Societies 2014, 4(4), 561-586; doi:10.3390/soc4040561
Unpacking Social Media’s Role in Resource Provision: Variations across Relational and Communicative Properties
College of Information Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, 4105 Hornbake Building, South Wing, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Received: 7 August 2014 / Revised: 14 October 2014 / Accepted: 15 October 2014 / Published: 23 October 2014
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Media and Social Capital)
Abstract
New information and communication technologies (ICTs) challenge existing beliefs regarding the exchange of social resources within a network. The present study examines individuals’ perceived access to social, emotional, and instrumental resources by analyzing relational and Facebook-specific characteristics of dyadic relationships. Results suggest that the social and technical affordances of the site—including visibility of content and connections, as well as streamlined processes for interacting with a large audience—may augment existing perceptions of resource access for some ties while providing a major (or sole) outlet to interact and exchange resources with others. Specifically, weaker ties appear to benefit more than strong ties from engagement in directed communication and relationship maintenance strategies, while additional variations were observed across relationship category, dyad composition, and geographic proximity. In summary, these findings provide new evidence for how positive relational gains may be derived from site use. View Full-TextKeywords:
social capital; social provisions; social network sites; Facebook; relational closeness; relationship maintenance
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
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Vitak, J. Unpacking Social Media’s Role in Resource Provision: Variations across Relational and Communicative Properties. Societies 2014, 4, 561-586.
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