that improving individuals' well-being and quality of life are byproducts of social capital.

Life Satisfaction and Social Trust

Life satisfaction and other indicators of quality of life reflect a general evaluation of one's surroundings, an evaluation which may be positive or negative ( Scheufele & Shah, 2000). Usually, researchers equate life satisfaction with subjective happiness or personal contentment ( Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). Existing research highlights that individuals' life satisfaction is determined, in part, by their social ties ( Kahneman & Krueger, 2006). Ratings of happiness made by one's friends ( Leary & Kowalski, 1990), a sociable and extraverted personality ( Francis, 1999), frequent interpersonal communications that have positive affect ( Diener, Sandvik & Payot, 1991), and happiness of one's family members ( Clore, Wyer, Dienes, Gasper, & Isbell, 2001) all are correlated to high life satisfaction and happiness.

Extending this rationale to SNSs, it could be expected that people who actively participate in Facebook are more likely to experience connectedness and feel happier ( Valkenburg, Peter, & Schouten, 2006). The relationship between personal contentment and SNS also could be reciprocal. For instance, college students with lower levels of life satisfaction could seek to participate in online networks to increase their personal well-being ( Ellison et al., 2007).

Higher levels of life satisfaction, almost invariably, are positively associated with norms of reciprocity and trust ( Putnam, 2000). The direction of causality, however, is not clear. Some researchers have found that those who believe that strangers can be trusted report higher subjective-well being, while others have concluded that life satisfaction is a prerequisite of social trust (Helliwell & Putnam, 2004). It may well be that life satisfaction and generalized trust have a reciprocal relationship ( Inglehart, 1990). For instance, people who belong to a wide network of trusted members can receive more emotional support in times of personal crisis. This support, in turn, could further enhance their trust in network members.

Although some consider social trust as a stable personality trait determined by socialization processes ( Uslaner, 2002), it is useful to treat it as an attitude that can change over time. Because trust is a belief that others will not knowingly or willingly harm us, trust is built upon imperfect knowledge. Online social networks allow users to learn detailed information about their contacts, including personal background, interests, music tastes, and whereabouts. This information can reduce uncertainty about other users' intentions and behaviors, which is a necessary condition for developing norms of trust and reciprocity ( Berger & Calabrese, 1975). If individuals are unable to get to know each other, the possibility they will develop an enduring, trusting relationship is reduced. Of course, uncertainty reduction does not necessarily lead to more social trust ( Berger, 1986). Through Facebook, users may actually learn that their contacts possess attributes that make them less attractive, which may lead to mistrust. Therefore, the more we know about others, the more we may trust or distrust them ( Newton, 1999). However, it is improbable that Facebook users will maintain in their personal list of friends people who they really distrust. Hence Facebook usage could be positively correlated to having online networks of likeable and trusting members. Likewise, believing that others will not knowingly harm us may facilitate usage of online network services. In other words, social trust and Facebook use may have a reciprocal relationship.

Civic and Political Participation

Political and civic participation are slippery concepts; several interpretations have been given of what exactly is meant by these terms. Some researchers equate participation with electoral activities, such as voting and working for political parties (e.g., Conway, 1985). Recognizing that participation goes beyond elections, others have included in their measures of participation activities such as working for the community and attending a protest (e.g., Verba et al., 1995). Even media use and news attention have been identified as markers of participation (e.g., Zaller, 1992).

Given the multidimensionality of the construct, this study measures participation at the political and civic levels. Verba and colleagues (1995) defined political participation as behavior that seeks to influence government action by affecting public policymaking. This includes traditional activities such as voting, working for political campaigns, donating money to candidates, and displaying political bumper stickers, as well as less conventional behaviors, such as protesting, boycotting, and buying products for political reasons (i.e., "buycotting"). Civic participation, on the other hand, is defined as individual or collective behavior aimed at resolving problems of the community ( Zukin, Keeter, Andolina, Jenkins, & Delli-Carpini, 2006). Volunteering to help the needy, fundraising for nongovernmental organizations, participating in community services, or being an active member of an environmental organization would all fall under the category of civic participation.

By including different types of activities under the umbrella of participation, we recognize that the domain of politically relevant activities is wide-ranging. Some people may be politically engaged but less civically engaged; others may be oriented toward civic participation, but less inclined to participate in political matters; still others may be both politically and civically engaged. The boundaries between political and civic activities are, of course, quite porous, as the environmental movement and its corresponding Green Party demonstrate.

The development of SNSs dedicated to fostering civic and political engagement among users, particularly young people, speaks in a loud voice to the potentialities of social media as a tool for collective action. We already mentioned TakingITGlobal.org as a SNS designed specifically for civic engagement (see Raynes-Goldie & Walker, 2008). General sites also can connect activists with similar goals and create awareness about critical issues. A well-known example is students' use of their MySpace profiles to organize a national protest for immigration reform in the U.S. in 2006 ( boyd, 2008). SNSs do not need to succeed at mobilizing users offline to represent a unique contribution to people's engagement. For instance, many credit the 20,000 Canadian users who joined a Facebook group against a government-led copyright reform bill for the delay in the introduction of the bill in late 2008 ( Nowak, 2008).

Internet Use and Individuals' Social Capital

Existing research on the relationships between SNSs and people's well-being, trust, and participation tends to be limited and anecdotal. The same cannot be said of the literature on general Internet use and social capital. In fact, research is ample enough to accommodate competing paradigms, which may illuminate our discussion on the net effects of SNS use on social capital. Echoing Putnam's (2000)"time displacement hypothesis," Nie (2001) found that Internet users had fewer face-to-face interactions, much like heavy television watchers (see also Kraut et al., 1998). Subsequent research found that online communications have a positive effect on individuals' social trust and participation in community life ( Best & Dautrich, 2003; Kavanaugh, Reese, Carroll, & Rosson, 2005; Kobayashi, Ikeda, & Miyata, 2006; Räsänen & Kouvo, 2007). Although the intellectual battle between cyberpessimists and cyberoptimists continues, it is clear that the positive and negative effects of the Internet on social capital are contingent upon the way scholars conceptualize the medium ( Williams, 2006) and how people use it ( Ji-Young, 2006; Kwak, Shah, & Holbert, 2004; Shah, Kwak, & Holbert, 2001).

According to Williams (2006), the problem with the "time displacement hypothesis" is that it ignores the differences between traditional, mass media and new, interactive media. When watching television, people cannot communicate with each other. With e-mail, chat services, and SNSs, people can engage in interpersonal contact. When researchers operationalize Internet use as time spent with the technology, they ignore the multiple audiences, motives, and experiences that the medium allows and tend to find a negative effect on individual-level production of social capital (e.g., Nie & Hillygus, 2002). On the other hand, when researchers recognize the different uses of the Internet (e.g., informational, recreational, communicative, entertainment, etc.), they tend to find a positive link between certain motives for Internet use and social capital (see Beaudoin, 2008; Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2008; Shah et al., 2001).

The general assumption is that patterns of new media use related to information acquisition and community building (e.g., online news, political blogs, virtual communities) are positively associated with individual-level production of social capital. In contrast, patterns of use related to entertainment and diversion (e.g., games and online movies) are negatively associated with social capital ( Norris & Jones, 1998; Shah, Schmierbach, Hawkins, Espino, & Donavan, 2002; Wellman, Haase, Witte, & Hampton, 2001). Thus, it is not the technology per se that can affect individuals' social capital but the specific ways in which individuals use the technology. This explains why online activities have been found to both reduce and increase social capital. As Resnick (2002) noted, when we spend time on the Internet that we would otherwise use to engage in face-to-face contact, social capital will diminish. But if going online displaces activities like commuting or watching crime dramas, the net effect could be positive.

Extending this rationale to SNSs, we could say that their impact on social capital should be contingent upon the specific uses and gratifications sought by users. Using Putnam's (2000) concepts of bridging, weak-tie social capital (i.e., across diverse social groups) versus bonding, strong-tie social capital (i.e., across homogeneous groups), Williams (2006) noted that the type of relationships within social networks can predict different kinds of social capital. Weak-tie networks produce bridging social capital because they connect people from different life situations. These networks broaden the set of information and opportunities for users in the network. However, individuals in weak-tie relationships do not gain the benefits of bonding social capital, such as the emotional support that occurs based on the interdependence and commonalities of strong-tie networks. As we shall see, the features of Facebook allow for the production and maintenance of both strong ties and weak ties and, by extension, can influence positively users' life satisfaction, trust and public participation.

Why Facebook Can Promote Social Capital

Donath and boyd (2004) were among the first to hypothesize that online social networks may not increase the number of strong ties a person may have. Instead, a person's weak ties may increase because the technology is suited to maintaining these links cheaply and easily. This proposition was empirically tested by Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007) using survey data from a small sample of undergraduate students in the U.S. They found that use of Facebook had a strong association with maintaining or solidifying existing offline relationships, as opposed to meeting new people. The strongest relationship, however, was between Facebook use and bridging social capital. Interestingly, these authors found that the use of the SNS interacted with students' psychological well-being, suggesting that Facebook might provide greater benefits for users who have low self-esteem and low life satisfaction.

Although the existing literature shows a link between Facebook use and individual-level production of social capital, it is not clear what specific features produce these effects. As aforementioned, the uses and gratifications approach ( Katz & Gurevitch, 1974; Ruggiero, 2000) provides a useful framework for drawing these inferences. First, Facebook helps with personal identity construction-one of the key motives for media consumption-by enabling multiple channels for interpersonal feedback and peer acceptance. For instance, there are two types of messaging services within Facebook. A private system, which is very similar to web-based e-mail services, and a public system called "The Wall," where contacts or "friends" leave comments to the owner of the Facebook profile and the comments can be viewed by other users. Usually, "The Wall" (and the later addition of "Super Wall") contains short messages that reflect sentiments, common activities between "friends," or details about external websites or events. Another form of feedback within Facebook is information about whether prospective contacts have accepted or rejected the owner of a profile as a "friend". As interpersonal feedback and peer acceptance are strong predictors of life satisfaction ( Harter, 1999; Valkenburg et al., 2006), Facebook can affect (positively or negatively) users' self-esteem and life satisfaction.

Second, Facebook can fulfill the informational needs of users, a key ingredient for strengthening weak ties and promoting collective action ( Kenski & Stroud, 2006; Shah et al., 2001). In order to keep users updated about their social circles, Facebook has two features: "News Feed", which appears on each user's homepage, and "Mini-Feed", which appears in each individual's profile. "News Feed" updates a personalized list of news stories throughout the day generated by the activity of "friends" (e.g., John added the Rolling Stones to his favorites; Jane changed her status to "single" again). Thus, each time users log in, they get the latest updates about their contacts. "Mini-Feed" is similar, except that it centers around one individual. Each person's "Mini-Feed" shows what has changed recently in their profile and what content or modules ("applications") they have added. Thus, Facebook use can reinforce existing ties and communities by keeping users constantly updated about what is going on with their contacts ( Hargittai, 2007). On the other hand, Facebook allows users to create and to join groups based around common interests and activities by incorporating their profiles into the "Facebook Groups" application. The "Groups" application displays each individual's group memberships as well as groups their "friends" have joined. Thus, those who belong to a political group within Facebook can receive mobilizing information that may not be available elsewhere and can encounter more opportunities to engage in political activities. A similar scenario may apply to civic groups who have a presence in the online network. An important share of the civic and political impact of Facebook, then, should occur within groups developed by users and organizations. At the same time, increased participation in online and offline groups typically helps to build trusting relationships among members, further enhancing the potential of Facebook to increase social capital ( Kobayashi et al., 2006).

Third, users can log in to Facebook to satisfy needs of pure entertainment and recreation, which previous research has found to be negatively related to social capital production ( Nyland, Marvez, & Beck, 2007). A popular application for Facebook is "FunWall," which allows users to post a much broader range of content than the traditional "The Wall," such as games, videos, and music. Posting links to jokes in YouTube on the FunWall or spending time creating Facebook Groups such as "If 1,000,000 People Join I'll Legally Change My Name To McLovin" can foster a sense of customization and enjoyment but drive attention away from the real world. As Shah and colleagues (2001) have argued, "in such cases, recreation and socializing may become privatized while the illusion of social interaction is maintained" (p. 154). Consequently, using Facebook mainly for fun may distract users from more meaningful, public affairs content.

Lastly, the most obvious motive for Internet users to join a SNS is what McQuail (2005) defined as the need for integration and social interaction. Identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging; finding a basis for conversation and social interaction; connecting with family, friends, and society; and gaining insight into the circumstances of others-all these reasons can cause people to use SNSs. By making users feel connected to a community and increasing their knowledge of other members, sites such as Facebook can foster norms of reciprocity and trust and, therefore, create opportunities for collective action.

Hypotheses and Research Questions

With the existing literature on SNSs and social capital in mind, this study uses original survey data to test the relationship between Facebook use and college students' life satisfaction, social trust, and civic and political participation. Formally, the hypotheses are as follows:

H1: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with life satisfaction.

H2: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with social trust.

H3a: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with civic participation.

H3b: Intensity of Facebook Groups use is positively associated with civic participation.

H4a: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with political participation.

H4b: Intensity of Facebook Groups use is positively associated with political participation.

Whatever association exists between Facebook use and young adults' social capital, it may be contingent upon individuals' socialization (e.g., gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, etc.) and attitudes toward their life and others (i.e., life satisfaction and social trust, respectively). Earlier research in this area, however, is too contradictory to formulate specific or directional hypotheses. Hence, we investigate the following research questions:

RQ1: Does the relationship between intensity of Facebook use and civic and political participation vary according to gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, life satisfaction, and social trust?

RQ2: Does the relationship between intensity of Facebook Groups use and civic and political participation vary according to gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, life satisfaction, and social trust?

Methods

Sample

To fulfill the goals of this project, a web-based survey was conducted in Fall 2007 at two large public universities in the southwestern U.S. state of Texas, a predominantly undergraduate university in a small town and a commuter school in a large metropolitan area. The cultural and geographical distinctiveness of both campuses ensured surveying a diverse, representative population of college students.

Procedures

To obtain a representative sample of both campuses, the lists of all registered students for the Fall 2007 semester were obtained from the registrar's office of the universities through an open records request. In total, the e-mail addresses of 76,729 students were collected. From this total, 40,360 addresses were randomly selected using SPSS 15.0's random sample procedure, and this list became the sampling frame. Between November 9, 2007 and December 9, 2007, responses from 3,296 individuals were collected using Survey Monkey ( www.surveymonkey.com), an online survey hosting site. Because the purpose of this study is to assess the role of Facebook among college-age adults, only respondents in the 18 to 29 age group were selected for the analysis, which reduced the sample size to 2,603 individuals. As an incentive to participate, respondents were entered in a random drawing for four $25 gift cards to Amazon.com.

The simple response rate was 8.2%, in the lower bound of most web-based surveys ( Schonlau, Elliot, & Fricker, 2002). We can think of a number of reasons that could explain the response rate obtained. First, the proliferation of web-based surveys across many campuses has increased dramatically in the last few years, decreasing students' willingness to complete surveys ( Sax, Gilmartin, & Bryant, 2003, p. 423). Second, the questionnaire was rather dense, including more than 85 items. Lastly, we assumed that students actually use the e-mail addresses provided to the registrar's office, but it is quite possible that many students use these addresses infrequently, relying instead on other e-mail accounts.

It must be noted, however, that low response rates alone do not necessarily suggest bias. According to Krosnick (1999) and Dillman (1991), when respondent characteristics are representative of nonrespondents, low rates of response do not necessarily result in biased estimates. We estimated nonresponse bias in two ways. First, we compared the demographic breakdown of the total population of students at both universities as provided by their registrar's offices with that of our sample and we did not find any substantial differences. Of course, demographic information may not reveal the uniqueness of nonrespondents in terms of their attitudes or how they would have responded to survey items. Hence, we also estimated nonresponse bias by equating individuals who responded later in the survey administration period (i.e., last 3 weeks, or 10% of total sample) with nonrespondents and compared this group with the early respondents (i.e., within the first week, or 90% of total sample) to determine types of bias. For 10 of the 12 variables of interest, there was no statistically significant difference between early respondents and late respondents. For gender and civic participation, however, the differences were statistically significant (at p < .05), but even in these cases, the magnitude of the difference in substantive terms was below 10%. We believe that these comparisons are sufficient to demonstrate that the sample obtained does not suffer from nonresponse bias.

