Access to specific social resources across different social media: divergent consequences of the time spent with new contacts

Abstract

Despite a large number of studies on the social impact of the Internet, little is known about the specific social resources to which social media provide access. Most studies have either examined issues surrounding the question whether or not new online contacts have been established or they have focused on the distinction between perceived bridging capital and bonding capital. Research has rarely focused on the kind of specific benefits that may arise due to the establishment of new online contacts. In this context, the study examines the specific forms of social capital which can be accessed via different social media (i.e. email lists, instant messaging, multiplayer games, weblogs and -forums, chat rooms, social networking sites and an own weblog). This article makes a distinction between the maintenance of existing contacts and the making of new contacts. Utilizing a random sample of Internet users from a major city in the Netherlands, we find that new online relationships do not always provide access to specific resources. But the type of social media employed for communication with new contacts has an influence on the provision (or non-provision) of access to resources and to the kind of resources which are accessed.

Keywords:

• social media
• Internet use
• social capital
• social support
• relationship
• resources
• social network services
• Facebook

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Uwe Matzat is an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Human-Technology-Interaction Group at Eindhoven University of Technology. His research studies the impact of digital communication on (in) equality, cohesion, and modernization of society and examines how social and technological characteristics of social media affect human interaction. [email: [email protected]]

Bert M. Sadowski works as an Associate Professor of Economics of Innovation and Technological Change at the University of Technology in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He received his PhD from the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, UK. His research has focused on the economics and the management of innovation and technological change. [email: [email protected]]