Lecture 4: Online friendships and social connectedness

Question 1

What is ‘social connectedness’?

Answer 1

The feeling of belonging and relatedness

Question 2

What is the definition of ‘belonging’?

Answer 2

• Human need to seek and maintain social ties,…
• …engage in groups,…
• …talk to strangers…
• …and stay connected with acquaintances
  (Baumeister & Leary, 1995)

Question 3

Due to what change their may been some implications for our need for social connectedness?

Answer 3

Change dynamics of social interactions (e.g., social media)

Question 4

Which three aspects may contribute to our feelings of being connected on social media?

Answer 4

1. Social capital
2. Sense of community
3. Loneliness

Question 5

Explain what social capital is..:

Answer 5

• Concept that focusses on the advantages of building and maintaining network of relationships
• Bridging (weak ties)
• Bonding (strong ties)
• Maintained social capital

Question 7

What does ‘Bridging (weak ties)’ mean?

Answer 7

• refers to the connections/relationships that exist between individuals/groups who may not have strong, close-knit, or familial ties
• These ties are not emotionally close
• Weak ties can be instrumental in helping individuals discover new opportunities, access different social circles, and gain novel insights.

Question 8

What does ‘Bonding (strong ties)’ mean?

Answer 8

• Refers to the close, strong, and intimate relationships between individuals or groups.
• These ties are characterized by a high level of trust, emotional support, and reciprocity.
• They provide a sense of belonging and support
• it may not offer the same level of diversity in perspectives and opportunities as bridging ties

Question 9

What does ‘Maintained social capital’ mean?

Answer 9

• Maintained social capital is the concept of actively nurturing and sustaining one’s social relationships over time. (for bridging & bonding ties)
• Actively maintaining your social capital can lead to ongoing benefits, as relationships are not static; they require effort and attention to remain valuable.

Question 10

What is the broad definition of social media?

Answer 10

• online platforms
• that allow users to create a profile,
• connect with other users,
• and share and exchange content
  (Ryan et al., 2017)

Question 11

What is the specific definition of social network sites?

Answer 11

(1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system (profile page)
(2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection (friends list)
(3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the
system (feed)

Question 12

What is the difference of SNS and SNSs?

Answer 12

SNS: e.g., Reddit (no profile)
SNSs: Facebook

Question 13

What did initial research on ‘social capital and facebook’ found? (Ellison et al. (2007), Steinfield et al. (2008)

Answer 13

Context: connecting with offline friends (peers)

1. Intensity of Facebook use -> positively associated with all three forms of social capital (bonding, bridging, & maintained social capital)
2. Greater benefits for users experiencing low self-esteem and low life satisfaction

Question 14

What did follow-up research on ‘social capital and facebook’ found? (Vitak et al., 2011)

Answer 14

Context: Connecting with anyone (family, friends, acquaintances, strangers)
1. Intensity of usage -> only higher bridging capital
2. More friends -> greater bonding social capital
3. Posting more than once/10 days -> lower bonding
4. Posting up to 6 times per day -> greater bridging

Question 15

What are possible interpretations for the finding ‘intensity of facebook usage -> only higher bridging capital’?

Answer 15

1. Less exclusive:
   large pool of heterogeneous users
2. Intimacy decreased:
   Less conducive to interact with close (strong) ties, but good opportunity to keep up with weak ties (e.g., news about a job)

Question 16

What was the conclusion of the follow-up research on ‘social capital and facebook’?

Answer 16

Regular SNS use contributes to greater bridging capital, but intense use does not benefit bonding capital

Question 17

What does ‘sense of community’ mean?

Answer 17

• Feeling of belonging to a group in which their needs are considered important
• Fundamental need

Question 18

Why is ‘sense of community’ a fundamental need?

