The Impact Of SNS Using Behaviors On The User’s Bridging Social Capital

In this paper, we extend our knowledge of the bridging social capital implications of SNS use through both the identification of specific SNS-enabled interpersonal interaction behaviors that predict general and SNS-specific bridging social capital gains using survey data from a sample of adults(N=274).Through a series of regression analyses, we found that the demographic variables, time on social applications, total and “actual”offline friends all have a significant influence on predicting bridging social capital. Moreover, this study constructs a new measure, found that the relationship between SNS interpersonal interaction behaviors and bridging social capital is moderated by the number of actual friends the user reported in their network. In other words, as engagement in interpersonal interaction behaviors increased, users with fewer actual friends reported higher perceived bridging social capital—both SNS-specific and general—than users with more actual friends.We believe that the social and technical affordances of SNS makes it easier for individuals to invest in and extract social resources from their network and to access Friends of Friends, who might provide novel informational resources. Most importantly, these findings highlight the importance of actively managing and maintaining one’s network, but rather is developed through small but meaningful effort on the part of users as they engage in interpersonal communication behaviors. This work contributes to our understanding of relationship maintenance activities in social networks and suggests that the true benefit of SNS may not just be the technical connections they make possible, but by creating an environment in which meaningful communicative exchanges, and the potential social capital benefits they embody, can flow.