Measures

Life Satisfaction

Respondents' perceived level of personal well-being was assessed using the Satisfaction with Life Scale developed by Diener, Emmons, Larson and Griffin (1985). This 5-item scale is among the most widely used measures in psychology to assess global life satisfaction, showing high levels of internal consistency and temporal reliability ( Pavot, Diener, Colvin, & Sandvik, 1991). Respondents were asked their level of agreement using a 6-point scale ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree) to 6 ( strongly agree) with each of the following statements: "In most ways my life is close to my ideal" ( M = 4.41, SD = 1.12), "The conditions of my life are excellent" ( M = 4.59, SD = 1.08), "I am satisfied with my life" ( M = 4.79, SD = 1.03), "So far I have gotten the important things I want in life" ( M = 4.56, SD = 1.15), and "If I could live my time over, I would change almost nothing" ( M = 4.22, SD = 1.35). To ease the interpretation of the multivariate analyses, each individual item was recoded to a 0 to 1 range and then averaged to create an index of life satisfaction (Cronbach's α = .87, M = .75, SD = .16).

Social Trust

A popular measure of social trust is Rosenberg's (1956) Faith in People scale, which has been used with minor variations by major surveys, including the General Social Survey and the World Values Survey. The scale consists of a series of two forced-choice statements, such as "Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted, or that you can't be too careful in dealing with people?" This scale, however, presents two problems. First, the items are double-barreled questions, that is, the two parts of each question are not exact opposites but two separate questions ( Miller & Mitamura, 2003; Wuthnow, 1998). Second, conceptualizing trust as a dichotomy prevents respondents from making a more fine-grained judgment. Hence, the original Rosenberg scale was broken down into single items and response choices were expanded using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 ( never) to 5 ( all of the time), following the approach of Burns and Kinder (2000). The statements used were: "Generally speaking, would you say that people can be trusted" ( M = 3.42, SD = .65), "People try to take advantage of you if they got the chance" (reversed, M = 2.96, SD = .64), "People try to be fair" ( M = 3.45, SD = .63), "You can't be too careful in dealing with people" (reversed, M = 2.52, SD = .84), "People try to be helpful" ( M = 3.54, SD = .59), and "People are just looking out for themselves" (reversed, M = 2.61, SD = .68). The items also were recoded to a 0 to 1 range and then averaged to create an index of social trust (Cronbach's α = .74, M = .52, SD = .11).

Civic and Political Participation

Respondents' civic and political participation was gauged using a reduced form of the Index of Civic and Political Engagement developed by CIRCLE ( Andolina, Keeter, Zukin, & Jenkins, 2003), an organization that has conducted several national surveys related to youth engagement. Using three response choices (0 = no , never; 0.5 = yes , but not within the last 12 months; and 1 = yes , within the last 12 months), respondents' were asked whether they had (a) worked or volunteered in a community project ( M = .84, SD = .27); (b) worked or volunteered for nonpolitical groups such as a hobby club, environmental group or minority student association ( M = .75, SD = .35); (c) raised money for charity or ran/walked/biked for charity ( M = .64, SD = .36); (d) worked or volunteered for political groups or candidates ( M = .18, SD = .32); (e) voted in a local, state or national election ( M = .43, SD = .43); (f) tried to persuade others in an election ( M = .35, SD = .44); (g) signed a petition ( M = .56, SD = .41); (h) worn or displayed a badge or sticker related to a political or social cause ( M = .41, SD = .44); and (i) deliberately bought certain products for political, ethical, or environmental reasons ( M = .56, SD = .46). Responses to items (a), (b) and (c) were added and averaged to create a civic participation scale (Cronbach's α = .66, M = .74, SD = .26), while responses to the remaining items (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), and (i) were averaged to create a political participation scale (Cronbach's α = .68, M = .41, SD = .26).

Intensity of Facebook Use

The traditional approach for measuring media use in communication research is to gauge the frequency or duration of exposure to a medium, but this approach fails to account for the richer user experience provided by interactive online sites. A more complete measure of intensity of Facebook use was developed by Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007), who created a scale to gauge user engagement in Facebook activities based on number of "friends," amount of time spent on the network on a typical day, and level of agreement with several statements gauging users' emotional attachment to the site. The same scale was used in this study (see Table 1 for response choices and descriptive statistics). Due to differing item scale ranges and to ease the interpretation of the statistical analyses, the individual items were first recoded to range from 0 to 1 before taking an average to create an intensity of Facebook use scale (Cronbach's α = .89, M = .66, SD = .19).

Intensity of Facebook Groups use

Respondents were asked several questions about how often they read and posted messages and posted new discussion topics on the profiles of the online groups they had joined on Facebook, as well as how much time they spent reading and posting messages on the profiles of the online groups. Another question asked respondents to describe their participation in the online groups they had joined (see Table 2 for response choices and descriptive statistics). Again, individual items were first recoded to range from 0 to 1 before taking an average to create an index of intensity of Facebook Groups use (Cronbach's α = .82, M = .19, SD = .14).

Sociodemographics

The variables included gender (female = 66.3%), age ( M = 20.88, SD = 2.43), ethnicity (whites = 82.1%), hometown (Texas = 84.0%), year in school ( M = 2.94, SD = 1.45), and highest level of education completed by parents (ranging from 1 = less than high school to 5 = graduate, M = 3.89, SD = .99).

Statistical Analysis

In order to test whether there was a relationship between intensity of using Facebook and each social capital variable, hierarchical multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions were run to account for potential rival explanations and to assess the exact contribution of each block of predictors. Since OLS assumes interval-level or dichotomous variables only and most of our variables came from Likert-type questions, caution should be applied in the interpretation of the regressions. Given the reciprocal relationship between the intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of social capital, life satisfaction was entered as a predictor of social trust and vice versa. In turn, both variables were entered as predictors of civic and political participation.

Results

Descriptives

Before proceeding to the formal tests of the hypotheses, it was important to gain an understanding of the differences between those who did ( n = 2,437, or 94%) and did not ( n = 166, or 6%) have a Facebook account. Small differences would reassure us that the effects of intensity of Facebook use tested in the subsequent multivariate analyses were not the result of a self-selection bias, that is, that those with higher life satisfaction, social trust, and civic and political participation happened to use Facebook more often.

Table 3 presents t-tests and chi-square tests between members and nonmembers of Facebook on demographics and social capital variables. Female students were more likely to have a Facebook account than male students, which was coherent with the true gender distribution of users of this site. Not surprisingly, age and year in school were highly correlated with being a Facebook user, with younger cohorts having more presence on the site than older cohorts. Students with a Facebook account were more likely to be white and Texan. Interestingly, students' socioeconomic background did not have a linear relationship with having a Facebook account. Though higher levels of parental education were positively related with being a member of the site, nonmembers outnumbered members in terms of parents with postgraduate degrees. Most importantly, Facebook members and nonmembers did not differ in terms of their life satisfaction, social trust or political participation. There was a marked difference, however, on civic engagement, with Facebook members reporting higher levels of participation in nonpolitical activities.

We can draw two preliminary conclusions from this portrait of Facebook users and nonusers. First, the demographic differences between both groups of respondents suggest that the adoption of Facebook was not random across the population of college students included in the study. The small sample size of nonusers, however, prevents us from speculating further why it is that older, male, and minority students did not report using Facebook as often as their younger, female, white counterparts did. Second, we should be cautious in attributing increases in civic participation to Facebook use; rather, Facebook seems to attract students who are more civically engaged. The lack of differences in the other social capital variables, however, should increase our confidence in the potential cause-effect relationship between Facebook use and life satisfaction, social trust, and political engagement.

Life satisfaction and social trust

As shown in Table 4, the total variance in life satisfaction and social trust explained by the regression models was below 10%. The block of demographic variables had less explanatory power compared to the attitudinal block, due to the strong relationship between life satisfaction and social trust. Most importantly, the contribution made by Facebook use to these two components of social capital was small but statistically significant. As predicted by the first couple of hypotheses (H1 and H2), intensity of Facebook use was positively associated with life satisfaction and social trust. However, Facebook use had a stronger relationship with life satisfaction than with social trust. Specifically, the model predicted that the index of life satisfaction was, ceteris paribus, 14.5 percentage points higher for those with the highest score in the index of intensity of Facebook use compared to those with the lowest value. In comparison, social trust increased by 4.7 percentage points when the index of intensity of Facebook use was varied from the lowest value to the highest value.

Civic and political participation

The models shown in Table 5 also explained less than 10% of the variance in the dependent variables. Demographic predictors exhibited the strongest relationships with civic and political engagement. The explanatory power of life satisfaction and social trust was substantial for civic engagement, but negligible for political participation. The variance in both forms of participation explained by the block of Facebook variables was small as well. Nonetheless, both intensity of Facebook use and intensity of Facebook Groups use were positively associated to civic participation, which supported H3a and H3b. Specifically, civic engagement increased 16.1 and 9.5 percentage points, respectively, when the indexes for intensity of Facebook use and intensity of Facebook Groups use changed from their lowest value to their highest value, holding all other variables constant.

In the regression analysis predicting political participation, only Facebook Groups use had a statistically significant positive relationship, consistent with H4b. Holding everything else constant, changing the index of Facebook Groups from its lowest score to its highest score resulted in an increase of political engagement of 27.4 percentage points. Intensity of Facebook use, in comparison, did not have a significant relationship with participation, suggesting that only certain features of Facebook (in this case, Facebook Groups) are associated with political participation. H4a was thus not supported.

A posthoc analysis provided further evidence of the role played by Facebook Groups. Table 6 shows regression analyses of political and civic participation on membership in political and civic groups within the online network. The coefficients of the regressions reveal that belonging to political groups in Facebook was strongly related with political participation, while belonging to civic groups was not (with the exception of student groups). With civic participation, the relationship was the opposite: Belonging to civic groups in Facebook was positively associated with offline civic engagement, while belonging to political groups was not.

RQ1 asked if the relationship between intensity of Facebook use and civic and political participation varied according to gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, life satisfaction, and social trust. To answer this question, a series of interactions between intensity of Facebook use and each demographic characteristic were entered into the models of participation (not shown). For the model predicting civic participation, only the interaction between race and Facebook was statistically significant. Specifically, intensity of Facebook use had a weaker relationship on civic participation among white students compared to nonwhite students (β = −.16, p < .05). In the model of political participation, there was a positive, significant interaction between intensity of Facebook use and social trust (β = .59, p < .05), suggesting that the correlation of using the social network site with these young adults' political engagement was particularly strong for trusting individuals. No other interactive term in the regression of political participation was statistically significant.

The second research question (RQ2) asked if the association between intensity of Facebook Groups use and civic and political participation varied according to respondents' demographics, life satisfaction and social trust. Using the same approach of entering multiplicative terms in the models for civic and political participation, only one interaction achieved statistical significance: The relationship between intensity of Facebook Groups use and political participation was weaker for white respondents than for minority respondents (β = −.23, p < .05).

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to explore whether college students' use of Facebook was related with their stock of social capital, a construct that includes intrapersonal, interpersonal, and behavioral elements. Using survey data collected at two different campuses, we predicted that there would be positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and intensity of Facebook groups use and students' life satisfaction, social trust, and civic and political participation. Our results provide consistent evidence that these positive associations exist. After taking into account several demographic and attitudinal variables, Facebook use and Facebook Groups use still predicted respondents' social capital. These findings do not support the popular view that heavy Facebook users are more isolated and less connected than occasional users. The data show that the opposite holds true, a finding that is coherent with the recent literature on the effects of informational, social interaction and identity-construction uses of the Internet.

Admittedly, the relationship between Facebook use and social capital was not large, as revealed by the small percentage of variance of the dependent variables explained by the regression models. This should not come as a surprise. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals' life satisfaction, trust, and participation in collective activities are influenced by their personality, life experiences, socialization into adulthood, news media use, and a host of other factors. In fact, it would be quite troubling if a sole technological platform such as Facebook determines young adults' stock of social capital. Nevertheless, the results of this investigation contradict the expectations of the "time displacement hypothesis," which was first suggested by Putnam (2000) for the effects of television on social capital and then expanded to the Internet by the so-called cyberpessimists.

In this study, the intensity of Facebook use appears to be related with personal contentment, greater trust, and participation in civic and political activities among college students. We have argued that certain specific features of Facebook enable users to engage in behaviors that contribute to their social capital. In this study, we focused on Facebook Groups as one application that can satisfy the informational and integrative needs of users. Future research could explore the contribution of other Facebook applications, such as messaging services, on individuals' production of social capital.

Interestingly, the associations between Facebook use and social capital variables were not moderated by gender, parental education, and-in the case of participation-by life satisfaction or social trust. Only ethnicity moderated the relationship between Facebook usage and social capital, with nonwhite students who used Facebook scoring higher in the social capital variables compared to white students. This study mostly finds an additive relationship between socioeconomic status and using the social network site, that is, the relationships between social capital and Facebook use did not vary by college students' socioeconomic background. Alternatively, other users' characteristics (e.g., personality traits) that were not measured here could discriminate better for which groups the association between social capital by using the social network site are stronger and/or weaker.

A major contribution of this study lies in the conceptualization of Facebook use and social capital. The scale of intensity of Facebook use, which was developed by Ellison and colleagues (2007), was applied with success in this study. The novel measure of intensity of Facebook Groups use, on the other hand, confirms the necessity of implementing novel measures for individual use of SNSs. Both scales combined the traditional approach of measuring duration and frequency of exposure to the medium with the approach of gauging individuals' emotional attachment to it. Moreover, this study innovated by measuring exposure to specific types of Facebook Groups. As expected, offline political participation is associated to online political groups and offline civic participation is associated to online civic groups. Thus, this study supports the notion that both a medium's technological capabilities as well as the actual content it transmits can influence students' attitudes and behaviors. Likewise, the multifaceted concept of social capital was broken down into three levels, which allowed for a fine-grained assessment of the potential impact of using social network sites. The results show a stronger association of Facebook use with the intrapersonal and behavioral components of social capital than with the interpersonal dimension. Thus, it could be argued that although the different components of social capital are interrelated, SNSs have a stronger connection with some components only.

Another contribution of this study is related to the demographic portrayal of Facebook users. A popular myth is that Facebook is dominated by idle, young, female, upper-middle class college undergraduates. The characteristics of our sample show a more nuanced picture. For instance, over a third of Facebook members in the 18 to 29 age group were male and a similar proportion were seniors or graduate students or students whose parents did not complete a college degree. Nearly one out of five members was a minority student. Moreover, almost 95% of respondents had an account on Facebook and reported using the online network on a daily basis. Nevertheless, the small sample size of nonusers does not allow us to elaborate more on the differences found between them and Facebook users.

Given the cross-sectional nature of this study, we cannot conclude that there is a causal relationship between using Facebook and increased social capital. It may well be that happy, trusting, civically and politically engaged students are more likely to join Facebook. The analysis of the profile of Facebook users suggests that those who are more civically oriented choose to join the online network in a disproportionate fashion. This limitation could be better addressed by a longitudinal study, which would track changes in Facebook usage to changes in social capital variables. Beyond our inability to test for cause-effect relationships, the use of a college student sample limits the ability to generalize our findings to the whole 18-to-29 age group. For instance, compared to other young adults, college students tend to come from the middle and upper-middle classes, have universal access to the Internet, and possess more time and resources to engage in civic and political activities. Future research, then, should examine the role of SNSs on individuals' social capital using a more diverse population. At the same time, longitudinal designs would allow for disentangling the causal links between use of SNSs and engagement with public affairs.

An additional limitation of the study was the conceptualization of civic and political engagement. The lack of existing research on SNS use and users' public participation made it prudent to rely on traditional scales of civic and political engagement. This had the additional benefit of making the results of the study comparable to other surveys that delve into the relationship between media use and civic or political engagement. However, alternate measures of participation that better fit the new media environment constitute a good venue for future research. For instance, we could have asked respondents if they listed any particular 2008 U.S. presidential candidate on their Facebook profile. This may be problematic as a traditional measure of participation, but fits very well into how Facebook users might be using the network to engage in politics. In other words, by listing candidates and declaring being "fans" of political causes, users may be engaging in a type of political participation that our measures miss completely.

Overall, the findings of the study should ease the concerns of those who fear that Facebook has mostly negative effects on young adults' engagement and social capital. Nevertheless, the positive and significant associations between the Facebook variables and the dependent variables were small, suggesting that SNSs are not the most effective solution for youth disengagement from civic duty and democracy. This study captures a snapshot of Facebook as an example of a SNS. As these technologies continue to evolve and diffuse further into the society, we hope the findings reported in this study contribute to the larger understanding of social capital in SNSs.

Notes

According to comScore Inc.'s rankings of top websites, in 2008 Facebook.com was ranked as the 16th most visited website on the Internet in the U.S. ( comScore, 2008a), with 34 million unique visitors by January 2008, and as the 13th most popular website worldwide ( comScore, 2008b), with 98 million unique visitors by December 2007. As of March 2008, Facebook reported having 67 million active users (those who have returned to the site in the last 30 days), with more than half of them returning daily and spending an average of 20 minutes per day on the site (Facebook, 2008).

