New Media & Community - g42

The changing interconnectedness between social networks and communities is a subject often investigated in Communication research and literature. New media, such as the internet and cell phones, are often cited as potential instigators of this societal change. In “Social Capital”, Putnam argues that social capital in the US has been decreasing since 1960, as evidenced by the declining participation not only in national organizations, but also in informal social activities such as picnics, dinner parties and card games. He states that social bonds between Americans have weakened greatly just within the past forty years and that Americans no longer connect with each other both in structured and unstructured activities as much as they have done in the past, demonstrating a decline in social capital. His statements imply that Americans have smaller networks of social bonds today due to their lessening interaction with others in their community, because of the decreased membership in formal and “informal networks”. The study by McPherson and Smith-Lovin builds upon and expands Putnam’s implications in his discussion of social capital, as they utilize statistical data to determine the degree of “social change in core network structures” between 1985 and 2004. This article references Putnam’s discussion of the changing nature of networks, along with the other literature, as part of the impetus behind the authors’ desire to assess the extent of change in social relationships and discussion networks in America. McPherson and Smith-Lovin found that the average American network size has decreased by roughly one third in the past twenty years, from 2.94 in 1985 to 2.08 in 2004. The study’s results show that the greatest decrease in close bonds is between neighbors and voluntary group members, which is related to Putnam’s discussion of declining group membership. McPherson and Smith-Lovin state that the “ties that bind us to community and neighborhood” have been weakened dramatically. The lack of interaction with ones neighbors in the 21st century is cited frequently in other scholarly sources, particularly in the writings of both Ventura and Singer. McPherson and Smith-Lovin’s study provides empirical support for the assertions of these authors. These authors cite possible causes of their findings, such as demographic shifts and an increase in education levels, but more notably, they delve into the impact that new media might have upon close bonds. They utilize the research of other authors and state that the internet may spur a greater network of weak ties rather than the stronger bonds studied in their research.

The “Time Diary Study” by Nie, Hillygus and Erbring discusses the impact of internet use on interactions with friends, family and co-workers. The study describes the displacement hypothesis and its relation to internet use: if someone is spending time on the internet, he or she is not using that time to socialize with friends or family as he or she could be doing. The researchers found that increased internet use at home did lead to a reduced amount of time spent with family members, citing precise data to support this claim. Their findings showed that for every minute of internet use, there was a reduction of about one third of a minute spent with family. Kraut, Patterson and Lundmark et al’s “Internet Paradox” also discovered similar results, as they demonstrated that greater Internet use was related to corresponding decreases in family communication for new internet users. This study also found that greater internet use was associated with a decrease in the size of participants’ local and distant social networks. A parallel can be drawn between the findings of Kraut, Patterson and Lundmark et al and that of McPherson and Smith-Lovin, as both studies found a decrease in network size in recent years. McPherson and Smith-Lovin’s research indicates the decline in network size over a twenty year period, whereas Kraut, Patterson and Lundmark et al found statistically significant declines in the size of participants’ local social networks over only a period of 12 to 24 months. This study was able to imply causation between internet use and decreases in network size due to its controlling of other variables.

Questions: What do you think is the most probable explanation for the increasing social isolation in America as found by McPherson and Smith-Lovin?

Have new media contributed to the decrease in social capital that Putnam describes?