Facebook groups as social intervention tools for improving digital skills

ABSTRACT

Recent research has proven that Facebook groups are efficient tools that support learning and promote cooperation and social connectedness particularly amongst young graduates. The aim of this paper is to prove whether the acquisition of digital skills and the participation in Facebook groups improves the social connectedness, information outreach and resilience capacity of young Social Work graduates. We have observed social connectedness patterns on Facebook of 44 Social Work graduates from Malaga (Spain) through an experimental model and the analysis of social networking sites. We found an improvement in connectedness on Facebook, based on the participation in the group as well as an improvement of digital skills, which are key elements for the processes of digital inclusion. Finally, we found that the acquisition of digital skills correlates the resilience capacity of young graduates. Results show that digital skills modulate online connectedness and resilience.

KEYWORDS:

• Facebook groups
• connectedness
• digital skills
• resilience
• digital inclusion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joaquín Castillo de Mesa

Joaquín Castillo de Mesa, Ph.D he has been an associate professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of Málaga (Spain) since 2010 and a member of Research Group of Quality of Life and Community and Organizational Intervention. He has been a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley, and at Anglia Ruskin University. His publications include analysis of social innovations, detection of communities, mining data from Big Social Data and combining analysis social networks and different algorithms for applying the results to social intervention.

Luis Gómez Jacinto

Luis Gómez Jacinto, Ph.D he earned his B.S. in Psychology at the University of Salamanca and his Ph.D. at the University of Málaga (Spain), where he has been a Full Professor of Social Psychology since 1999. He has directed numerous dissertations and is the author and coauthor of several scientific publications related to Social Psychology. Currently, he is a professor in the Department of Social Studies and Work at the University of Málaga. His research is centered on the application of the theory of evolution to the analysis of psychosocial processes as well as social and community intervention.