“In our phone survey, we asked SNS users a variety of questions about their close friends on and offline, the kind of support they received from their friends, the level of diversity of their social circles, and their civic and political activity. We matched the answers to those survey questions to data in these users’ Facebook logs and then analyzed the relationship between certain activities on Facebook and the social lives of these users. One key finding is that Facebook users who received more friend requests and those that accepted more of those friend requests tended to report that they received more social support/assistance from friends (on and offline). There was also a weak, but positive relationship between receiving and approving friendship requests, as well as posting status updates, and higher levels of emotional support, such as help with a personal problem.”

From “Why most Facebook users get more than they give”

Via Pew Internet

My immediate thought on the above, albeit interesting, correlation is that more gregarious and social people (i.e., the kinds of people who are more likely to receive and accept friend requests) are probably more likely, due to their social nature, to ask for/receive more emotional support from friends. Other than acting as another communication tool between people, does Facebook actually affect the process or encourage people to reach out more? My inclination would be to say that in certain situations that is the case but it’s contingent on the willingness of people to publicly share their feelings or needs. But what of people in need but who are unable to communicate those needs? Does FB empower them to give or receive more support? 

Notes

  1. modernandmaterialthings posted this