The Impact of Time Online: Social Capital and Cyberbalkanization

Hypotheses and research questions about the Internet displacing social capital, atomizing users, creating loneliness, and creating new forms of community were addressed through an original survey of Internet users. A key innovation of this research is that it collects parallel measures of social capital for online and offline contexts, which can then be compared. The results show that while Internet use does suggest a displacing effect, it is also a source of new, qualitatively different social capital. However, there is no connection between Internet use and atomization (or out-group antagonism), and the latter is actually lower online. Taken together, the results suggest that the Internet is no panacea but is not a direct source of problems either. More likely is the case that the costs and benefits for individuals will be predicted by their personalities and particular kinds of Internet use. The results are discussed, along with their implications for theory and future research.

[1]  R. Rice,et al.  Social Consequences of Internet Use: Access, Involvement, and Interaction , 2002 .

[2]  P. Resnick.  Beyond Bowling Together: SocioTechnical Capital , 2001 .

[3]  Scott E. Caplan.  Relations Among Loneliness, Social Anxiety, and Problematic Internet Use , 2007, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[4]  N. Nie.  Sociability, Interpersonal Relations, and the Internet , 2001 .

[5]  A. W. Bendig.  The Pittsburgh Scales of Social Extraversion-Introversion and Emotionality , 1962 .

[6]  C. Sunstein.  Republic.com , 2001 .

[7]  S. Kiesler,et al.  Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization. , 1992 .

[8]  Susan J. Douglas,et al.  Media and the American Mind: From Morse to McLuhan by Daniel J. Czitrom (review) , 1984 .

[9]  Neil S. Coulson,et al.  Receiving Social Support Online: An Analysis of a Computer-Mediated Support Group for Individuals Living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome , 2005, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[10]  Joseph B. Walther,et al.  Nonverbal Dynamics in Computer-Mediated Communication or: (And the Net: ('S with You, :) and You :) Alone , 2006 .

[11]  Andrea L. Kavanaugh,et al.  The Impact of Community Computer Networks on Social Capital and Community Involvement , 2001 .

[12]  Lawrence Lessig,et al.  Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace , 1999 .

[13]  James William Coleman,et al.  Competition and the Structure of Industrial Society: Reply to Braithwaite , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[14]  Tel Amiel,et al.  Individual differences in Internet usage motives , 2004, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[15]  W. Galston.  Does the Internet Strengthen Community , 1999 .

[16]  Kiesler Sara,et al.  INTERNET EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL IMPACT , 2002 .

[17]  Jonathon N. Cummings,et al.  Internet Paradox Revisited , 2002 .

[18]  Keith N. Hampton,et al.  Long Distance Community in the Network Society , 2001 .

[19]  J. Coleman,et al.  Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[20]  P. Howard,et al.  Days and Nights on the Internet , 2001 .

[21]  Jonathan Gershuny,et al.  MASS MEDIA, LEISURE AND HOME IT: A PANEL TIME-DIARY APPROACH , 2002 .

[22]  Maureen S. Battistella,et al.  Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization , 1991 .

[23]  S. Matei,et al.  Real and Virtual Social Ties , 2001 .

[24]  G. Hearn,et al.  Profiling Internet Users' Participation in Social Change Agendas: An application of Q methodology , 2001, ArXiv.

[25]  N. Nie,et al.  Internet and society: a preliminary report , 2001 .

[26]  R. Rice,et al.  Social Consequences of Internet Use: Access, Involvement, and Interaction , 2002 .

[27]  Gregor Schrott,et al.  Virtual Communities , 2001, Wirtschaftsinf..

[28]  Mark S. Granovetter.  The Strength of Weak Ties , 1973, American Journal of Sociology.

[29]  D. Russell,et al.  The revised UCLA Loneliness Scale: concurrent and discriminant validity evidence. , 1980, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[30]  Nicholas Negroponte,et al.  Being Digital , 1995 .

[31]  John P. Robinson,et al.  Social Implications of the Internet , 2001 .

[32]  D. Sunshine Hillygus,et al.  The impact of internet use of sociability: time-diary findings , 2002 .

[33]  Robert D. Putnam,et al.  Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community , 2000, CSCW '00.

[34]  Eric M. Uslaner,et al.  Social capital and the net , 2000, CACM.

[35]  J. Beniger.  Personalization of Mass Media and the Growth of Pseudo-Community , 1987 .

[36]  Bruce Bimber.  Information and Political Engagement in America: The Search for Effects of Information Technology at the Individual Level , 2001 .

[37]  Dhavan V. Shah,et al.  "Connecting" and "Disconnecting" With Civic Life: Patterns of Internet Use and the Production of Social Capital , 2001 .

[38]  Katelyn Y. A. McKenna,et al.  Can you see the real me? Activation and expression of the "true self" on the Internet. , 2002 .

[39]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Internet paradox. A social technology that reduces social involvement and psychological well-being? , 1998, The American psychologist.

[40]  Jennifer Preece,et al.  Supporting community and building social capital - Introduction. , 2002 .

[41]  Erik Brynjolfsson,et al.  Global Village or Cyberbalkans: Modeling and Measuring the Integration of Electronic Communities , 2005, Manag. Sci..