According to Putnam (2000), bridging and bonding are two forms of social capital. Whereas the former is related to networks of individuals formed across diverse social settings for the purpose of exchanging useful information, the latter is linked to bonds of connectedness among tightly knit groups-usually family and friends who provide emotional support.

Although we had access to the total student population, we preferred to draw a sample rather than conduct a census. Our rationale was that (1) it would have taken far too much time to collect responses from every student, and (2) many students would opt out of the survey anyway, rendering the census an impossible task. Thus, drawing sample was a more convenient and realistic approach.

Participants were sent up to three reminder e-mails during the first two weeks of being contacted and a final e-mail the day before the survey closed.

At the larger of the two campuses, the ethnic breakdown of the respondents compared well with the university's actual demographics. Likewise, the sample representing the other public school involved in this study reflected closely the university's diversity. The major difference between sample and population demographics relates to gender. At the larger university, 37% of the respondents were male and 63% were female, while the actual breakdown is 53% male and 47% female. A similar pattern was evident at the second university-29% of the respondents were male and 71% were female, whereas the actual breakdown is 43% males and 57% females.

Number of groups joined was deliberatively excluded from the measure of intensity of Facebook Groups use for two reasons. First, joining groups is only one click away, which means that many groups are episodic and supporting a one time event. Second, the existing literature on participation in online communities does not support the notion that number of groups is proportional to the intensity of participation in those groups. For instance, Kollock (1999) and Mathwick (2002) found that online participation implies engaging in activities that require time and effort, something that number of groups does not gauge at all.

Many statisticians in the social sciences (e.g., Harris, 2001; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007) argue that the application of parametric statistics such as OLS to scores that fall short of the requirements for continuous level of measurement does not necessarily lead to problems so long as the variables meet the distributional properties required by the statistical procedure (see Warner, 2008).

At the time of the survey, the proportion of female undergraduate students using Facebook in the U.S. was 54%, compared to 46% of male students.

About the Author

Sebastián Valenzuela is a doctoral student in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. His primary research interest is in the area of political communication, with particular attention to the role of news media and online social media in shaping people's political attitudes and behavior.

Address: School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A1000, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Email: sebastianvalenzuela@mail.utexas.edu

Namsu Park is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on the effect of new media technology on society, culture and the individual.

Address: Department of Radio TV Film, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A0800, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Email: nspark@mail.utexas.edu

Kerk F. Kee is a doctoral student and assistant instructor in Organizational Communication in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His current research examines technology adoption, distributed collaboration, and virtual organization.

Address: P.O. Box 8287, Austin, TX 78713, USA. Email: research@ekerk.com

Ancillary

References

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Andolina, M., Keeter, S., Zukin, C., & Jenkins, K. (2003). A guide to the index of civic and political engagement. Retrieved October 12, 2007, from http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/IndexGuide.pdf.

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Shah, D. V., Schmierbach, M., Hawkins, J., Espino, R., & Donavan, J. (2002). Nonrecursive models of Internet use and community engagement: Questioning whether time spent online erodes social capital. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79, 964-987.

Stone, B. (2007, July 30). New scrutiny for Facebook over predators. The New York Times. Retrieved November 2, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/business/media/30facebook.html.

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Citing Literature

¹
Earlier versions of this study were presented at the 2008 International Symposium on Online Journalism and the 2008 APSA Preconference on Political Communication. For intellectual and financial support on this research, we thank Sharon Strover. Helpful comments at various stages were provided by Jeff Gulati and Talia Stroud. Corresponding author: Sebastián Valenzuela [ sebastianvalenzuela@mail.utexas.edu]

Abstract
This study examines if Facebook, one of the most popular social network sites among college students in the U.S., is related to attitudes and behaviors that enhance individuals' social capital. Using data from a random web survey of college students across Texas (n = 2,603), we find positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and students' life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and political participation. While these findings should ease the concerns of those who fear that Facebook has mostly negative effects on young adults, the positive and significant associations between Facebook variables and social capital were small, suggesting that online social networks are not the most effective solution for youth disengagement from civic duty and democracy.

Moral panic is a common reaction to new forms of communication ( Chalaby, 2000; Winston, 1986). The advent of television spawned fears of mass escapism ( Klapper, 1960; Pearlin, 1959). In the 1990s, critics held the diffusion of Internet as evidence of individuals' increasing alienation from society and public life (see Kraut et al., 1998; Turkle, 1996; White, 1997). The story with Facebook, MySpace, and other social network sites (SNSs) is not any different. Unsafe disclosure of information, cyberbullies, addiction, risky behavior, and contact with dangerous communities are popular concerns raised in the mainstream media about the use of SNSs (e.g., Hodgkinson, 2008; Koloff, 2008; Stone, 2007).

We used original survey data to test several hypotheses regarding the relationship between Facebook use and college students' social capital-a multidimensional construct that includes civic participation, political engagement, life satisfaction, and social trust. We opted to focus on Facebook only for two reasons. First, at the time of the study, Facebook was the most popular SNS for the population under scrutiny ( Bulik, 2007). Second, it has been found that different segments of the population choose specific SNS platforms for distinct purposes ( Hargittai, 2007, p. 277). If there is a problem of selection bias (e.g., Facebook attracts people with more social capital, while MySpace attracts people with less social capital), then it would be unwise to aggregate use of specific sites into an overall measure of SNS use.

It is important to study the relationship between using an SNS and developing attitudes and behaviors that promote social capital and democratic citizenship. Social trust facilitates associative behavior, fosters a strong civil society, and makes political institutions and officials more responsive, all of which translates into a more effective democracy ( Putnam, 2000). Similarly, when people participate, they have a voice in public affairs, they can hold authorities accountable and they are empowered to act on their own behalf ( Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995). Because young adults have been at the forefront of declining levels of participation in the U.S. and elsewhere ( Nickerson, 2006; Putnam, 2000), studying how a popular online service can promote their engagement in public affairs is particularly significant.

Defining Social Capital

There seems to be a consensus that social capital is an important feature of healthy, effective democracies ( Putnam & Goss, 2002). But what exactly is social capital? A cursory review of the literature on the subject shows that researchers have defined the construct in terms of social networks, trust, civic engagement, life satisfaction and a variety of other concepts ( Bourdieu, 1983; Brehm & Rahn, 1997; Coleman, 1988; Dekker & Uslaner, 2001; Lin, 2001; Newton, 2006; Putnam, 2000). The core idea of social capital, however, is straightforward: It is the resources available to people through their social interactions ( Lin, 2001; Putnam, 2004). Individuals with a large and diverse network of contacts are thought to have more social capital than individuals with small, less diverse networks. Although people often accumulate social capital as a result of their daily interactions with friends, coworkers, and strangers, it is also possible to make conscious investments in social interaction ( Resnick, 2002). This is what transpires when people report that their main reason to join Facebook and to spend time on the site is to keep in touch with old friends and to strengthen bonds with colleagues. By using SNSs, individuals seek to maintain and increase their social networks ( Ellison et al., 2007; Joinson, 2008).

Investment in social networks enables individuals to develop norms of trust and reciprocity, which are necessary for successful engagement in collective activities (e.g., participation in neighborhood associations). In other words, trust facilitates working with others on common issues ( Putnam, 2004). Social capital also allows individuals to access information and opportunities (e.g., job openings) that are otherwise unavailable ( Lin, 2001). This means that improving individuals' well-being and quality of life are byproducts of social capital.

Life Satisfaction and Social Trust

Life satisfaction and other indicators of quality of life reflect a general evaluation of one's surroundings, an evaluation which may be positive or negative ( Scheufele & Shah, 2000). Usually, researchers equate life satisfaction with subjective happiness or personal contentment ( Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). Existing research highlights that individuals' life satisfaction is determined, in part, by their social ties ( Kahneman & Krueger, 2006). Ratings of happiness made by one's friends ( Leary & Kowalski, 1990), a sociable and extraverted personality ( Francis, 1999), frequent interpersonal communications that have positive affect ( Diener, Sandvik & Payot, 1991), and happiness of one's family members ( Clore, Wyer, Dienes, Gasper, & Isbell, 2001) all are correlated to high life satisfaction and happiness.

Extending this rationale to SNSs, it could be expected that people who actively participate in Facebook are more likely to experience connectedness and feel happier ( Valkenburg, Peter, & Schouten, 2006). The relationship between personal contentment and SNS also could be reciprocal. For instance, college students with lower levels of life satisfaction could seek to participate in online networks to increase their personal well-being ( Ellison et al., 2007).

Although some consider social trust as a stable personality trait determined by socialization processes ( Uslaner, 2002), it is useful to treat it as an attitude that can change over time. Because trust is a belief that others will not knowingly or willingly harm us, trust is built upon imperfect knowledge. Online social networks allow users to learn detailed information about their contacts, including personal background, interests, music tastes, and whereabouts. This information can reduce uncertainty about other users' intentions and behaviors, which is a necessary condition for developing norms of trust and reciprocity ( Berger & Calabrese, 1975). If individuals are unable to get to know each other, the possibility they will develop an enduring, trusting relationship is reduced. Of course, uncertainty reduction does not necessarily lead to more social trust ( Berger, 1986). Through Facebook, users may actually learn that their contacts possess attributes that make them less attractive, which may lead to mistrust. Therefore, the more we know about others, the more we may trust or distrust them ( Newton, 1999). However, it is improbable that Facebook users will maintain in their personal list of friends people who they really distrust. Hence Facebook usage could be positively correlated to having online networks of likeable and trusting members. Likewise, believing that others will not knowingly harm us may facilitate usage of online network services. In other words, social trust and Facebook use may have a reciprocal relationship.

Civic and Political Participation

Given the multidimensionality of the construct, this study measures participation at the political and civic levels. Verba and colleagues (1995) defined political participation as behavior that seeks to influence government action by affecting public policymaking. This includes traditional activities such as voting, working for political campaigns, donating money to candidates, and displaying political bumper stickers, as well as less conventional behaviors, such as protesting, boycotting, and buying products for political reasons (i.e., "buycotting"). Civic participation, on the other hand, is defined as individual or collective behavior aimed at resolving problems of the community ( Zukin, Keeter, Andolina, Jenkins, & Delli-Carpini, 2006). Volunteering to help the needy, fundraising for nongovernmental organizations, participating in community services, or being an active member of an environmental organization would all fall under the category of civic participation.

By including different types of activities under the umbrella of participation, we recognize that the domain of politically relevant activities is wide-ranging. Some people may be politically engaged but less civically engaged; others may be oriented toward civic participation, but less inclined to participate in political matters; still others may be both politically and civically engaged. The boundaries between political and civic activities are, of course, quite porous, as the environmental movement and its corresponding Green Party demonstrate.

Internet Use and Individuals' Social Capital

Existing research on the relationships between SNSs and people's well-being, trust, and participation tends to be limited and anecdotal. The same cannot be said of the literature on general Internet use and social capital. In fact, research is ample enough to accommodate competing paradigms, which may illuminate our discussion on the net effects of SNS use on social capital. Echoing Putnam's (2000)"time displacement hypothesis," Nie (2001) found that Internet users had fewer face-to-face interactions, much like heavy television watchers (see also Kraut et al., 1998). Subsequent research found that online communications have a positive effect on individuals' social trust and participation in community life ( Best & Dautrich, 2003; Kavanaugh, Reese, Carroll, & Rosson, 2005; Kobayashi, Ikeda, & Miyata, 2006; Räsänen & Kouvo, 2007). Although the intellectual battle between cyberpessimists and cyberoptimists continues, it is clear that the positive and negative effects of the Internet on social capital are contingent upon the way scholars conceptualize the medium ( Williams, 2006) and how people use it ( Ji-Young, 2006; Kwak, Shah, & Holbert, 2004; Shah, Kwak, & Holbert, 2001).

According to Williams (2006), the problem with the "time displacement hypothesis" is that it ignores the differences between traditional, mass media and new, interactive media. When watching television, people cannot communicate with each other. With e-mail, chat services, and SNSs, people can engage in interpersonal contact. When researchers operationalize Internet use as time spent with the technology, they ignore the multiple audiences, motives, and experiences that the medium allows and tend to find a negative effect on individual-level production of social capital (e.g., Nie & Hillygus, 2002). On the other hand, when researchers recognize the different uses of the Internet (e.g., informational, recreational, communicative, entertainment, etc.), they tend to find a positive link between certain motives for Internet use and social capital (see Beaudoin, 2008; Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2008; Shah et al., 2001).

The general assumption is that patterns of new media use related to information acquisition and community building (e.g., online news, political blogs, virtual communities) are positively associated with individual-level production of social capital. In contrast, patterns of use related to entertainment and diversion (e.g., games and online movies) are negatively associated with social capital ( Norris & Jones, 1998; Shah, Schmierbach, Hawkins, Espino, & Donavan, 2002; Wellman, Haase, Witte, & Hampton, 2001). Thus, it is not the technology per se that can affect individuals' social capital but the specific ways in which individuals use the technology. This explains why online activities have been found to both reduce and increase social capital. As Resnick (2002) noted, when we spend time on the Internet that we would otherwise use to engage in face-to-face contact, social capital will diminish. But if going online displaces activities like commuting or watching crime dramas, the net effect could be positive.

Extending this rationale to SNSs, we could say that their impact on social capital should be contingent upon the specific uses and gratifications sought by users. Using Putnam's (2000) concepts of bridging, weak-tie social capital (i.e., across diverse social groups) versus bonding, strong-tie social capital (i.e., across homogeneous groups), Williams (2006) noted that the type of relationships within social networks can predict different kinds of social capital. Weak-tie networks produce bridging social capital because they connect people from different life situations. These networks broaden the set of information and opportunities for users in the network. However, individuals in weak-tie relationships do not gain the benefits of bonding social capital, such as the emotional support that occurs based on the interdependence and commonalities of strong-tie networks. As we shall see, the features of Facebook allow for the production and maintenance of both strong ties and weak ties and, by extension, can influence positively users' life satisfaction, trust and public participation.

Why Facebook Can Promote Social Capital

Donath and boyd (2004) were among the first to hypothesize that online social networks may not increase the number of strong ties a person may have. Instead, a person's weak ties may increase because the technology is suited to maintaining these links cheaply and easily. This proposition was empirically tested by Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007) using survey data from a small sample of undergraduate students in the U.S. They found that use of Facebook had a strong association with maintaining or solidifying existing offline relationships, as opposed to meeting new people. The strongest relationship, however, was between Facebook use and bridging social capital. Interestingly, these authors found that the use of the SNS interacted with students' psychological well-being, suggesting that Facebook might provide greater benefits for users who have low self-esteem and low life satisfaction.

Although the existing literature shows a link between Facebook use and individual-level production of social capital, it is not clear what specific features produce these effects. As aforementioned, the uses and gratifications approach ( Katz & Gurevitch, 1974; Ruggiero, 2000) provides a useful framework for drawing these inferences. First, Facebook helps with personal identity construction-one of the key motives for media consumption-by enabling multiple channels for interpersonal feedback and peer acceptance. For instance, there are two types of messaging services within Facebook. A private system, which is very similar to web-based e-mail services, and a public system called "The Wall," where contacts or "friends" leave comments to the owner of the Facebook profile and the comments can be viewed by other users. Usually, "The Wall" (and the later addition of "Super Wall") contains short messages that reflect sentiments, common activities between "friends," or details about external websites or events. Another form of feedback within Facebook is information about whether prospective contacts have accepted or rejected the owner of a profile as a "friend". As interpersonal feedback and peer acceptance are strong predictors of life satisfaction ( Harter, 1999; Valkenburg et al., 2006), Facebook can affect (positively or negatively) users' self-esteem and life satisfaction.

Second, Facebook can fulfill the informational needs of users, a key ingredient for strengthening weak ties and promoting collective action ( Kenski & Stroud, 2006; Shah et al., 2001). In order to keep users updated about their social circles, Facebook has two features: "News Feed", which appears on each user's homepage, and "Mini-Feed", which appears in each individual's profile. "News Feed" updates a personalized list of news stories throughout the day generated by the activity of "friends" (e.g., John added the Rolling Stones to his favorites; Jane changed her status to "single" again). Thus, each time users log in, they get the latest updates about their contacts. "Mini-Feed" is similar, except that it centers around one individual. Each person's "Mini-Feed" shows what has changed recently in their profile and what content or modules ("applications") they have added. Thus, Facebook use can reinforce existing ties and communities by keeping users constantly updated about what is going on with their contacts ( Hargittai, 2007). On the other hand, Facebook allows users to create and to join groups based around common interests and activities by incorporating their profiles into the "Facebook Groups" application. The "Groups" application displays each individual's group memberships as well as groups their "friends" have joined. Thus, those who belong to a political group within Facebook can receive mobilizing information that may not be available elsewhere and can encounter more opportunities to engage in political activities. A similar scenario may apply to civic groups who have a presence in the online network. An important share of the civic and political impact of Facebook, then, should occur within groups developed by users and organizations. At the same time, increased participation in online and offline groups typically helps to build trusting relationships among members, further enhancing the potential of Facebook to increase social capital ( Kobayashi et al., 2006).

