Social Capital / Social Media

Note:  This blog is the first in a series that looks at social capital, social media and college student success.  This first blog provides a background on social capital, and a glimpse at how it is impacted by social media.

There is a term, requently used but ill-defined, to describe your general well-being and how you fit into the world - "social capital."

Social capital is quite loosely defined but, in general, it is an indicator of what you have regarding:

• A sense of belonging in your environment
• Engagement in your surroundings
• Relationships with others
• Knowing the norms and values of your environment
• Participation in your society
• Feelings of safety and trust
• Confidence

You get the idea.  

A more official idefinition of social capital is that it is the intangible benefits that you gain from being a member of the societies in which you live and the number and types of your relationships.  It is as if the people in your life, regardless of how they are in your life, contribute a bit of well-being and sociality to you as a result of your interactions. 

There are at least two types of social capital: bonding and bridge.  "Bonding" social capital comes from interacting with those persons like yourself, those in the networks to which you already belong.  It is comforting and affirming, but self-limiting.  Bonding social capital will help you "get by"1., but does not provide an impetus for growth and change.

"Bridging" social capital, on the other hand, is that which comes to you from contact with those "outside" rather than "within" your social world.1  As bridges span chasms, bridging social capital can take you beyound the boundaries of one environment, and include you in another environment.  Hence, bridging social capital does not help you "get by" - being part of a new group, no matter how transitory the experience is, can be decidedly uncomfortable.  It does, however, help you "get ahead."  You learn about new places and ways of being through bridging social capital.  You experience new values and norms.  You learn new terrain, footpaths and pitfalls.  Bridging social capital enlarges your place in your world by bringing in knowledge, understanding, behaviors, resources, etc... from other places - the places familiar to those who live outside your social boundaries.

Social media, specifically programs like Facebook, are obvious providers of social media, with Facebook especially being known as a premier source.  Consider the number of "friends" you have on Facebook.  Some of these friends will be sources of bonding social capital - and are likely to be the persons you see face-to-face, message, talk to on the phone, etc.  

Now consider the bulk of your Facebook friends.  These are folks for whom you have some connection, but are likely to not be in your life to a "bonding" degree.  These friends are sources of bridging social capital.  Their posts can provide a new perspective, perhaps one you will benefit from.  Membership in a Facebook group can provide you with massive doses of social capital, because you learn the norms, traditions and ideas of a group outside your own.  You are being let into the boundaries or another world, as it were.  If the group can provide you with information or support that you lack, you receive extra benefits. You may be able to solve a problem you are dealing with, and you are receivng social capital from group members as you do so.

I will expand on this idea of receiving problem-solving, life-altering social capital from Facebook in another blog post.  Stay tuned!

1. Terminology attributed to Gittell, Ross J. and Avis. Vidal. 1998. Community Organizing : Building Social Capital as a Development Strategy. Sage Publications. ^

References:
What is the difference between bonding and bridging social capital.  Tristan Claridge, January 2, 2018 in Social Capital Research and Training, .

Image by Anemone123 from Pixabay