Social Capital

Wow! Did I just read all of that? The Benefits of Facebook ‘‘Friends:’’ Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites was filled with tons of information. Some were useful and the other parts weren’t too valuable. Social capitals can have both a positive and negative influence in society. Social capital broadly refers to the resources accumulated through the relationships among people (Coleman, 1988). Social capital has been linked to a variety of positive social outcomes, such as better public health, lower crime rates, and more efficient financial markets (Adler & Kwon, 2002).

For individuals, social capital allows a person to draw on resources from other members of the networks to which he or she belongs. These resources can take the form of useful information, personal relationships, or the capacity to organize groups (Paxton, 1999). Personally, I use Facebook to keep in touch with family, friends, and keep up to date with businesses, especially current sales going on. For example, I read a lot about people’s perspectives about Maui election candidates. I also found posts of articles about the Maui GMO Initiative Bill. 80% of what I do is read articles and people’s posts to gain knowledge and ideas. As for sharing/ re-sharing, I think that would make up 15% of what I do and the last 5% would be creating. I share/ re-share most things using Facebook. I find that a lot of the things on my Facebook are more personal things, such as my opinions, thoughts, and ideas about something. I also use Pinterest to find ideas on things I can do in my classroom. I find Pinterest to be the most valuable site on classroom ideas along with Teachers Pay Teachers. I find these sites to be valuable.


References: 

Steinfield, C., Ellison, N., Lampe, C. & Vitak, J. (2012). Online social network sites and the concept of social capital. Frontiers in New Media Research, New York: Routledge, pp. 115-131. Retrieved from https://www.msu.edu/~steinfie/steinfield_Internetat40.pdf