Third, users can log in to Facebook to satisfy needs of pure entertainment and recreation, which previous research has found to be negatively related to social capital production ( Nyland, Marvez, & Beck, 2007). A popular application for Facebook is "FunWall," which allows users to post a much broader range of content than the traditional "The Wall," such as games, videos, and music. Posting links to jokes in YouTube on the FunWall or spending time creating Facebook Groups such as "If 1,000,000 People Join I'll Legally Change My Name To McLovin" can foster a sense of customization and enjoyment but drive attention away from the real world. As Shah and colleagues (2001) have argued, "in such cases, recreation and socializing may become privatized while the illusion of social interaction is maintained" (p. 154). Consequently, using Facebook mainly for fun may distract users from more meaningful, public affairs content.

Lastly, the most obvious motive for Internet users to join a SNS is what McQuail (2005) defined as the need for integration and social interaction. Identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging; finding a basis for conversation and social interaction; connecting with family, friends, and society; and gaining insight into the circumstances of others-all these reasons can cause people to use SNSs. By making users feel connected to a community and increasing their knowledge of other members, sites such as Facebook can foster norms of reciprocity and trust and, therefore, create opportunities for collective action.

Hypotheses and Research Questions

With the existing literature on SNSs and social capital in mind, this study uses original survey data to test the relationship between Facebook use and college students' life satisfaction, social trust, and civic and political participation. Formally, the hypotheses are as follows:

H1: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with life satisfaction.

H2: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with social trust.

H3a: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with civic participation.

H3b: Intensity of Facebook Groups use is positively associated with civic participation.

H4a: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with political participation.

H4b: Intensity of Facebook Groups use is positively associated with political participation.

Whatever association exists between Facebook use and young adults' social capital, it may be contingent upon individuals' socialization (e.g., gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, etc.) and attitudes toward their life and others (i.e., life satisfaction and social trust, respectively). Earlier research in this area, however, is too contradictory to formulate specific or directional hypotheses. Hence, we investigate the following research questions:

RQ1: Does the relationship between intensity of Facebook use and civic and political participation vary according to gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, life satisfaction, and social trust?

RQ2: Does the relationship between intensity of Facebook Groups use and civic and political participation vary according to gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, life satisfaction, and social trust?

Methods

Sample

To fulfill the goals of this project, a web-based survey was conducted in Fall 2007 at two large public universities in the southwestern U.S. state of Texas, a predominantly undergraduate university in a small town and a commuter school in a large metropolitan area. The cultural and geographical distinctiveness of both campuses ensured surveying a diverse, representative population of college students.

Procedures

To obtain a representative sample of both campuses, the lists of all registered students for the Fall 2007 semester were obtained from the registrar's office of the universities through an open records request. In total, the e-mail addresses of 76,729 students were collected. From this total, 40,360 addresses were randomly selected using SPSS 15.0's random sample procedure, and this list became the sampling frame. Between November 9, 2007 and December 9, 2007, responses from 3,296 individuals were collected using Survey Monkey ( www.surveymonkey.com), an online survey hosting site. Because the purpose of this study is to assess the role of Facebook among college-age adults, only respondents in the 18 to 29 age group were selected for the analysis, which reduced the sample size to 2,603 individuals. As an incentive to participate, respondents were entered in a random drawing for four $25 gift cards to Amazon.com.

The simple response rate was 8.2%, in the lower bound of most web-based surveys ( Schonlau, Elliot, & Fricker, 2002). We can think of a number of reasons that could explain the response rate obtained. First, the proliferation of web-based surveys across many campuses has increased dramatically in the last few years, decreasing students' willingness to complete surveys ( Sax, Gilmartin, & Bryant, 2003, p. 423). Second, the questionnaire was rather dense, including more than 85 items. Lastly, we assumed that students actually use the e-mail addresses provided to the registrar's office, but it is quite possible that many students use these addresses infrequently, relying instead on other e-mail accounts.

It must be noted, however, that low response rates alone do not necessarily suggest bias. According to Krosnick (1999) and Dillman (1991), when respondent characteristics are representative of nonrespondents, low rates of response do not necessarily result in biased estimates. We estimated nonresponse bias in two ways. First, we compared the demographic breakdown of the total population of students at both universities as provided by their registrar's offices with that of our sample and we did not find any substantial differences. Of course, demographic information may not reveal the uniqueness of nonrespondents in terms of their attitudes or how they would have responded to survey items. Hence, we also estimated nonresponse bias by equating individuals who responded later in the survey administration period (i.e., last 3 weeks, or 10% of total sample) with nonrespondents and compared this group with the early respondents (i.e., within the first week, or 90% of total sample) to determine types of bias. For 10 of the 12 variables of interest, there was no statistically significant difference between early respondents and late respondents. For gender and civic participation, however, the differences were statistically significant (at p < .05), but even in these cases, the magnitude of the difference in substantive terms was below 10%. We believe that these comparisons are sufficient to demonstrate that the sample obtained does not suffer from nonresponse bias.

Measures

Life Satisfaction

Respondents' perceived level of personal well-being was assessed using the Satisfaction with Life Scale developed by Diener, Emmons, Larson and Griffin (1985). This 5-item scale is among the most widely used measures in psychology to assess global life satisfaction, showing high levels of internal consistency and temporal reliability ( Pavot, Diener, Colvin, & Sandvik, 1991). Respondents were asked their level of agreement using a 6-point scale ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree) to 6 ( strongly agree) with each of the following statements: "In most ways my life is close to my ideal" ( M = 4.41, SD = 1.12), "The conditions of my life are excellent" ( M = 4.59, SD = 1.08), "I am satisfied with my life" ( M = 4.79, SD = 1.03), "So far I have gotten the important things I want in life" ( M = 4.56, SD = 1.15), and "If I could live my time over, I would change almost nothing" ( M = 4.22, SD = 1.35). To ease the interpretation of the multivariate analyses, each individual item was recoded to a 0 to 1 range and then averaged to create an index of life satisfaction (Cronbach's α = .87, M = .75, SD = .16).

Social Trust

A popular measure of social trust is Rosenberg's (1956) Faith in People scale, which has been used with minor variations by major surveys, including the General Social Survey and the World Values Survey. The scale consists of a series of two forced-choice statements, such as "Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted, or that you can't be too careful in dealing with people?" This scale, however, presents two problems. First, the items are double-barreled questions, that is, the two parts of each question are not exact opposites but two separate questions ( Miller & Mitamura, 2003; Wuthnow, 1998). Second, conceptualizing trust as a dichotomy prevents respondents from making a more fine-grained judgment. Hence, the original Rosenberg scale was broken down into single items and response choices were expanded using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 ( never) to 5 ( all of the time), following the approach of Burns and Kinder (2000). The statements used were: "Generally speaking, would you say that people can be trusted" ( M = 3.42, SD = .65), "People try to take advantage of you if they got the chance" (reversed, M = 2.96, SD = .64), "People try to be fair" ( M = 3.45, SD = .63), "You can't be too careful in dealing with people" (reversed, M = 2.52, SD = .84), "People try to be helpful" ( M = 3.54, SD = .59), and "People are just looking out for themselves" (reversed, M = 2.61, SD = .68). The items also were recoded to a 0 to 1 range and then averaged to create an index of social trust (Cronbach's α = .74, M = .52, SD = .11).

Civic and Political Participation

Respondents' civic and political participation was gauged using a reduced form of the Index of Civic and Political Engagement developed by CIRCLE ( Andolina, Keeter, Zukin, & Jenkins, 2003), an organization that has conducted several national surveys related to youth engagement. Using three response choices (0 = no , never; 0.5 = yes , but not within the last 12 months; and 1 = yes , within the last 12 months), respondents' were asked whether they had (a) worked or volunteered in a community project ( M = .84, SD = .27); (b) worked or volunteered for nonpolitical groups such as a hobby club, environmental group or minority student association ( M = .75, SD = .35); (c) raised money for charity or ran/walked/biked for charity ( M = .64, SD = .36); (d) worked or volunteered for political groups or candidates ( M = .18, SD = .32); (e) voted in a local, state or national election ( M = .43, SD = .43); (f) tried to persuade others in an election ( M = .35, SD = .44); (g) signed a petition ( M = .56, SD = .41); (h) worn or displayed a badge or sticker related to a political or social cause ( M = .41, SD = .44); and (i) deliberately bought certain products for political, ethical, or environmental reasons ( M = .56, SD = .46). Responses to items (a), (b) and (c) were added and averaged to create a civic participation scale (Cronbach's α = .66, M = .74, SD = .26), while responses to the remaining items (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), and (i) were averaged to create a political participation scale (Cronbach's α = .68, M = .41, SD = .26).

Intensity of Facebook Use

The traditional approach for measuring media use in communication research is to gauge the frequency or duration of exposure to a medium, but this approach fails to account for the richer user experience provided by interactive online sites. A more complete measure of intensity of Facebook use was developed by Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007), who created a scale to gauge user engagement in Facebook activities based on number of "friends," amount of time spent on the network on a typical day, and level of agreement with several statements gauging users' emotional attachment to the site. The same scale was used in this study (see Table 1 for response choices and descriptive statistics). Due to differing item scale ranges and to ease the interpretation of the statistical analyses, the individual items were first recoded to range from 0 to 1 before taking an average to create an intensity of Facebook use scale (Cronbach's α = .89, M = .66, SD = .19).

Intensity of Facebook Groups use

Respondents were asked several questions about how often they read and posted messages and posted new discussion topics on the profiles of the online groups they had joined on Facebook, as well as how much time they spent reading and posting messages on the profiles of the online groups. Another question asked respondents to describe their participation in the online groups they had joined (see Table 2 for response choices and descriptive statistics). Again, individual items were first recoded to range from 0 to 1 before taking an average to create an index of intensity of Facebook Groups use (Cronbach's α = .82, M = .19, SD = .14).

Sociodemographics

The variables included gender (female = 66.3%), age ( M = 20.88, SD = 2.43), ethnicity (whites = 82.1%), hometown (Texas = 84.0%), year in school ( M = 2.94, SD = 1.45), and highest level of education completed by parents (ranging from 1 = less than high school to 5 = graduate, M = 3.89, SD = .99).

Statistical Analysis

In order to test whether there was a relationship between intensity of using Facebook and each social capital variable, hierarchical multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions were run to account for potential rival explanations and to assess the exact contribution of each block of predictors. Since OLS assumes interval-level or dichotomous variables only and most of our variables came from Likert-type questions, caution should be applied in the interpretation of the regressions. Given the reciprocal relationship between the intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of social capital, life satisfaction was entered as a predictor of social trust and vice versa. In turn, both variables were entered as predictors of civic and political participation.

Results

Descriptives

Before proceeding to the formal tests of the hypotheses, it was important to gain an understanding of the differences between those who did ( n = 2,437, or 94%) and did not ( n = 166, or 6%) have a Facebook account. Small differences would reassure us that the effects of intensity of Facebook use tested in the subsequent multivariate analyses were not the result of a self-selection bias, that is, that those with higher life satisfaction, social trust, and civic and political participation happened to use Facebook more often.

Table 3 presents t-tests and chi-square tests between members and nonmembers of Facebook on demographics and social capital variables. Female students were more likely to have a Facebook account than male students, which was coherent with the true gender distribution of users of this site. Not surprisingly, age and year in school were highly correlated with being a Facebook user, with younger cohorts having more presence on the site than older cohorts. Students with a Facebook account were more likely to be white and Texan. Interestingly, students' socioeconomic background did not have a linear relationship with having a Facebook account. Though higher levels of parental education were positively related with being a member of the site, nonmembers outnumbered members in terms of parents with postgraduate degrees. Most importantly, Facebook members and nonmembers did not differ in terms of their life satisfaction, social trust or political participation. There was a marked difference, however, on civic engagement, with Facebook members reporting higher levels of participation in nonpolitical activities.

We can draw two preliminary conclusions from this portrait of Facebook users and nonusers. First, the demographic differences between both groups of respondents suggest that the adoption of Facebook was not random across the population of college students included in the study. The small sample size of nonusers, however, prevents us from speculating further why it is that older, male, and minority students did not report using Facebook as often as their younger, female, white counterparts did. Second, we should be cautious in attributing increases in civic participation to Facebook use; rather, Facebook seems to attract students who are more civically engaged. The lack of differences in the other social capital variables, however, should increase our confidence in the potential cause-effect relationship between Facebook use and life satisfaction, social trust, and political engagement.

Life satisfaction and social trust

As shown in Table 4, the total variance in life satisfaction and social trust explained by the regression models was below 10%. The block of demographic variables had less explanatory power compared to the attitudinal block, due to the strong relationship between life satisfaction and social trust. Most importantly, the contribution made by Facebook use to these two components of social capital was small but statistically significant. As predicted by the first couple of hypotheses (H1 and H2), intensity of Facebook use was positively associated with life satisfaction and social trust. However, Facebook use had a stronger relationship with life satisfaction than with social trust. Specifically, the model predicted that the index of life satisfaction was, ceteris paribus, 14.5 percentage points higher for those with the highest score in the index of intensity of Facebook use compared to those with the lowest value. In comparison, social trust increased by 4.7 percentage points when the index of intensity of Facebook use was varied from the lowest value to the highest value.

Civic and political participation

The models shown in Table 5 also explained less than 10% of the variance in the dependent variables. Demographic predictors exhibited the strongest relationships with civic and political engagement. The explanatory power of life satisfaction and social trust was substantial for civic engagement, but negligible for political participation. The variance in both forms of participation explained by the block of Facebook variables was small as well. Nonetheless, both intensity of Facebook use and intensity of Facebook Groups use were positively associated to civic participation, which supported H3a and H3b. Specifically, civic engagement increased 16.1 and 9.5 percentage points, respectively, when the indexes for intensity of Facebook use and intensity of Facebook Groups use changed from their lowest value to their highest value, holding all other variables constant.

In the regression analysis predicting political participation, only Facebook Groups use had a statistically significant positive relationship, consistent with H4b. Holding everything else constant, changing the index of Facebook Groups from its lowest score to its highest score resulted in an increase of political engagement of 27.4 percentage points. Intensity of Facebook use, in comparison, did not have a significant relationship with participation, suggesting that only certain features of Facebook (in this case, Facebook Groups) are associated with political participation. H4a was thus not supported.

A posthoc analysis provided further evidence of the role played by Facebook Groups. Table 6 shows regression analyses of political and civic participation on membership in political and civic groups within the online network. The coefficients of the regressions reveal that belonging to political groups in Facebook was strongly related with political participation, while belonging to civic groups was not (with the exception of student groups). With civic participation, the relationship was the opposite: Belonging to civic groups in Facebook was positively associated with offline civic engagement, while belonging to political groups was not.

RQ1 asked if the relationship between intensity of Facebook use and civic and political participation varied according to gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, life satisfaction, and social trust. To answer this question, a series of interactions between intensity of Facebook use and each demographic characteristic were entered into the models of participation (not shown). For the model predicting civic participation, only the interaction between race and Facebook was statistically significant. Specifically, intensity of Facebook use had a weaker relationship on civic participation among white students compared to nonwhite students (β = −.16, p < .05). In the model of political participation, there was a positive, significant interaction between intensity of Facebook use and social trust (β = .59, p < .05), suggesting that the correlation of using the social network site with these young adults' political engagement was particularly strong for trusting individuals. No other interactive term in the regression of political participation was statistically significant.

The second research question (RQ2) asked if the association between intensity of Facebook Groups use and civic and political participation varied according to respondents' demographics, life satisfaction and social trust. Using the same approach of entering multiplicative terms in the models for civic and political participation, only one interaction achieved statistical significance: The relationship between intensity of Facebook Groups use and political participation was weaker for white respondents than for minority respondents (β = −.23, p < .05).

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to explore whether college students' use of Facebook was related with their stock of social capital, a construct that includes intrapersonal, interpersonal, and behavioral elements. Using survey data collected at two different campuses, we predicted that there would be positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and intensity of Facebook groups use and students' life satisfaction, social trust, and civic and political participation. Our results provide consistent evidence that these positive associations exist. After taking into account several demographic and attitudinal variables, Facebook use and Facebook Groups use still predicted respondents' social capital. These findings do not support the popular view that heavy Facebook users are more isolated and less connected than occasional users. The data show that the opposite holds true, a finding that is coherent with the recent literature on the effects of informational, social interaction and identity-construction uses of the Internet.