Answer 18

Attaining a sense of community can be psychologically rewarding, leading to enhanced life satisfaction and wellbeing

Question 19

What is the initial assumption of the study ‘how social are social media’? (Ryen et al., )

Answer 19

1. using the internet for social networking activities, is more likely to lead to the development of a sense of community
2. as opposed to using the internet primarily for entertainment purposes, where the focus is on passive consumption of content without necessarily building relationships or a sense of belonging.

Question 20

What is the RQ of the study ‘how social are social media’? (Ryen et al., )

Answer 20

Frequent social media usage – stronger sense of belonging to a community?

Question 21

What were the findings of the study about belonging to a community ‘how social are social media’? (Ryen et al., )?

Answer 21

Mixed findings:
* Social media groups provide support for particular communities (e.g., next week :)
* But not always as “community” as they seem: e.g., communities on Twitter remain focused on individuals interacting

Question 22

What are the negative effects of ‘sense of community on social media’?

Answer 22

• Cyber-ostracism
• Cyberball

Question 23

What is the definition of cyber-ostracism?

Answer 23

Ostracization: to exclude, by general consent, from society, friendship, conversation, privileges

Question 24

What does cyber-ostracism look like?

Answer 24

Feeling excluded or perceiving lack of feedback from online community members
* Not an explicit rejection, tacit (unspoken)
* “Everyone talks to each other, but not to me”
* Reaching out with no response (while assuming a large audience of viewers)

Question 25

What does “cyberball” mean?

Answer 25

• Simple game designed by Kipling and Blair (2006) to examine the effects of social ostracization
• At the beginning of the game, the participant is led to believe that they are playing with real people, and they can choose to throw the ball to one of the other players.
• However, as the game progresses, the other “players” gradually start excluding the participant by not passing the ball to them.
• The participant then experiences a sense of social exclusion and ostracism within the virtual environment.

Question 26

What is the definition of ‘loneliness’?

Answer 26

the perception of insufficient personal relationships and a lack of social connectedness

Question 27

What is important to know about ‘loneliness’?

Answer 27

not a function of social rejection; can also be a by-product of personal and situational factors, such as reduced mobility, time required to keep up with contacts, geographical isolation, or social anxiety

Question 28

What were the results for the study of ‘role of motivation for loneliness on social media’? (Teppers, Luyckx, Klimstra & Goossens, 2014)

Answer 28

1. Socially anxious adolescents who communicated via Facebook to compensate for their offline social skill deficits increased their levels of loneliness
2. BUT adolescents who used Facebook to augment their offline social
   networks (e.g., finding new friends) experienced reduced loneliness.

Question 29

What is the conclusion about ‘loneliness on social media’?

Answer 29

Mixed findings:
1. Some clear associations between social media use and feeling less lonely (Lou et al. 2012) as well as more lonely (Teppers et al, 2014)

2. The experience of reducing or increasing loneliness through social media use may be related to the motives behind usage & the characteristics of the user

Question 30

Why do the insights about social connectedness matter? (Social capital, sense of community, loneliness)?

Answer 30

1. Social media users may experience enhanced feelings of social connectedness (in terms of social capital, sense of community and decreased loneliness)
2. Some may expose themselves to negative outcomes: reduced bonding social
   capital, cyberostracism, loneliness
3. Effects might depend on how media are used (regular vs intensive) or motivation (make up for lack of social skills, or supplement strong offline network

Question 31

When increased social connectedness?

Answer 31

1. regular usage
2. Motivation: Enhancing offline network
3. Complementing other form of communication

Question 32

What hypothesis measured ‘increased social connectedness?

Answer 32

Social augmentation hypothesis (based on e-mail and chatroom
research)

Question 33

Explain the ‘social augmentation hypothesis’

Answer 33

1. Social media allows the development of social relations, mainly due to
   strengthening existing social relations
2. Stronger membership through additional online contact

Question 34

When decreased social connectedness?

Answer 34

1. Excessive usage
2. Motivation: building an online network to compensate for lack of social skills
3. Instead of other forms of communicating

Question 35

What hypothesis measured ‘decreased social connectedness?

Answer 35

Social displacement hypothesis