Online and Offline Social Participation and Social Poverty Traps: Can Social Networks Save Human Relations?

Abstract

In this study, we develop an evolutionary game model to analyze how human relations evolve in a context characterized by declining face-to-face interactions and growing online social participation. Our results suggest that online networks may constitute a coping response allowing individuals to “defend” their social life from increasing busyness and a reduction in the time available for leisure. Internet-mediated interaction can play a positive role in preventing the disruption of ties and the weakening of community life documented by empirical studies. In this scenario, the digital divide is likely to become an increasingly relevant factor of social exclusion, which may exacerbate inequalities in well-being and capabilities.

Keywords:

• digital divide
• online networks
• social capital
• social participation
• well-being

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge an anonymous reviewer for insightful comments and suggestions on an earlier draft.

Notes

¹The Japanese term hikikomori refers to young people who have withdrawn from social life and have had no relationships outside of the family for a period of more than 6 months. After its rise in Japan, this phenomenon has been increasingly observed in other developed and developing countries (Kato et al., 2012). Hikikomoris do not work or participate in any form of education and frequently remain in their homes for protracted periods of time—sometimes for several years. From a psychological perspective that has long dominated public thinking in Japan, hikikomoris suffer from a cognitive malfunction. The sociological perspective, however, advances a more interesting interpretation of the phenomenon, as a form of anomie related to the nature of family relations and a breakdown in social and labor opportunity structures. In other words, the phenomenon can also be viewed as a reaction to the “relational poverty” of the social environment and to the lack of proper opportunities of social and labor participation (Furlong, 2008). According to Kaneko (2006), hikikomoris may be understood to be reacting to time pressures and role performances in modern societies. Before the advent of online networks, hikikomoris had no relevant social interaction. With the advent of the Internet, psychologists have observed resurgence in the social relationships of hikikomoris, who generally tend to have numerous online interactions with others (Kato et al., 2012). The case of hikikomoris will be useful for explaining our assumptions in Section 3.

²The literature on relational goods distinguishes private consumption that can be enjoyed alone without the inclusion of any significant social interaction and relational consumption, which can be enjoyed only if shared with others Gui & Sugden, 2005; Uhlaner, 1989).

³Following Knack and Keefer (1997), the literature generally distinguishes two types of formal organizations, labelled “Olsonian” and “Putnam-esque” associations. Olson groups are those associations with redistributive goals that lobby for the protection of their members’ interests, possibly against the interests of other groups (Olson, 1965, 1982). Examples of this type of organization are professional and entrepreneurial associations, trade unions, and associations for the protection of consumers’ rights. Putnam groups are those associations least likely to act as “distributional coalitions but which involve social interactions that can build trust and cooperative habits” (Knack & Keefer, 1997, p. 1273). Examples of this type of organization are cultural circles, sport clubs, youth associations (e.g., scouts), and religious organizations.

⁴Despite the many studies documenting the decline in social participation, the overall evidence still seems to be nonconclusive. A number of empirical studies have found conflicting results on the trends of different indicators of social capital, and the Bowling Alone thesis has been variously characterized as plainly wrong, pessimistic, or traditional (Stolle & Hooghe, 2005). Van Ingen and Dekker (2011) argue that the decline in associational participation may be related to a process of “informalization” of social activities. In his cross-country analysis of social capital trends, Sarracino (2010) finds that in most Western European countries, several measures of connectedness experienced a growth over the period 1980–2000.

⁵There is different evidence on the social effects of commuting outside of the United States. In countries where cities are, on average, significantly smaller than in the United States, Putnam's thesis seems not to be supported. A Swiss study by Viry, Kaufmann, and Widmer (2009) conclude that while commuting decreases the availability of emotionally bonding social capital in the form of supportive strong ties, it could provide increased opportunities for developing bridging social capital and weak ties.

⁶It is worth noting that part of the literature does not agree with the above reported claims about the beneficial effects of Internet-mediated interaction on social capital. Early sociological studies on computer-mediated communication shared the fear that the Internet would cause a progressive reduction in social interactions. The main argument shared by Internet skeptics was based on the presumption that the more time people spend using the Internet during leisure time, the more time is detracted from social activities (Gershuny, 2003; Katz, Rice, & Apsden, 2001; Kraut et al., 1998; Nie & Erbring, 2000; Nie, Sunshine Hillygusm, & Erbring, 2002). Studies emphasizing the possibly negative correlation between Internet usage and sociability date back to just shortly before the explosion of online networking, which, in our view, has made their results anachronistic. Today, sceptic authors warn that, beyond a certain threshold, the development of human relationships by the exclusive means of online interactions may prevent users from enjoying those emotional benefits normally associated with face-to-face interactions (see, e.g., Lee, 2013). Based on Italian survey data, Sabatini and Sarracino (2014b) found a significantly negative association between the use of SNSs and subjective well-being, probably mediated by a detrimental effect of SNSs’ use on social trust. A survey of the literature accurately describing the different positions on the role of Internet-mediated interaction in the accumulation of social capital is included in Antoci et al. (2013).

⁷That is, excluding the trajectories coinciding with the other fixed points or those belonging to the stable branches of saddles.

⁸It is a well-known result that dynamics (3) does not change if an arbitrary constant is added to each column of A (see, e.g., Hofbauer & Sigmund, 1988, p. 126).

⁹All the eigenvalues of the fixed points on the edges of S are real (see Bomze, 1983).

¹⁰When we say that a dynamic regime under equations (3) corresponds to a phase portrait Bpp# shown in Bomze's paper, we mean that the two portraits are “geometrically equivalent” (see Bomze, 1983, p. 205), that is, the former can be obtained from the latter by flow reversal, rotations and reflections of the simplex S.