Admittedly, the relationship between Facebook use and social capital was not large, as revealed by the small percentage of variance of the dependent variables explained by the regression models. This should not come as a surprise. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals' life satisfaction, trust, and participation in collective activities are influenced by their personality, life experiences, socialization into adulthood, news media use, and a host of other factors. In fact, it would be quite troubling if a sole technological platform such as Facebook determines young adults' stock of social capital. Nevertheless, the results of this investigation contradict the expectations of the "time displacement hypothesis," which was first suggested by Putnam (2000) for the effects of television on social capital and then expanded to the Internet by the so-called cyberpessimists.

In this study, the intensity of Facebook use appears to be related with personal contentment, greater trust, and participation in civic and political activities among college students. We have argued that certain specific features of Facebook enable users to engage in behaviors that contribute to their social capital. In this study, we focused on Facebook Groups as one application that can satisfy the informational and integrative needs of users. Future research could explore the contribution of other Facebook applications, such as messaging services, on individuals' production of social capital.

Interestingly, the associations between Facebook use and social capital variables were not moderated by gender, parental education, and-in the case of participation-by life satisfaction or social trust. Only ethnicity moderated the relationship between Facebook usage and social capital, with nonwhite students who used Facebook scoring higher in the social capital variables compared to white students. This study mostly finds an additive relationship between socioeconomic status and using the social network site, that is, the relationships between social capital and Facebook use did not vary by college students' socioeconomic background. Alternatively, other users' characteristics (e.g., personality traits) that were not measured here could discriminate better for which groups the association between social capital by using the social network site are stronger and/or weaker.

A major contribution of this study lies in the conceptualization of Facebook use and social capital. The scale of intensity of Facebook use, which was developed by Ellison and colleagues (2007), was applied with success in this study. The novel measure of intensity of Facebook Groups use, on the other hand, confirms the necessity of implementing novel measures for individual use of SNSs. Both scales combined the traditional approach of measuring duration and frequency of exposure to the medium with the approach of gauging individuals' emotional attachment to it. Moreover, this study innovated by measuring exposure to specific types of Facebook Groups. As expected, offline political participation is associated to online political groups and offline civic participation is associated to online civic groups. Thus, this study supports the notion that both a medium's technological capabilities as well as the actual content it transmits can influence students' attitudes and behaviors. Likewise, the multifaceted concept of social capital was broken down into three levels, which allowed for a fine-grained assessment of the potential impact of using social network sites. The results show a stronger association of Facebook use with the intrapersonal and behavioral components of social capital than with the interpersonal dimension. Thus, it could be argued that although the different components of social capital are interrelated, SNSs have a stronger connection with some components only.

Another contribution of this study is related to the demographic portrayal of Facebook users. A popular myth is that Facebook is dominated by idle, young, female, upper-middle class college undergraduates. The characteristics of our sample show a more nuanced picture. For instance, over a third of Facebook members in the 18 to 29 age group were male and a similar proportion were seniors or graduate students or students whose parents did not complete a college degree. Nearly one out of five members was a minority student. Moreover, almost 95% of respondents had an account on Facebook and reported using the online network on a daily basis. Nevertheless, the small sample size of nonusers does not allow us to elaborate more on the differences found between them and Facebook users.

Given the cross-sectional nature of this study, we cannot conclude that there is a causal relationship between using Facebook and increased social capital. It may well be that happy, trusting, civically and politically engaged students are more likely to join Facebook. The analysis of the profile of Facebook users suggests that those who are more civically oriented choose to join the online network in a disproportionate fashion. This limitation could be better addressed by a longitudinal study, which would track changes in Facebook usage to changes in social capital variables. Beyond our inability to test for cause-effect relationships, the use of a college student sample limits the ability to generalize our findings to the whole 18-to-29 age group. For instance, compared to other young adults, college students tend to come from the middle and upper-middle classes, have universal access to the Internet, and possess more time and resources to engage in civic and political activities. Future research, then, should examine the role of SNSs on individuals' social capital using a more diverse population. At the same time, longitudinal designs would allow for disentangling the causal links between use of SNSs and engagement with public affairs.

An additional limitation of the study was the conceptualization of civic and political engagement. The lack of existing research on SNS use and users' public participation made it prudent to rely on traditional scales of civic and political engagement. This had the additional benefit of making the results of the study comparable to other surveys that delve into the relationship between media use and civic or political engagement. However, alternate measures of participation that better fit the new media environment constitute a good venue for future research. For instance, we could have asked respondents if they listed any particular 2008 U.S. presidential candidate on their Facebook profile. This may be problematic as a traditional measure of participation, but fits very well into how Facebook users might be using the network to engage in politics. In other words, by listing candidates and declaring being "fans" of political causes, users may be engaging in a type of political participation that our measures miss completely.

Overall, the findings of the study should ease the concerns of those who fear that Facebook has mostly negative effects on young adults' engagement and social capital. Nevertheless, the positive and significant associations between the Facebook variables and the dependent variables were small, suggesting that SNSs are not the most effective solution for youth disengagement from civic duty and democracy. This study captures a snapshot of Facebook as an example of a SNS. As these technologies continue to evolve and diffuse further into the society, we hope the findings reported in this study contribute to the larger understanding of social capital in SNSs.

Notes

According to comScore Inc.'s rankings of top websites, in 2008 Facebook.com was ranked as the 16th most visited website on the Internet in the U.S. ( comScore, 2008a), with 34 million unique visitors by January 2008, and as the 13th most popular website worldwide ( comScore, 2008b), with 98 million unique visitors by December 2007. As of March 2008, Facebook reported having 67 million active users (those who have returned to the site in the last 30 days), with more than half of them returning daily and spending an average of 20 minutes per day on the site (Facebook, 2008).

According to Putnam (2000), bridging and bonding are two forms of social capital. Whereas the former is related to networks of individuals formed across diverse social settings for the purpose of exchanging useful information, the latter is linked to bonds of connectedness among tightly knit groups-usually family and friends who provide emotional support.

Although we had access to the total student population, we preferred to draw a sample rather than conduct a census. Our rationale was that (1) it would have taken far too much time to collect responses from every student, and (2) many students would opt out of the survey anyway, rendering the census an impossible task. Thus, drawing sample was a more convenient and realistic approach.

Participants were sent up to three reminder e-mails during the first two weeks of being contacted and a final e-mail the day before the survey closed.

At the larger of the two campuses, the ethnic breakdown of the respondents compared well with the university's actual demographics. Likewise, the sample representing the other public school involved in this study reflected closely the university's diversity. The major difference between sample and population demographics relates to gender. At the larger university, 37% of the respondents were male and 63% were female, while the actual breakdown is 53% male and 47% female. A similar pattern was evident at the second university-29% of the respondents were male and 71% were female, whereas the actual breakdown is 43% males and 57% females.

Number of groups joined was deliberatively excluded from the measure of intensity of Facebook Groups use for two reasons. First, joining groups is only one click away, which means that many groups are episodic and supporting a one time event. Second, the existing literature on participation in online communities does not support the notion that number of groups is proportional to the intensity of participation in those groups. For instance, Kollock (1999) and Mathwick (2002) found that online participation implies engaging in activities that require time and effort, something that number of groups does not gauge at all.

Many statisticians in the social sciences (e.g., Harris, 2001; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007) argue that the application of parametric statistics such as OLS to scores that fall short of the requirements for continuous level of measurement does not necessarily lead to problems so long as the variables meet the distributional properties required by the statistical procedure (see Warner, 2008).

At the time of the survey, the proportion of female undergraduate students using Facebook in the U.S. was 54%, compared to 46% of male students.

About the Author

Sebastián Valenzuela is a doctoral student in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. His primary research interest is in the area of political communication, with particular attention to the role of news media and online social media in shaping people's political attitudes and behavior.

Address: School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A1000, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Email: sebastianvalenzuela@mail.utexas.edu

Namsu Park is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on the effect of new media technology on society, culture and the individual.

Address: Department of Radio TV Film, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A0800, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Email: nspark@mail.utexas.edu

Kerk F. Kee is a doctoral student and assistant instructor in Organizational Communication in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His current research examines technology adoption, distributed collaboration, and virtual organization.

Address: P.O. Box 8287, Austin, TX 78713, USA. Email: research@ekerk.com

Ancillary

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¹
Earlier versions of this study were presented at the 2008 International Symposium on Online Journalism and the 2008 APSA Preconference on Political Communication. For intellectual and financial support on this research, we thank Sharon Strover. Helpful comments at various stages were provided by Jeff Gulati and Talia Stroud. Corresponding author: Sebastián Valenzuela [ sebastianvalenzuela@mail.utexas.edu]

Abstract
This study examines if Facebook, one of the most popular social network sites among college students in the U.S., is related to attitudes and behaviors that enhance individuals' social capital. Using data from a random web survey of college students across Texas (n = 2,603), we find positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and students' life satisfaction, social trust, civic engagement, and political participation. While these findings should ease the concerns of those who fear that Facebook has mostly negative effects on young adults, the positive and significant associations between Facebook variables and social capital were small, suggesting that online social networks are not the most effective solution for youth disengagement from civic duty and democracy.

Moral panic is a common reaction to new forms of communication ( Chalaby, 2000; Winston, 1986). The advent of television spawned fears of mass escapism ( Klapper, 1960; Pearlin, 1959). In the 1990s, critics held the diffusion of Internet as evidence of individuals' increasing alienation from society and public life (see Kraut et al., 1998; Turkle, 1996; White, 1997). The story with Facebook, MySpace, and other social network sites (SNSs) is not any different. Unsafe disclosure of information, cyberbullies, addiction, risky behavior, and contact with dangerous communities are popular concerns raised in the mainstream media about the use of SNSs (e.g., Hodgkinson, 2008; Koloff, 2008; Stone, 2007).

As could be expected, researchers have begun to empirically test these claims. For instance, a thorough content analysis of teenagers' profiles in MySpace concluded that personal information disclosure on this site is quite uncommon ( Hinduja & Patchin, 2008, p. 125). Other research shows that young people are motivated to join these sites to keep strong ties with friends and to strengthen ties with new acquaintances, but not so much to meet new people online ( Acquisti & Gross, 2006; Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007).

The present study seeks to contribute to a more accurate understanding of SNSs by examining their potential as new venues for civic and political engagement. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suspect that such an impact exists. In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the Obama campaign created a SNS, my.barackobama.com, to successfully recruit thousands of campaign volunteers from across the country and to sign them up for door-knocking and precinct-walking ( Dickinson, 2008). In the civic realm, TakingITGlobal.org and YouthNoise.org offer social network services for users worldwide who are interested in learning about and taking action in their communities to address pressing issues such as poverty, global warming, AIDS, and human rights ( Raynes-Goldie & Walker, 2008). Even major organizations such as Amnesty International have used Facebook to coordinate protests in major cities around the world ( Stirland, 2007).

We used original survey data to test several hypotheses regarding the relationship between Facebook use and college students' social capital-a multidimensional construct that includes civic participation, political engagement, life satisfaction, and social trust. We opted to focus on Facebook only for two reasons. First, at the time of the study, Facebook was the most popular SNS for the population under scrutiny ( Bulik, 2007). Second, it has been found that different segments of the population choose specific SNS platforms for distinct purposes ( Hargittai, 2007, p. 277). If there is a problem of selection bias (e.g., Facebook attracts people with more social capital, while MySpace attracts people with less social capital), then it would be unwise to aggregate use of specific sites into an overall measure of SNS use.

It is important to study the relationship between using an SNS and developing attitudes and behaviors that promote social capital and democratic citizenship. Social trust facilitates associative behavior, fosters a strong civil society, and makes political institutions and officials more responsive, all of which translates into a more effective democracy ( Putnam, 2000). Similarly, when people participate, they have a voice in public affairs, they can hold authorities accountable and they are empowered to act on their own behalf ( Verba, Schlozman, & Brady, 1995). Because young adults have been at the forefront of declining levels of participation in the U.S. and elsewhere ( Nickerson, 2006; Putnam, 2000), studying how a popular online service can promote their engagement in public affairs is particularly significant.

Defining Social Capital

There seems to be a consensus that social capital is an important feature of healthy, effective democracies ( Putnam & Goss, 2002). But what exactly is social capital? A cursory review of the literature on the subject shows that researchers have defined the construct in terms of social networks, trust, civic engagement, life satisfaction and a variety of other concepts ( Bourdieu, 1983; Brehm & Rahn, 1997; Coleman, 1988; Dekker & Uslaner, 2001; Lin, 2001; Newton, 2006; Putnam, 2000). The core idea of social capital, however, is straightforward: It is the resources available to people through their social interactions ( Lin, 2001; Putnam, 2004). Individuals with a large and diverse network of contacts are thought to have more social capital than individuals with small, less diverse networks. Although people often accumulate social capital as a result of their daily interactions with friends, coworkers, and strangers, it is also possible to make conscious investments in social interaction ( Resnick, 2002). This is what transpires when people report that their main reason to join Facebook and to spend time on the site is to keep in touch with old friends and to strengthen bonds with colleagues. By using SNSs, individuals seek to maintain and increase their social networks ( Ellison et al., 2007; Joinson, 2008).

Investment in social networks enables individuals to develop norms of trust and reciprocity, which are necessary for successful engagement in collective activities (e.g., participation in neighborhood associations). In other words, trust facilitates working with others on common issues ( Putnam, 2004). Social capital also allows individuals to access information and opportunities (e.g., job openings) that are otherwise unavailable ( Lin, 2001). This means that improving individuals' well-being and quality of life are byproducts of social capital.

Since several studies have equated expectations of reciprocity, civic engagement, and life satisfaction with social capital, some researchers have rendered the construct of social capital too broad to be useful as a scientific concept. An alternative path is to recognize that social capital is a multidimensional construct that is based on individuals' social networks and their predicted effects. The challenge, in this case, is to integrate different dimensions of social capital into a coherent theoretical framework. One such effort was conducted by Scheufele and Shah (2000), who distinguished between three domains of social capital: intrapersonal, interpersonal, and behavioral. The intrapersonal domain is related to individuals' life satisfaction. The interpersonal domain refers to trust among individuals, also called social or generalized trust in others. The behavioral domain involves individuals' active participation in civic and political activities (for a similar approach, see Howard & Gilbert, 2008). This study adopts Scheufele and Shah's (2000) framework to test the impact of Facebook on users' life satisfaction, social trust, and civic and political participation.

Life Satisfaction and Social Trust

Life satisfaction and other indicators of quality of life reflect a general evaluation of one's surroundings, an evaluation which may be positive or negative ( Scheufele & Shah, 2000). Usually, researchers equate life satisfaction with subjective happiness or personal contentment ( Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). Existing research highlights that individuals' life satisfaction is determined, in part, by their social ties ( Kahneman & Krueger, 2006). Ratings of happiness made by one's friends ( Leary & Kowalski, 1990), a sociable and extraverted personality ( Francis, 1999), frequent interpersonal communications that have positive affect ( Diener, Sandvik & Payot, 1991), and happiness of one's family members ( Clore, Wyer, Dienes, Gasper, & Isbell, 2001) all are correlated to high life satisfaction and happiness.

Extending this rationale to SNSs, it could be expected that people who actively participate in Facebook are more likely to experience connectedness and feel happier ( Valkenburg, Peter, & Schouten, 2006). The relationship between personal contentment and SNS also could be reciprocal. For instance, college students with lower levels of life satisfaction could seek to participate in online networks to increase their personal well-being ( Ellison et al., 2007).

Although some consider social trust as a stable personality trait determined by socialization processes ( Uslaner, 2002), it is useful to treat it as an attitude that can change over time. Because trust is a belief that others will not knowingly or willingly harm us, trust is built upon imperfect knowledge. Online social networks allow users to learn detailed information about their contacts, including personal background, interests, music tastes, and whereabouts. This information can reduce uncertainty about other users' intentions and behaviors, which is a necessary condition for developing norms of trust and reciprocity ( Berger & Calabrese, 1975). If individuals are unable to get to know each other, the possibility they will develop an enduring, trusting relationship is reduced. Of course, uncertainty reduction does not necessarily lead to more social trust ( Berger, 1986). Through Facebook, users may actually learn that their contacts possess attributes that make them less attractive, which may lead to mistrust. Therefore, the more we know about others, the more we may trust or distrust them ( Newton, 1999). However, it is improbable that Facebook users will maintain in their personal list of friends people who they really distrust. Hence Facebook usage could be positively correlated to having online networks of likeable and trusting members. Likewise, believing that others will not knowingly harm us may facilitate usage of online network services. In other words, social trust and Facebook use may have a reciprocal relationship.

