Social networking for social capital: the declining value of presence for trusting with age

ABSTRACT

Interactions among citizens have been declining in America for more than 50 years. Generalised trust has also declined starkly, as a measure that depends upon social contact. The present study investigates whether social networking sites can host interactions that feel similar enough to interpersonal life to still contribute to generalised trust. A nationally representative sample of U.S. adults was drawn. Results indicate that social motivations for Facebook use contribute to social presence. Presence is related to trusting in turn. The size of the association between presence and trust also diminishes with age. Younger users are more willing to convert presence into trust in people, despite trusting less in general. Those 18–29 surpassed older generations in terms of how strongly they trusted, but only at the highest levels of social presence. Heightening this sense of presence could facilitate trust for future generations.

KEYWORDS:

• Social presence
• social capital
• social learning
• Facebook
• generalised trust

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Narrower forms of trust have also been shown to exist, as experiences with particular individuals reflect on groups they are taken to represent (e.g. specific races and ethnicities; Bouchillon and Stewart 2020; Swan and Shih 2005; Stolle 1998).