Exploring the Relationship Between Mobile Facebook and Social Capital: What Is the “Mobile Difference” for Parents of Young Children?

Abstract

Mobile media have generally been found to reinforce close ties. Many have predicted this will bring about an onerous social insularity or “network privatism.” However, mobile media now enable frequent communication and multimedia activities with larger, more diffuse social networks. Might we be at a tipping point where certain groups benefit from weak tie connections on mobile social media? To answer this question, this study considers how mobile media altered social capital outcomes on Facebook among parents with young children, a group that are heavy users of mobile media and requiring social support. An online survey ( N = 262) conducted with parents with young children reveals a generally positive picture. Results show differences between desktop and mobile use of Facebook. Toward a contextual understanding of the impact of visual media, multimedia activities with social ties accrued bridging over bonding capital. Social capital was in turn correlated with mobile Facebook activities beneficial for parents’ well-being. Far from negative predictions, this study provides evidence of how mobile social media broaden our social spheres.

Facebook in context(s): Measuring emotional responses across time and space

“…In line with other recent efforts (e.g. Humphreys et al, 2013;Schrock, 2016), this study advances the need for considering context in conjunction with user practices. We have demonstrated how Facebook activities are associated with differential outcomes according to temporal scale and spatial location.…”

Smartphone y redes sociales para el desarrollo de competencias mediáticas y digitales en niños y adolescentes: Musical.ly

“…El estudio de las redes sociales se ha abordado en los últimos años desde diferentes perspectivas: desde la participación activa de los jóvenes (García-Galera, del-Hoyo-Hurtado y Fernández-Muñoz, 2014), desde perspectivas afectivo-familiares y de relaciones (Takeuchi, 2011;Padilla, Rodríguez, Álvarez, Torres, Suárez y Rodrigo, 2015;Schrock, 2016; Vidales y Sábada, 2017), desde las experiencias negativas y percepción de riesgo (De-Fru-tos y Marcos, 2017; Peddinti, Ross y Cappos, 2014; Radesky, Schumacher y Zuckerman, 2015), desde la relación entre jóvenes y tecnología (Lenhart, Smith, Anderson, Duggan y Perrin, 2015), sin embargo, se echan en falta enfoques más pedagógicos que aborden el estudio de las redes sociales como espacios comunicativos y de desarrollo competencial. Es en este punto donde el artículo que aquí se presenta pretende abrir un nuevo campo de investigación, aportando este estudio de caso.…”

Young Children’s Mobile Device Use in Public Places: Immersion, Distraction, and Co-Use

“…Instead, they have the potential to build bonds and bridges (Wilken, 2011) that potentially strengthen social connections in both virtual (Kobayashi et al, 2015) and face-to-face (Chayko, 2021) contexts. Such connections include parent-child bonds when smartphones offer opportunities for co-use and other forms of digital and physical interaction (Schrock, 2016). Smartphones may also enhance people's interactions with physical spaces through, for example, visual, informational, and gamified digital contents that map onto various geolocations (Hjorth & Pink, 2014).…”