Civic and Political Participation

Given the multidimensionality of the construct, this study measures participation at the political and civic levels. Verba and colleagues (1995) defined political participation as behavior that seeks to influence government action by affecting public policymaking. This includes traditional activities such as voting, working for political campaigns, donating money to candidates, and displaying political bumper stickers, as well as less conventional behaviors, such as protesting, boycotting, and buying products for political reasons (i.e., "buycotting"). Civic participation, on the other hand, is defined as individual or collective behavior aimed at resolving problems of the community ( Zukin, Keeter, Andolina, Jenkins, & Delli-Carpini, 2006). Volunteering to help the needy, fundraising for nongovernmental organizations, participating in community services, or being an active member of an environmental organization would all fall under the category of civic participation.

By including different types of activities under the umbrella of participation, we recognize that the domain of politically relevant activities is wide-ranging. Some people may be politically engaged but less civically engaged; others may be oriented toward civic participation, but less inclined to participate in political matters; still others may be both politically and civically engaged. The boundaries between political and civic activities are, of course, quite porous, as the environmental movement and its corresponding Green Party demonstrate.

Internet Use and Individuals' Social Capital

Existing research on the relationships between SNSs and people's well-being, trust, and participation tends to be limited and anecdotal. The same cannot be said of the literature on general Internet use and social capital. In fact, research is ample enough to accommodate competing paradigms, which may illuminate our discussion on the net effects of SNS use on social capital. Echoing Putnam's (2000)"time displacement hypothesis," Nie (2001) found that Internet users had fewer face-to-face interactions, much like heavy television watchers (see also Kraut et al., 1998). Subsequent research found that online communications have a positive effect on individuals' social trust and participation in community life ( Best & Dautrich, 2003; Kavanaugh, Reese, Carroll, & Rosson, 2005; Kobayashi, Ikeda, & Miyata, 2006; Räsänen & Kouvo, 2007). Although the intellectual battle between cyberpessimists and cyberoptimists continues, it is clear that the positive and negative effects of the Internet on social capital are contingent upon the way scholars conceptualize the medium ( Williams, 2006) and how people use it ( Ji-Young, 2006; Kwak, Shah, & Holbert, 2004; Shah, Kwak, & Holbert, 2001).

According to Williams (2006), the problem with the "time displacement hypothesis" is that it ignores the differences between traditional, mass media and new, interactive media. When watching television, people cannot communicate with each other. With e-mail, chat services, and SNSs, people can engage in interpersonal contact. When researchers operationalize Internet use as time spent with the technology, they ignore the multiple audiences, motives, and experiences that the medium allows and tend to find a negative effect on individual-level production of social capital (e.g., Nie & Hillygus, 2002). On the other hand, when researchers recognize the different uses of the Internet (e.g., informational, recreational, communicative, entertainment, etc.), they tend to find a positive link between certain motives for Internet use and social capital (see Beaudoin, 2008; Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2008; Shah et al., 2001).

The general assumption is that patterns of new media use related to information acquisition and community building (e.g., online news, political blogs, virtual communities) are positively associated with individual-level production of social capital. In contrast, patterns of use related to entertainment and diversion (e.g., games and online movies) are negatively associated with social capital ( Norris & Jones, 1998; Shah, Schmierbach, Hawkins, Espino, & Donavan, 2002; Wellman, Haase, Witte, & Hampton, 2001). Thus, it is not the technology per se that can affect individuals' social capital but the specific ways in which individuals use the technology. This explains why online activities have been found to both reduce and increase social capital. As Resnick (2002) noted, when we spend time on the Internet that we would otherwise use to engage in face-to-face contact, social capital will diminish. But if going online displaces activities like commuting or watching crime dramas, the net effect could be positive.

Extending this rationale to SNSs, we could say that their impact on social capital should be contingent upon the specific uses and gratifications sought by users. Using Putnam's (2000) concepts of bridging, weak-tie social capital (i.e., across diverse social groups) versus bonding, strong-tie social capital (i.e., across homogeneous groups), Williams (2006) noted that the type of relationships within social networks can predict different kinds of social capital. Weak-tie networks produce bridging social capital because they connect people from different life situations. These networks broaden the set of information and opportunities for users in the network. However, individuals in weak-tie relationships do not gain the benefits of bonding social capital, such as the emotional support that occurs based on the interdependence and commonalities of strong-tie networks. As we shall see, the features of Facebook allow for the production and maintenance of both strong ties and weak ties and, by extension, can influence positively users' life satisfaction, trust and public participation.

Why Facebook Can Promote Social Capital

Donath and boyd (2004) were among the first to hypothesize that online social networks may not increase the number of strong ties a person may have. Instead, a person's weak ties may increase because the technology is suited to maintaining these links cheaply and easily. This proposition was empirically tested by Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007) using survey data from a small sample of undergraduate students in the U.S. They found that use of Facebook had a strong association with maintaining or solidifying existing offline relationships, as opposed to meeting new people. The strongest relationship, however, was between Facebook use and bridging social capital. Interestingly, these authors found that the use of the SNS interacted with students' psychological well-being, suggesting that Facebook might provide greater benefits for users who have low self-esteem and low life satisfaction.

Although the existing literature shows a link between Facebook use and individual-level production of social capital, it is not clear what specific features produce these effects. As aforementioned, the uses and gratifications approach ( Katz & Gurevitch, 1974; Ruggiero, 2000) provides a useful framework for drawing these inferences. First, Facebook helps with personal identity construction-one of the key motives for media consumption-by enabling multiple channels for interpersonal feedback and peer acceptance. For instance, there are two types of messaging services within Facebook. A private system, which is very similar to web-based e-mail services, and a public system called "The Wall," where contacts or "friends" leave comments to the owner of the Facebook profile and the comments can be viewed by other users. Usually, "The Wall" (and the later addition of "Super Wall") contains short messages that reflect sentiments, common activities between "friends," or details about external websites or events. Another form of feedback within Facebook is information about whether prospective contacts have accepted or rejected the owner of a profile as a "friend". As interpersonal feedback and peer acceptance are strong predictors of life satisfaction ( Harter, 1999; Valkenburg et al., 2006), Facebook can affect (positively or negatively) users' self-esteem and life satisfaction.

Second, Facebook can fulfill the informational needs of users, a key ingredient for strengthening weak ties and promoting collective action ( Kenski & Stroud, 2006; Shah et al., 2001). In order to keep users updated about their social circles, Facebook has two features: "News Feed", which appears on each user's homepage, and "Mini-Feed", which appears in each individual's profile. "News Feed" updates a personalized list of news stories throughout the day generated by the activity of "friends" (e.g., John added the Rolling Stones to his favorites; Jane changed her status to "single" again). Thus, each time users log in, they get the latest updates about their contacts. "Mini-Feed" is similar, except that it centers around one individual. Each person's "Mini-Feed" shows what has changed recently in their profile and what content or modules ("applications") they have added. Thus, Facebook use can reinforce existing ties and communities by keeping users constantly updated about what is going on with their contacts ( Hargittai, 2007). On the other hand, Facebook allows users to create and to join groups based around common interests and activities by incorporating their profiles into the "Facebook Groups" application. The "Groups" application displays each individual's group memberships as well as groups their "friends" have joined. Thus, those who belong to a political group within Facebook can receive mobilizing information that may not be available elsewhere and can encounter more opportunities to engage in political activities. A similar scenario may apply to civic groups who have a presence in the online network. An important share of the civic and political impact of Facebook, then, should occur within groups developed by users and organizations. At the same time, increased participation in online and offline groups typically helps to build trusting relationships among members, further enhancing the potential of Facebook to increase social capital ( Kobayashi et al., 2006).

Third, users can log in to Facebook to satisfy needs of pure entertainment and recreation, which previous research has found to be negatively related to social capital production ( Nyland, Marvez, & Beck, 2007). A popular application for Facebook is "FunWall," which allows users to post a much broader range of content than the traditional "The Wall," such as games, videos, and music. Posting links to jokes in YouTube on the FunWall or spending time creating Facebook Groups such as "If 1,000,000 People Join I'll Legally Change My Name To McLovin" can foster a sense of customization and enjoyment but drive attention away from the real world. As Shah and colleagues (2001) have argued, "in such cases, recreation and socializing may become privatized while the illusion of social interaction is maintained" (p. 154). Consequently, using Facebook mainly for fun may distract users from more meaningful, public affairs content.

Lastly, the most obvious motive for Internet users to join a SNS is what McQuail (2005) defined as the need for integration and social interaction. Identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging; finding a basis for conversation and social interaction; connecting with family, friends, and society; and gaining insight into the circumstances of others-all these reasons can cause people to use SNSs. By making users feel connected to a community and increasing their knowledge of other members, sites such as Facebook can foster norms of reciprocity and trust and, therefore, create opportunities for collective action.

Hypotheses and Research Questions

With the existing literature on SNSs and social capital in mind, this study uses original survey data to test the relationship between Facebook use and college students' life satisfaction, social trust, and civic and political participation. Formally, the hypotheses are as follows:

H1: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with life satisfaction.

H2: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with social trust.

H3a: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with civic participation.

H3b: Intensity of Facebook Groups use is positively associated with civic participation.

H4a: Intensity of Facebook use is positively associated with political participation.

H4b: Intensity of Facebook Groups use is positively associated with political participation.

Whatever association exists between Facebook use and young adults' social capital, it may be contingent upon individuals' socialization (e.g., gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, etc.) and attitudes toward their life and others (i.e., life satisfaction and social trust, respectively). Earlier research in this area, however, is too contradictory to formulate specific or directional hypotheses. Hence, we investigate the following research questions:

RQ1: Does the relationship between intensity of Facebook use and civic and political participation vary according to gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, life satisfaction, and social trust?

RQ2: Does the relationship between intensity of Facebook Groups use and civic and political participation vary according to gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, life satisfaction, and social trust?

Methods

Sample

To fulfill the goals of this project, a web-based survey was conducted in Fall 2007 at two large public universities in the southwestern U.S. state of Texas, a predominantly undergraduate university in a small town and a commuter school in a large metropolitan area. The cultural and geographical distinctiveness of both campuses ensured surveying a diverse, representative population of college students.

Procedures

To obtain a representative sample of both campuses, the lists of all registered students for the Fall 2007 semester were obtained from the registrar's office of the universities through an open records request. In total, the e-mail addresses of 76,729 students were collected. From this total, 40,360 addresses were randomly selected using SPSS 15.0's random sample procedure, and this list became the sampling frame. Between November 9, 2007 and December 9, 2007, responses from 3,296 individuals were collected using Survey Monkey ( www.surveymonkey.com), an online survey hosting site. Because the purpose of this study is to assess the role of Facebook among college-age adults, only respondents in the 18 to 29 age group were selected for the analysis, which reduced the sample size to 2,603 individuals. As an incentive to participate, respondents were entered in a random drawing for four $25 gift cards to Amazon.com.

The simple response rate was 8.2%, in the lower bound of most web-based surveys ( Schonlau, Elliot, & Fricker, 2002). We can think of a number of reasons that could explain the response rate obtained. First, the proliferation of web-based surveys across many campuses has increased dramatically in the last few years, decreasing students' willingness to complete surveys ( Sax, Gilmartin, & Bryant, 2003, p. 423). Second, the questionnaire was rather dense, including more than 85 items. Lastly, we assumed that students actually use the e-mail addresses provided to the registrar's office, but it is quite possible that many students use these addresses infrequently, relying instead on other e-mail accounts.

It must be noted, however, that low response rates alone do not necessarily suggest bias. According to Krosnick (1999) and Dillman (1991), when respondent characteristics are representative of nonrespondents, low rates of response do not necessarily result in biased estimates. We estimated nonresponse bias in two ways. First, we compared the demographic breakdown of the total population of students at both universities as provided by their registrar's offices with that of our sample and we did not find any substantial differences. Of course, demographic information may not reveal the uniqueness of nonrespondents in terms of their attitudes or how they would have responded to survey items. Hence, we also estimated nonresponse bias by equating individuals who responded later in the survey administration period (i.e., last 3 weeks, or 10% of total sample) with nonrespondents and compared this group with the early respondents (i.e., within the first week, or 90% of total sample) to determine types of bias. For 10 of the 12 variables of interest, there was no statistically significant difference between early respondents and late respondents. For gender and civic participation, however, the differences were statistically significant (at p < .05), but even in these cases, the magnitude of the difference in substantive terms was below 10%. We believe that these comparisons are sufficient to demonstrate that the sample obtained does not suffer from nonresponse bias.

Measures

Life Satisfaction

Respondents' perceived level of personal well-being was assessed using the Satisfaction with Life Scale developed by Diener, Emmons, Larson and Griffin (1985). This 5-item scale is among the most widely used measures in psychology to assess global life satisfaction, showing high levels of internal consistency and temporal reliability ( Pavot, Diener, Colvin, & Sandvik, 1991). Respondents were asked their level of agreement using a 6-point scale ranging from 1 ( strongly disagree) to 6 ( strongly agree) with each of the following statements: "In most ways my life is close to my ideal" ( M = 4.41, SD = 1.12), "The conditions of my life are excellent" ( M = 4.59, SD = 1.08), "I am satisfied with my life" ( M = 4.79, SD = 1.03), "So far I have gotten the important things I want in life" ( M = 4.56, SD = 1.15), and "If I could live my time over, I would change almost nothing" ( M = 4.22, SD = 1.35). To ease the interpretation of the multivariate analyses, each individual item was recoded to a 0 to 1 range and then averaged to create an index of life satisfaction (Cronbach's α = .87, M = .75, SD = .16).

Social Trust

A popular measure of social trust is Rosenberg's (1956) Faith in People scale, which has been used with minor variations by major surveys, including the General Social Survey and the World Values Survey. The scale consists of a series of two forced-choice statements, such as "Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted, or that you can't be too careful in dealing with people?" This scale, however, presents two problems. First, the items are double-barreled questions, that is, the two parts of each question are not exact opposites but two separate questions ( Miller & Mitamura, 2003; Wuthnow, 1998). Second, conceptualizing trust as a dichotomy prevents respondents from making a more fine-grained judgment. Hence, the original Rosenberg scale was broken down into single items and response choices were expanded using a 5-point scale ranging from 1 ( never) to 5 ( all of the time), following the approach of Burns and Kinder (2000). The statements used were: "Generally speaking, would you say that people can be trusted" ( M = 3.42, SD = .65), "People try to take advantage of you if they got the chance" (reversed, M = 2.96, SD = .64), "People try to be fair" ( M = 3.45, SD = .63), "You can't be too careful in dealing with people" (reversed, M = 2.52, SD = .84), "People try to be helpful" ( M = 3.54, SD = .59), and "People are just looking out for themselves" (reversed, M = 2.61, SD = .68). The items also were recoded to a 0 to 1 range and then averaged to create an index of social trust (Cronbach's α = .74, M = .52, SD = .11).

Civic and Political Participation

Respondents' civic and political participation was gauged using a reduced form of the Index of Civic and Political Engagement developed by CIRCLE ( Andolina, Keeter, Zukin, & Jenkins, 2003), an organization that has conducted several national surveys related to youth engagement. Using three response choices (0 = no , never; 0.5 = yes , but not within the last 12 months; and 1 = yes , within the last 12 months), respondents' were asked whether they had (a) worked or volunteered in a community project ( M = .84, SD = .27); (b) worked or volunteered for nonpolitical groups such as a hobby club, environmental group or minority student association ( M = .75, SD = .35); (c) raised money for charity or ran/walked/biked for charity ( M = .64, SD = .36); (d) worked or volunteered for political groups or candidates ( M = .18, SD = .32); (e) voted in a local, state or national election ( M = .43, SD = .43); (f) tried to persuade others in an election ( M = .35, SD = .44); (g) signed a petition ( M = .56, SD = .41); (h) worn or displayed a badge or sticker related to a political or social cause ( M = .41, SD = .44); and (i) deliberately bought certain products for political, ethical, or environmental reasons ( M = .56, SD = .46). Responses to items (a), (b) and (c) were added and averaged to create a civic participation scale (Cronbach's α = .66, M = .74, SD = .26), while responses to the remaining items (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), and (i) were averaged to create a political participation scale (Cronbach's α = .68, M = .41, SD = .26).

