Social Media and the Network Structure of Social Capital

Transcription

1 Social Media and the Network Structure of Social Capital A/Prof Robert Ackland Australian Demographic & Social Research Institute College of Arts & Social Sciences The Australian National University Presentation to Social Policy Unit, School of Social Work and Human Services, SBS Social Studies of Technology Network 15th February 2013

2 Plan Social capital - background Facebook and social capital research Second Life and social capital research Australian Seniors' Online Networks (AuSON)

3 Unobtrusive social science research how we used to do it...and how it's done today...

4 Two ways of thinking about social capital Relational-level definition: social capital can be seen as similar to human capital in that it is assumed that such investments can be made by individuals with expected return...to the individual (Lin, 1999, p.32). the number of people who can be expected to provide support and the resources those people have at their disposal (Boxman et al., 1991, p.52) the ability of actors to secure benefits by virtue of membership in social networks or other social structures (Portes, 1998, p.6).

5 group- or community-level definition: features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit (Putnam, 1993, p.35). Social capital can be defined simply as the existence of a certain set of informal values or norms shared among members of a group that permit cooperation among them Fukuyama (1999a, p.16)

6 Relational-level concept of social capital is more easily quantifiable at the level of the individual: resources embedded in social structure which are accessed and/or mobilized in purposive actions (Lin, 1999, p.35). Survey-based techniques for constructing individual-level measures of social capital involve the name generator, position generator and resource generator (see, e.g. van der Gaag and Snijders, 2005).

7 one of the greatest weaknesses of the social capital concept is the absence of consensus on how to measure it Fukuyama (1999b, p.12) (possibly more of a problem with group-level definition of social capital) Major problem with research on impact of social capital is the identification of causality: is a good outcome for an individual caused by the person s social capital or is there merely correlation with other unobserved attributes (selection effects)?

8 Bridging and Bonding Social Capital (Robert Putnam) Bridging social capital - new information and resources that a person can gain from having (often weaker) connections to diverse social groups Bonding social capital - emotional and substantive support that can be accessed the person s core network, which predominantly consists of strong ties (people with whom the person shares friends in common, or family members)

9 Internet use and Social Capital There has been a lot of research on impact of Internet use on patterns of social relations It has been suggested that the Internet may foster the creation of bridging social capital at the expense of bonding social capital Evidence does not support this. Hampton et al. (2011) supported conclusion of McPherson et al. (2006) that there has been a decline in the size of core networks in the US, but found no evidence that Internet users have smaller core networks compared with non-users.

10 Facebook and Social Capital Ellison et al (2007) collected measures of social capital and FB use for undergraduates from US college Strong positive correlation between use of FB and bridging social capital Weaker but still positive correlation between use of FB and bonding social capital There is an obvious issue of causality, which longitudinal studies might be able to address

11 Second Life an example of a virtual world - computerbased simulated environments where individuals can assume digital representations (avatars) and interact.

12 Virtual Worlds and Social Capital Two types of research into Virtual Worlds: Who is in these spaces and why? What types of computer-mediated interaction takes place? To the extent that VWs parallel the offline world, tests of human behavior in VWs can provide insights into human behaviour in real life - virtual petri dish Can't just assume that VWs parallel the offline world. Need to know when and where we can leverage VWs to learn about offline human behaviour Williams (2010) - mapping between VW & real world Burt (2012) - construct validity of VWs

13 Do social networks in virtual worlds have the same effects observed in the real world?...if social networks in virtual worlds operate by unique processes unrelated to networks in the real world, then the scale and precision of data available on social networks in virtual worlds has no value for understanding relations in the real world. On the other hand, if social networks in virtual worlds operate just like networks in the real world, then we can use the richer data on virtual worlds to better understand...network processes in the real world. (Burt, 2011)

14 Structural holes in Second Life (Burt 2011) Tendency for people cluster into social groups on the basis of opportunity structures (e.g. where they live, their workplace or project team) leads to gaps or holes in the social structure of communication (structural holes), which inhibit the flow of information between people Structural holes present two types of strategic advantage, relating to brokerage (bridging social capital) and closure (bonding social capital)

15 Brokerage Those who bridge or span structural holes are more likely to gain opportunities for professional advancement They are exposed to varying opinions, behaviours sources of information and may be able combine this disparate knowledge in a way that provides productive advantage. It has been shown that such "bridge spanners" have higher salaries and are promoted more quickly than their peers.

16 Closure Closure refers to the strategic advantage that is associated with not spanning a structural hole i.e staying within a closed network where there is a high level of connectivity amongst actors (either directly or via a central person). Closed networks do not enable the flow of new information that can provide "vision advantage" (associated with brokerage), they confer another important type of advantage: trust and coordination (high reputation costs for bad/unproductive behaviour, and increased probability that such behaviour is detected) improved team effectiveness and efficiency by lowering labour and monitoring costs.

