Facebook Friendship: Social Support
Making friends on Facebook is associated with higher levels of social support; http://eicker.at/FacebookFriendship
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Gerrit Eicker
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Gerrit Eicker
Facebookers
In Facebookers we trust! Pew research: Active Facebookers are more trusting than non-networked counterparts; http://eicker.at/Facebookers
Gerrit Eicker
Friends
Social network sites do not increase offline social network size or relations; http://eicker.at/Friends (via @gedankenstuecke)
In a national phone survey of 2,255 American adults last fall, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that: Facebook users are more trusting than others. Controlling for other factors, the research found that a Facebook user who uses the site multiple times per day is 43% more likely than other internet users and more than three times as likely as non-internet users to feel that most people can be trusted. – Facebook users have more close relationships. Controlling for other factors, the research found that someone who uses Facebook several times per day averages 9% more close, core ties in their overall social network compared with other internet users. – Facebook users are much more politically engaged. The survey was conducted over the November 2010 election season. Compared with other internet users, and users of other social networking platforms, a Facebook user who uses the site multiple times per day was an additional two and half times more likely to attend a political rally or meeting, 57% more likely to persuade someone on their vote, and 43% more likely to have said they would vote. – Facebook users get more social support. The survey explored how much total social support, emotional support, companionship, and instrumental aid (such as having someone help you when you are sick in bed) adults receive. Controlling for other factors, a Facebook user who uses the site multiple times per day receives more emotional support and companionship. For Facebook users, the additional boost is equivalent to about half the total support that the average American receives as a result of being married or cohabitating with a partner. … Social networking sites are increasingly used to keep up with close social ties. Looking at those people that social networking site users report as their core discussion confidants, 40% of users have friended all of their closest confidants. This is a substantial increase from the 29% of users who reported in our 2008 survey that they had friended all of their core confidants.