Intensity of Facebook Use

The traditional approach for measuring media use in communication research is to gauge the frequency or duration of exposure to a medium, but this approach fails to account for the richer user experience provided by interactive online sites. A more complete measure of intensity of Facebook use was developed by Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007), who created a scale to gauge user engagement in Facebook activities based on number of "friends," amount of time spent on the network on a typical day, and level of agreement with several statements gauging users' emotional attachment to the site. The same scale was used in this study (see Table 1 for response choices and descriptive statistics). Due to differing item scale ranges and to ease the interpretation of the statistical analyses, the individual items were first recoded to range from 0 to 1 before taking an average to create an intensity of Facebook use scale (Cronbach's α = .89, M = .66, SD = .19).

Intensity of Facebook Groups use

Respondents were asked several questions about how often they read and posted messages and posted new discussion topics on the profiles of the online groups they had joined on Facebook, as well as how much time they spent reading and posting messages on the profiles of the online groups. Another question asked respondents to describe their participation in the online groups they had joined (see Table 2 for response choices and descriptive statistics). Again, individual items were first recoded to range from 0 to 1 before taking an average to create an index of intensity of Facebook Groups use (Cronbach's α = .82, M = .19, SD = .14).

Sociodemographics

The variables included gender (female = 66.3%), age ( M = 20.88, SD = 2.43), ethnicity (whites = 82.1%), hometown (Texas = 84.0%), year in school ( M = 2.94, SD = 1.45), and highest level of education completed by parents (ranging from 1 = less than high school to 5 = graduate, M = 3.89, SD = .99).

Statistical Analysis

In order to test whether there was a relationship between intensity of using Facebook and each social capital variable, hierarchical multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions were run to account for potential rival explanations and to assess the exact contribution of each block of predictors. Since OLS assumes interval-level or dichotomous variables only and most of our variables came from Likert-type questions, caution should be applied in the interpretation of the regressions. Given the reciprocal relationship between the intrapersonal and interpersonal dimensions of social capital, life satisfaction was entered as a predictor of social trust and vice versa. In turn, both variables were entered as predictors of civic and political participation.

Results

Descriptives

Before proceeding to the formal tests of the hypotheses, it was important to gain an understanding of the differences between those who did ( n = 2,437, or 94%) and did not ( n = 166, or 6%) have a Facebook account. Small differences would reassure us that the effects of intensity of Facebook use tested in the subsequent multivariate analyses were not the result of a self-selection bias, that is, that those with higher life satisfaction, social trust, and civic and political participation happened to use Facebook more often.

Table 3 presents t-tests and chi-square tests between members and nonmembers of Facebook on demographics and social capital variables. Female students were more likely to have a Facebook account than male students, which was coherent with the true gender distribution of users of this site. Not surprisingly, age and year in school were highly correlated with being a Facebook user, with younger cohorts having more presence on the site than older cohorts. Students with a Facebook account were more likely to be white and Texan. Interestingly, students' socioeconomic background did not have a linear relationship with having a Facebook account. Though higher levels of parental education were positively related with being a member of the site, nonmembers outnumbered members in terms of parents with postgraduate degrees. Most importantly, Facebook members and nonmembers did not differ in terms of their life satisfaction, social trust or political participation. There was a marked difference, however, on civic engagement, with Facebook members reporting higher levels of participation in nonpolitical activities.

We can draw two preliminary conclusions from this portrait of Facebook users and nonusers. First, the demographic differences between both groups of respondents suggest that the adoption of Facebook was not random across the population of college students included in the study. The small sample size of nonusers, however, prevents us from speculating further why it is that older, male, and minority students did not report using Facebook as often as their younger, female, white counterparts did. Second, we should be cautious in attributing increases in civic participation to Facebook use; rather, Facebook seems to attract students who are more civically engaged. The lack of differences in the other social capital variables, however, should increase our confidence in the potential cause-effect relationship between Facebook use and life satisfaction, social trust, and political engagement.

Life satisfaction and social trust

As shown in Table 4, the total variance in life satisfaction and social trust explained by the regression models was below 10%. The block of demographic variables had less explanatory power compared to the attitudinal block, due to the strong relationship between life satisfaction and social trust. Most importantly, the contribution made by Facebook use to these two components of social capital was small but statistically significant. As predicted by the first couple of hypotheses (H1 and H2), intensity of Facebook use was positively associated with life satisfaction and social trust. However, Facebook use had a stronger relationship with life satisfaction than with social trust. Specifically, the model predicted that the index of life satisfaction was, ceteris paribus, 14.5 percentage points higher for those with the highest score in the index of intensity of Facebook use compared to those with the lowest value. In comparison, social trust increased by 4.7 percentage points when the index of intensity of Facebook use was varied from the lowest value to the highest value.

Civic and political participation

The models shown in Table 5 also explained less than 10% of the variance in the dependent variables. Demographic predictors exhibited the strongest relationships with civic and political engagement. The explanatory power of life satisfaction and social trust was substantial for civic engagement, but negligible for political participation. The variance in both forms of participation explained by the block of Facebook variables was small as well. Nonetheless, both intensity of Facebook use and intensity of Facebook Groups use were positively associated to civic participation, which supported H3a and H3b. Specifically, civic engagement increased 16.1 and 9.5 percentage points, respectively, when the indexes for intensity of Facebook use and intensity of Facebook Groups use changed from their lowest value to their highest value, holding all other variables constant.

In the regression analysis predicting political participation, only Facebook Groups use had a statistically significant positive relationship, consistent with H4b. Holding everything else constant, changing the index of Facebook Groups from its lowest score to its highest score resulted in an increase of political engagement of 27.4 percentage points. Intensity of Facebook use, in comparison, did not have a significant relationship with participation, suggesting that only certain features of Facebook (in this case, Facebook Groups) are associated with political participation. H4a was thus not supported.

A posthoc analysis provided further evidence of the role played by Facebook Groups. Table 6 shows regression analyses of political and civic participation on membership in political and civic groups within the online network. The coefficients of the regressions reveal that belonging to political groups in Facebook was strongly related with political participation, while belonging to civic groups was not (with the exception of student groups). With civic participation, the relationship was the opposite: Belonging to civic groups in Facebook was positively associated with offline civic engagement, while belonging to political groups was not.

RQ1 asked if the relationship between intensity of Facebook use and civic and political participation varied according to gender, race and ethnicity, parental education, life satisfaction, and social trust. To answer this question, a series of interactions between intensity of Facebook use and each demographic characteristic were entered into the models of participation (not shown). For the model predicting civic participation, only the interaction between race and Facebook was statistically significant. Specifically, intensity of Facebook use had a weaker relationship on civic participation among white students compared to nonwhite students (β = −.16, p < .05). In the model of political participation, there was a positive, significant interaction between intensity of Facebook use and social trust (β = .59, p < .05), suggesting that the correlation of using the social network site with these young adults' political engagement was particularly strong for trusting individuals. No other interactive term in the regression of political participation was statistically significant.

The second research question (RQ2) asked if the association between intensity of Facebook Groups use and civic and political participation varied according to respondents' demographics, life satisfaction and social trust. Using the same approach of entering multiplicative terms in the models for civic and political participation, only one interaction achieved statistical significance: The relationship between intensity of Facebook Groups use and political participation was weaker for white respondents than for minority respondents (β = −.23, p < .05).

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to explore whether college students' use of Facebook was related with their stock of social capital, a construct that includes intrapersonal, interpersonal, and behavioral elements. Using survey data collected at two different campuses, we predicted that there would be positive relationships between intensity of Facebook use and intensity of Facebook groups use and students' life satisfaction, social trust, and civic and political participation. Our results provide consistent evidence that these positive associations exist. After taking into account several demographic and attitudinal variables, Facebook use and Facebook Groups use still predicted respondents' social capital. These findings do not support the popular view that heavy Facebook users are more isolated and less connected than occasional users. The data show that the opposite holds true, a finding that is coherent with the recent literature on the effects of informational, social interaction and identity-construction uses of the Internet.

Admittedly, the relationship between Facebook use and social capital was not large, as revealed by the small percentage of variance of the dependent variables explained by the regression models. This should not come as a surprise. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals' life satisfaction, trust, and participation in collective activities are influenced by their personality, life experiences, socialization into adulthood, news media use, and a host of other factors. In fact, it would be quite troubling if a sole technological platform such as Facebook determines young adults' stock of social capital. Nevertheless, the results of this investigation contradict the expectations of the "time displacement hypothesis," which was first suggested by Putnam (2000) for the effects of television on social capital and then expanded to the Internet by the so-called cyberpessimists.

In this study, the intensity of Facebook use appears to be related with personal contentment, greater trust, and participation in civic and political activities among college students. We have argued that certain specific features of Facebook enable users to engage in behaviors that contribute to their social capital. In this study, we focused on Facebook Groups as one application that can satisfy the informational and integrative needs of users. Future research could explore the contribution of other Facebook applications, such as messaging services, on individuals' production of social capital.

Interestingly, the associations between Facebook use and social capital variables were not moderated by gender, parental education, and-in the case of participation-by life satisfaction or social trust. Only ethnicity moderated the relationship between Facebook usage and social capital, with nonwhite students who used Facebook scoring higher in the social capital variables compared to white students. This study mostly finds an additive relationship between socioeconomic status and using the social network site, that is, the relationships between social capital and Facebook use did not vary by college students' socioeconomic background. Alternatively, other users' characteristics (e.g., personality traits) that were not measured here could discriminate better for which groups the association between social capital by using the social network site are stronger and/or weaker.

A major contribution of this study lies in the conceptualization of Facebook use and social capital. The scale of intensity of Facebook use, which was developed by Ellison and colleagues (2007), was applied with success in this study. The novel measure of intensity of Facebook Groups use, on the other hand, confirms the necessity of implementing novel measures for individual use of SNSs. Both scales combined the traditional approach of measuring duration and frequency of exposure to the medium with the approach of gauging individuals' emotional attachment to it. Moreover, this study innovated by measuring exposure to specific types of Facebook Groups. As expected, offline political participation is associated to online political groups and offline civic participation is associated to online civic groups. Thus, this study supports the notion that both a medium's technological capabilities as well as the actual content it transmits can influence students' attitudes and behaviors. Likewise, the multifaceted concept of social capital was broken down into three levels, which allowed for a fine-grained assessment of the potential impact of using social network sites. The results show a stronger association of Facebook use with the intrapersonal and behavioral components of social capital than with the interpersonal dimension. Thus, it could be argued that although the different components of social capital are interrelated, SNSs have a stronger connection with some components only.

Another contribution of this study is related to the demographic portrayal of Facebook users. A popular myth is that Facebook is dominated by idle, young, female, upper-middle class college undergraduates. The characteristics of our sample show a more nuanced picture. For instance, over a third of Facebook members in the 18 to 29 age group were male and a similar proportion were seniors or graduate students or students whose parents did not complete a college degree. Nearly one out of five members was a minority student. Moreover, almost 95% of respondents had an account on Facebook and reported using the online network on a daily basis. Nevertheless, the small sample size of nonusers does not allow us to elaborate more on the differences found between them and Facebook users.

Given the cross-sectional nature of this study, we cannot conclude that there is a causal relationship between using Facebook and increased social capital. It may well be that happy, trusting, civically and politically engaged students are more likely to join Facebook. The analysis of the profile of Facebook users suggests that those who are more civically oriented choose to join the online network in a disproportionate fashion. This limitation could be better addressed by a longitudinal study, which would track changes in Facebook usage to changes in social capital variables. Beyond our inability to test for cause-effect relationships, the use of a college student sample limits the ability to generalize our findings to the whole 18-to-29 age group. For instance, compared to other young adults, college students tend to come from the middle and upper-middle classes, have universal access to the Internet, and possess more time and resources to engage in civic and political activities. Future research, then, should examine the role of SNSs on individuals' social capital using a more diverse population. At the same time, longitudinal designs would allow for disentangling the causal links between use of SNSs and engagement with public affairs.

An additional limitation of the study was the conceptualization of civic and political engagement. The lack of existing research on SNS use and users' public participation made it prudent to rely on traditional scales of civic and political engagement. This had the additional benefit of making the results of the study comparable to other surveys that delve into the relationship between media use and civic or political engagement. However, alternate measures of participation that better fit the new media environment constitute a good venue for future research. For instance, we could have asked respondents if they listed any particular 2008 U.S. presidential candidate on their Facebook profile. This may be problematic as a traditional measure of participation, but fits very well into how Facebook users might be using the network to engage in politics. In other words, by listing candidates and declaring being "fans" of political causes, users may be engaging in a type of political participation that our measures miss completely.

Overall, the findings of the study should ease the concerns of those who fear that Facebook has mostly negative effects on young adults' engagement and social capital. Nevertheless, the positive and significant associations between the Facebook variables and the dependent variables were small, suggesting that SNSs are not the most effective solution for youth disengagement from civic duty and democracy. This study captures a snapshot of Facebook as an example of a SNS. As these technologies continue to evolve and diffuse further into the society, we hope the findings reported in this study contribute to the larger understanding of social capital in SNSs.

Notes

According to comScore Inc.'s rankings of top websites, in 2008 Facebook.com was ranked as the 16th most visited website on the Internet in the U.S. ( comScore, 2008a), with 34 million unique visitors by January 2008, and as the 13th most popular website worldwide ( comScore, 2008b), with 98 million unique visitors by December 2007. As of March 2008, Facebook reported having 67 million active users (those who have returned to the site in the last 30 days), with more than half of them returning daily and spending an average of 20 minutes per day on the site (Facebook, 2008).

According to Putnam (2000), bridging and bonding are two forms of social capital. Whereas the former is related to networks of individuals formed across diverse social settings for the purpose of exchanging useful information, the latter is linked to bonds of connectedness among tightly knit groups-usually family and friends who provide emotional support.

Although we had access to the total student population, we preferred to draw a sample rather than conduct a census. Our rationale was that (1) it would have taken far too much time to collect responses from every student, and (2) many students would opt out of the survey anyway, rendering the census an impossible task. Thus, drawing sample was a more convenient and realistic approach.

Participants were sent up to three reminder e-mails during the first two weeks of being contacted and a final e-mail the day before the survey closed.

At the larger of the two campuses, the ethnic breakdown of the respondents compared well with the university's actual demographics. Likewise, the sample representing the other public school involved in this study reflected closely the university's diversity. The major difference between sample and population demographics relates to gender. At the larger university, 37% of the respondents were male and 63% were female, while the actual breakdown is 53% male and 47% female. A similar pattern was evident at the second university-29% of the respondents were male and 71% were female, whereas the actual breakdown is 43% males and 57% females.

Number of groups joined was deliberatively excluded from the measure of intensity of Facebook Groups use for two reasons. First, joining groups is only one click away, which means that many groups are episodic and supporting a one time event. Second, the existing literature on participation in online communities does not support the notion that number of groups is proportional to the intensity of participation in those groups. For instance, Kollock (1999) and Mathwick (2002) found that online participation implies engaging in activities that require time and effort, something that number of groups does not gauge at all.

At the time of the survey, the proportion of female undergraduate students using Facebook in the U.S. was 54%, compared to 46% of male students.

About the Author

Sebastián Valenzuela is a doctoral student in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. His primary research interest is in the area of political communication, with particular attention to the role of news media and online social media in shaping people's political attitudes and behavior.

Address: School of Journalism, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A1000, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Email: sebastianvalenzuela@mail.utexas.edu

Namsu Park is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on the effect of new media technology on society, culture and the individual.

Address: Department of Radio TV Film, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station A0800, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Email: nspark@mail.utexas.edu

Kerk F. Kee is a doctoral student and assistant instructor in Organizational Communication in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His current research examines technology adoption, distributed collaboration, and virtual organization.

Address: P.O. Box 8287, Austin, TX 78713, USA. Email: research@ekerk.com

Ancillary

References

Acquisti, A., & Gross, R. (2006, June). Imagined communities: Awareness, information sharing, and privacy on the Facebook. Paper presented at the 6th Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, Cambridge.

Andolina, M., Keeter, S., Zukin, C., & Jenkins, K. (2003). A guide to the index of civic and political engagement. Retrieved October 12, 2007, from http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/IndexGuide.pdf.

Best, S., & Dautrich, K. (2003). Reinvigorating democracy: Generating social capital and political participation on the Internet. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Nashville, TN.

Bulik, B. S. (2007, October 8). Apple, Facebook tops for college students. Advertising Age, 78, 12.

Burns, N., & Kinder, D. R. (2000). Social trust and democratic politics. Report to the National Election Studies Board based on the 2000 NES Special Topic Pilot Study Retrieved September 17, 2007, from ftp://ftp.electionstudies.org/ftp/nes/bibliography/documents/nes010112.pdf.