17 Burt constructed ego networks (egonets) in Second Life: using one-to-one friendships (similar to Facebook) group membership (similar to Facebook) rights granted to friends (3 levels increasing levels of trust): (1) the right to know when you are online, (2) the right to know your location in Second Life, (3) and the right to directly modify your online inventory (thus impacting on the appearance and behavior of the avatar).

18 With regards to closure, Burt focused on the intermediate variable of trust (measured by the three levels of rights that friends can grant each other) hypothesied that closure is associated with higher levels of trust in relationships Found support for the closure hypothesis: the level of trust between two users was positively related to the level of network closure around the friendship, measured by the number of indirect connections between ego and the friend.

19 With regards to brokerage, the hypothesis is that occupying structural holes in Second Life is correlated with achievement Burt measured achievement as the contribution of ego to the formation and maintenance of groups (one of the main types of infrastructure that attracts people to Second Life). People who have greater access to structural holes (measured by the number of nonredundant friends i.e. friends who are not connected to any other of ego's friends) founded more groups and their groups were more likely to be successful in terms of membership and activity.

20 Causality Burt's results are based on a snapshot of activity within Second Life: no use is made of the rich timestamp data that allows one to know the exact sequence of friendship and group formation, and (as Burt notes), his analysis does not allow conclusions about causation. It may be that two people with high level of trust in their relationship subsequently acquire many mutual friends (hence building network closure). A person who has established successful groups in Second Life may acquire friendships from diverse parts of the virtual world, with access to structural holes thus resulting from achievement, rather than the other way around.

21 Australian Seniors' Online Networks (AuSON) A Facebook application for collecting data on online (and offline) social networks, social capital and ageing status Developed at ANU as part of the Social Networks and Ageing Project (SNAP) ARC Linkage project with National Seniors Australia CIs: Heather Booth (ADSRI/ANU), Robert Ackland (ADSRI/ANU), Tim Windsor (Flinders) PhD students: Mahin Raissi (social influence and social capital), Pilar Rioseco (retirement decisions) Programmers: Lin Chen, Mahmoud Sadeghi

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24 View egonet

25 Step 1: Group FB friends

26 Step 2: Add social contacts who are not in FB

27 Step 3: Closeness of relationships 1

28 Step 4: Social capital potential resources 1 2

29 Step 5: Social capital actual resources 1 2 3

30 Step 6: Identifying positive / negative affect relations 1

31 Step 7: Individual characteristics (successful ageing)

32 Step 8: Facebook use

33 Viral marketing

34 AuSON designed and built by: Mahin Raissi, Lin Chen, Mahmoud Sadeghi and Robert Ackland If you use FB, are over 50 and eligible to vote in Australia or you are FB friends with someone who is over 50 and eligible to vote, please try it out...

35 Egonets of approx. 50 AuSON participants

36 Next steps... Exploratory analysis...use regression to see if particular features of egonets are associated with better/worse ageing status For example: Egonet size Differing levels of bridging/bonding social capital Bridging social capital: may lead to new innovative information (e.g. about health/volunteering or work opportunities) Bonding social capital: emotional support Composition of egonet (friends, family, acquaintances)

37 Exemplar FB 1.5 degree egonet demonstrating high level of bonding social capital High clustering coefficient (density of 1.5 degree egonet) Ego removed in bottom figure

38 Exemplar FB 1.5 degree egonet demonstrating high level of bridging social capital Low clustering coefficient Ego removed in bottom figure

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40 Boxman, E., Graf, P. D., and Flap, H. (1991). The impact of social and human capital on the income attainment of Dutch managers. Social Networks, 13: Burt, R. (2011). Structural holes in virtual worlds. Booth School of Business (Univ. of Chicago) working paper. Ellison, N.B., Steinfield, C. and Lampe, C The benefits of Facebook "friends:" Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12 (4) Fukuyama, F. (1999a). The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order. Free Press, New York. Fukuyama, F. (1999b). Social capital and civil society. Delivered at the International Monetary Fund Conference on Second Generation Reforms, November 8-9, Hampton, K., Sessions, L., and Her, E. J. (2011). Core networks, social isolation, and new media: Internet and mobile phone use, network size, and diversity. Information, Communication & Society, 14(1):

41 Lin, N. (1999). Building a network theory of social capital. Connections, 22(1): McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, M., and Brashears, M. (2006). Social isolation in america. American Sociological Review, 71(3): Portes, A. (1998). Social capital: It s origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 22:1 24. Putnam, R. (1993). Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. van der Gaag, M. and Snijders, T. (2005). The resource generator: measurement of individual social capital with concrete items. Social Networks, 27:1 29. Williams, D. (2010). The mapping principle, and a research framework for virtual worlds. Communication Theory, 20(4):