Facebook Communication Habits and Social Capital

Abstract

Facebook is the most popular social network today allowing its users to build a virtual network of friendships, acquaintances and contacts, which enables them to connect the virtual and real world. Th e establishment and reinforcement of these connections leads to the development of social capital, which is a cohesive element for any kind of community. This paper focuses on the relationship among various factors that operate on this social network. It aims at disclosing the mutual connection of communicational habits and users’ habits of the informants who participated in the research (N=161), as well as the roles of these habits in the construction of social capital. The initial hypothesis of the research is that the frequency of Facebook use and the length of owning a Facebook account have a positive correlation with communicational habits and provide a positive experience of Facebook users. The research was done via a questionnaire administered in the winter of 2012. Th e questionnaire was uploaded to a commercial site SurveyMonkey. Answers were coded and statistically processed in SPSS 13.0. The results indicate that older users have fewer Facebook accounts and that those who have owned a Facebook account for a longer time tend to check their Facebook page more often. Besides that, the frequency of Facebook use has a positive and statistically significant correlation with the sense of belonging to a community. This is confirmed by other statistically significant results: the users’ opinion that Facebook allows them to meet interesting people is correlated with the sense of belonging to a community and the attitude that Facebook allows them to communicate with others. Opportunities to communicate with others on Facebook positively correlate with maintaining contact with people who live far away, which in turn correlates with maintaining contact with people from the users’ vicinity. This leads to the conclusion that investing both time and effort in communication and maintaining contact on Facebook induces an increased sense of belonging and connection. However, social capital develops and thrives mostly when online connections are just an extension of offline contacts. This is confirmed by the fact that connections with people who live far away are weak and insufficient for the growth of social capital.