Clore, G. L., Wyer, R. S., Jr., Dienes, B., Gasper, K., & Isbell, L. M. (2001). Affective feelings as feedback: Some cognitive consequences. In L. L.Martin & G. L.Clore (Eds.), Theories of mood and cognition: A user's guidebook (pp. 27-62). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Dekker, P., & Uslaner, E. M. (Eds.). (2001). Social capital and participation in everyday life. London: Routledge.

Dickinson, T. (2008, March 20). The machinery of hope. Rolling Stone, 1048 , 36-42.

Diener, E., Sandvik, E., & Pavot, W. (1991). Happiness is the frequency, not the intensity, of positive versus negative affect. In F.Strack, M.Argyle, & N.Schwarz (Eds.), Subjective well-being: An interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 119-139). Oxford, England: Pergamon Press.

Joinson, A. N. (2008, April). Looking at, looking up or keeping up with people?: Motives and use of Facebook. Paper presented at the 26th annual SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Florence, Italy.

Koloff, A. (2008, February 7). States push for cyberbully controls; but efforts to go beyond schools raise concerns over freedom of speech, privacy. USA Today, p. 3A.

Kraut, R. E., Patterson, M., Lundmark, V., Kiesler, S., Mukopadhyay, T., & Scherlis, W. (1998). Internet paradox: A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? American Psychologist, 53, 1017-1031.

Nyland, R., Marvez, R., & Beck, J. (2007, February). MySpace: Social networking or social isolation? Paper presented at the midwinter conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Reno, NV.

Schonlau, M., Elliot, M. N., & Fricker, R. D. (2002). Conducting research surveys via e-mail and the web. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.

Shah, D. V., Schmierbach, M., Hawkins, J., Espino, R., & Donavan, J. (2002). Nonrecursive models of Internet use and community engagement: Questioning whether time spent online erodes social capital. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79, 964-987.

Stone, B. (2007, July 30). New scrutiny for Facebook over predators. The New York Times. Retrieved November 2, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/business/media/30facebook.html.

Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Verba, S., Schlozman, K. L., & Brady, H. E. (1995). Voice and equality: Civic voluntarism in American politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Is There Social Capital in a Social Network Site?: Facebook Use and College Students' Life Satisfaction, Trust, and Participation

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1 Earlier versions of this study were presented at the 2008 International Symposium on Online Journalism and the 2008 APSA Preconference on Political Communication. For intellectual and financial support on this research, we thank Sharon Strover. Helpful comments at various stages were provided by Jeff Gulati and Talia Stroud.

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Social media has taken the world by storm. It has become one of the best mediums for transfer of information and knowledge in the world. It is usually the younger generation that uses social media than any other demographic.

Students especially use the medium to stay in touch with their old friends and also to meet new ones. Like any other technological innovation social media has its own share of advantages and disadvantages. Schools are adopting technology for pedagogical purposes and introducing social media into the classrooms. This is a trend that has garnered a lot of support as well as apprehensions.

Social media has several advantages for students. Social media can enable students to easily contact each other with regards to school projects and assignments. It is also possible for them to work on group assignments from the comfort of their own homes. Students that use social media can also participate more in class. When social media is used in pedagogy, students who have difficulty in expressing their thoughts in their classrooms can get involved in the learning process. It will help build these children's confidence level as well. Social media is also useful for students when doing homework. Any doubts can be cleared by posting a message through social media. Any questions that they may have can be asked on a message board and other students can also benefit from the feedback given by the teacher.

Teachers have many options to share useful links and this benefits the student. Students, teachers and parents can be on the same page with the help of social media. Sites like Face book help teachers to stay in touch with parents and let them know about the progress of their children. Along with the advantages social media also has several disadvantages. Social media can be a distraction for some students. Students may be distracted from their school work and the teachers will have no option of knowing which student pays attention. There is always a possibility that the students will not use social media for educational purposes. They may use social media for their personal communication.

Students that use social media regularly may lose their ability to engage in face to face communication. Even if the world is turning to technology, students must know how to communicate in the real world. Social media websites are becoming notorious for cyber bullying. This has become an alarming trend. Students may write hurtful messages about other students and this could scar students for life. Yet another problem with social media is that it is impossible to know whether students will use the medium in a constructive manner. Students may post inappropriate content like pornography on social media. This will defeat the purpose of the medium altogether. Social media is a rather effective way for students to make friends and also to get their education. At the same time there are certain disadvantages as well. The true challenge lies in overcoming the disadvantages and ensuring that the advantages create the desired impact.

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Pros and Cons of Social Media Usage for Students

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Social media has taken the world by storm. It has become one of the best mediums for transfer of information and knowledge in the world. It is usually the younger generation that uses social media than any other demographic. Students especially use the medium to stay in touch with their old friends and also to meet new ones.

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2014 was a landmark year for growth across all things digital, and We Are Social's new Digital, Social and Mobile in 2015 report indicates that this year will see even more impressive numbers.

Including stats for more than 240 countries around the world, and profiling 30 of the world's biggest economies in detail, this report is the most comprehensive, free compendium of up-to-date digital statistics and data you'll find.

So what do its 376 pages reveal?
The Headlines
As we've seen in our on-going series of Digital Statshot reports, mobile increasingly dominates the digital world, and we're confident that 'ubiquitous connectivity' will gather even more pace during 2015, as cheaper handsets and more affordable data connections reach further around the world.

What's more, with mobile-oriented services like WhatsApp, WeChat and Facebook Messenger achieving the top social media ranking spots in some of the world's biggest economies, it's clear that much of our digital behaviour is now converging around mobile devices.

Based on the trends within this data, we expect that mobile will help to push internet penetration beyond 50% of the world's population during mid to late 2016.

Before that, though, we expect to see social media penetration reach one-third of the world's population - likely by the end of 2015 - with new users in developing nations accounting for almost all of this growth.

In Context: 12 Months of Amazing Growth
The digital world passed some impressive milestones in 2014:

Worldwide social media users exceeded 2 billion back in August;

Worldwide penetration of mobile phones passed 50% in September;

The number of global internet users passed 3 billion in early November;

The number of active mobile connections surpassed the total world population just last month;

Excitingly, the numbers in our new 2015 report suggest that this growth shows no signs of slowing anytime soon:

You'll find an amazing wealth of data and infographics designed for easy copy-paste into your own presentations in the SlideShare embed above, but read on for our additional insights into the numbers.

Internet
Almost 42% of the world's population has access to the internet in January 2015, representing a significant jump in reported numbers since last year's report, when the same figure was just 35%:

Our analysis of these numbers suggests that much of this increase is due to more accurate and timely reporting of data rather than a sudden surge in access, but there is little doubt that many millions of new users accessed the internet for the first time in the past 12 months - many of them via mobile phones.

As we reported in early November, more than 3 billion people around the world now use the internet via a variety of different devices. However, access is not evenly distributed: the reported number of internet users in Bermuda, Bahrain and Iceland almost equals those countries' total reported populations, but the data also suggest that fewer than 0.1% of the populations of North Korea and South Sudan have access to the internet.

Internet connection speeds vary significantly around the world too, from an average of more than 25 Mbps in South Korea, to barely 2 Mbps in India. Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the USA make up the top 5 fastest nations after South Korea, with each registering speeds in excess of 10 Mbps, putting them well above the global average of 4.5 Mbps:

The average internet user spends around 4 hours and 25 minutes using the net each day, with Southeast Asians registering the highest average daily use. Research conducted by GlobalWebIndex shows that Filipino internet users spend more than 6 hours per day using the net, with Thais, Vietnamese, Indonesians and Malaysians also all averaging more than 5 hours of use per day:

Mobile Internet
Mobile's share of global web traffic leapt 39% since the same time last year, with one-third of all web pages now served to mobile phones:

However, mobile's share of the web also varies considerably around the world: mobile phones account for 89% of all pages served in Papua New Guinea, but barely 0.1% of pages served in some of the smaller Caribbean islands.

It's worth highlighting that India's web traffic is dominated by mobile devices, with phones alone accounting for 72% of all web pages served in the world's second most populous nation:

The good news is that the potential for faster mobile internet access has grown exponentially in the past year, with 39% of all global mobile connections now classified as 'broadband' (i.e. 3G or 4G):

Social Media
Social media continues to grow apace around the world too, with active user accounts now equating to roughly 29% of the world's population.

Monthly active user (MAU) figures for the most active social network in each country add up to almost 2.08 billion - a 12% increase since January 2014:

Meanwhile, research conducted by GlobalWebIndex suggests that the average social media user spends 2 hours and 25 minutes per day using social networks and microblogs, with Argentinian and Filipino users registering the most, at more than 4 hours per day:

Facebook continues to dominate the global social media landscape, claiming 1.366 billion active users in January 2015. Crucially, 1.133 billion of the platform's global users - 83% of the total - now access the service through mobile devices.

Meanwhile, Tencent extended its dominance of Chinese-language social networks, with Qzone's 629 million active accounts leading the pack. However, our analysis indicates that a number of the platform's users have more than one account, meaning this figure may not be reliable as a basis for the calculation of social media penetration.

VKontakte retains the top social media spot in Russia and a handful of its neighbours, although reliable monthly active user figures are more difficult to come by. The latest data suggest the platform has around 100 million monthly active users, of which roughly two-thirds are in Russia.

Mobile Social
As we saw above, mobile usage of social networks like Facebook continues to grow all over the world. Adding up the mobile users of the top social network in each country, we see at least 1.65 billion active mobile social accounts in January 2015:

Meanwhile, instant messenger services and chat apps continue their impressive growth patterns, with WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger and Viber all reporting more than 100 million new monthly active users over the past 12 months.

Instant messenger services and chat apps now account for 3 of the top 5 global social platforms, and 8 instant messenger brands now claim more than 100 million monthly active users:

As in other areas of this year's report, much of this growth has been fuelled by the increasing importance of mobile devices in people's everyday lives, and this trend looks set to accelerate in 2015.

Mobile Devices
Unique mobile users exceeded 50% of the world's population in September 2014, and the current year-on-year growth rate of more than 5% suggests we'll see roughly 200 million new mobile users over the next 12 months.

GSMA Intelligence and Ericsson both report more than 7 billion active mobile subscriptions, but it's important to note that the average global mobile user still maintains roughly two active connections:

Smartphones account for an increasingly large proportion of mobile use, with Ericsson reporting that these devices claim a 38% share of the world's active connections:

Almost 4 in 10 global mobile connections now qualify as 'broadband' - i.e. a 3G connection or better - but as with so many other aspects of this report, fast mobile data access varies hugely from one country to the next:

Reports suggest that all of North Korea's 2.8 million mobile connections are 3G or above, although this is tempered by the fact that the internet - or at least the internet as we know it in the rest of the world - is not available to the country's average citizen. However, at 11% penetration - 65% up on the same period last year - the role of mobile in North Korea may be cause for optimism.

As with fixed internet access, South Korea is streets ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to mobile internet speeds, with the country's mobile operators delivering an average connection of 18.2 Mbps - twice as much as any other nation.

Singapore and the UK follow, with 9.1 Mbps and 8.1 Mbps respectively. India, Brazil, Argentina all registered average mobile data connections below 2 Mbps, while Vietnam registered the slowest average mobile data connection in this years report, at barely 1.1 Mbps:

Despite these slow speeds, data reported by Ericsson in its latest Mobility Report suggest that the average global mobile connection uses around 900MB of data every month, with total monthly global data traffic rapidly approaching 3 exabytes - i.e. 3 billion gigabytes:

However, more than three-quarters of the world's mobile connections are still pre-paid, and the costs of acquiring a phone and maintaining an active mobile connection continue to represent a significant proportion of household expenditure in many developing nations.

As a result, content producers and marketers must balance their desire to provide 'rich' user experiences such as online video with the likely costs that this will entail for their audiences:

What's more, 58% of the world's mobile connections still come from more basic, 'feature' phone handsets, meaning many people will be unable to access such content even if they'd like to.

At the other end of the mobile spectrum, the use of tablets increased steadily during 2014, with 7% of all web pages served in the past month going to these devices.

Combined, mobile phones and tablets now account for 38% of all web pages served around the world.

Mirroring this trend, laptops and desktops saw a 13% decline in share of web traffic compared to the same period last year, down to 62% of all web pages served:

Online Shopping
Thanks to some great data from GlobalWebIndex, we're delighted to include some detailed data points relating to online shopping for most of the countries in this year's report.

The United Kingdom leads in terms of active e-commerce use, with data suggesting that almost two-thirds of the country's population bought something online in the past month

Germany and South Korea follow close behind at 63% and 62% respectively, while the USA comes in fourth at 56%

South and Southeast Asia lag when it comes to e-commerce though, with data suggesting barely 14% of Indians bought something online in the past month. Similarly, fewer than 1 in 5 Thais and Filipinos used e-commerce in the past 30 days:

Mobile commerce is picking up momentum around the world though though, especially in East Asia, with data suggesting that 37% of South Koreans bought something online via a mobile phone in the past month.

The Chinese are also increasingly active mobile shoppers, with 27% of the population buying something through their phones in the past 30 days:

Local Country Profiles
You'll also find in-depth profiles of 30 of the world's largest economies in the report, in the same format as the China slides you'll find at the bottom of this post.

Here's a list of the countries we cover in detail:

So What Next?
If you'd like to explore the individual country data in more detail, you might like to know you can download the complete report for free by clicking here.

You may also want to refer back to our reports from previous years; you'll find them all in one convenient library here, but you may find our 2014 report and analysis particularly useful.

We'll leave you with the country slides for China:

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Digital, Social & Mobile Worldwide in 2015 - We Are Social UK

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2014 was a landmark year for growth across all things digital, and We Are Social's new Digital, Social and Mobile in 2015 report indicates that this year will see even more impressive numbers.

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In actuality, there are more consequences that we have to face especially parents when it comes to social media and networking issues. We have to understand that even though that there's no stopping children from using them, it's possible to maintain control.

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In January, Facebook made a troubling announcement that it plans to
allow third-party developers to request access to the home addresses
and phone numbers of users. Despite Facebook's insistence that it
will protect its users, I believe this policy will place users at
great risk. That's why I wrote a letter with Sens. Charles E. Schumer
(D-N.Y.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Richard Blumenthal
(D-Conn.) to CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging him to stop plans for this new
third party access to personal data. Armed with nothing more than a
Facebook user's phone number and home address, anyone with an Internet
connection and a few dollars can obtain personal information they
should never have access to, including a user's date of birth, e-mail
address, or estimated income. In fact, by using this information, an
identity thief could get almost all of the data he would need to apply
for a loan or a credit card in the name of an unsuspecting Facebook
user.

And even more alarming, Facebook's new privacy policy would endanger
the privacy and safety of children as young as 13. Under Facebook's
policy, 13 million users under the age of 18 may be allowed to share
their personal information just like adult users. These younger users
are the most vulnerable to predators on Facebook and the rest of the
Internet and it should be impossible for them to inadvertently share
their phone numbers and home addresses with anyone.

The boom of new technologies over the last several years has made it
easier to keep in touch with family and friends, but it has also put
an unprecedented amount of personal information into the hands of
large companies and unknown third parties. It's important that
Facebook protect its users by reversing their plans to permit
developers to request and access this private information. It's even
more important that Facebook protect the children who use its website
by never allowing them to accidentally share their phone numbers and
home addresses with people who may want to hurt them.

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Facebook's Proposed Privacy Plan Puts Users at Great Risk

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In January, Facebook made a troubling announcement that it plans to allow third-party developers to request access to the home addresses and phone numbers of users. Despite Facebook's insistence that it will protect its users, I believe this policy will place users at great risk. That's why I wrote a letter with Sens.

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Empirical Study of Privacy Issues among Social Networking Sites
http://0-search.ebscohost.com.innopac.lib.bcit.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=76108709

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Let us help you live a life you love. Find tools to help you have fun and make the most out of each and every day.

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Social Networking isolates us from one another, and it will immerse us in virtual world.

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cyberbullying

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oversharing

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CREATING A CLASS BLOG: A STRATEGY THAT CAN PROMOTE COLLABORATION, MOTIVATIO...
http://0-search.ebscohost.com.innopac.lib.bcit.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=101674122

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                                                                                                                                                                            Writing 602

# data[].attributes.subject
                                                                                                                                                                            Writing 602

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source: BCIT library

extra source: Google scholry

# data[].attributes.headline
                                                                                                    Introduction

# data[].attributes.subject
                                                                                                    Introduction

# data[].attributes.body
topic:
The effects of Social Networking

reason:
I find tradition communication tools are phasing out, such as textbooks, TV, newspaper and blackboard.    These things are being replaced by eBooks, internet media, Twitter and projector.

thesis:
there are more negative effects than positive effects on replacing traditional communication and education by social networking.

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BENEFITS AND PITFALLS: SIMPLE GUIDELINES FOR THE USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS IN K-12 EDUCATION.