Let the Weakest Link Go! Empirical Explorations on the Relative Importance of Weak and Strong Ties on Social Networking Sites

Krämer, Nicole C.; Rösner, Leonie; Eimler, Sabrina C.; Winter, Stephan; Neubaum, German

doi:10.3390/soc4040785

Cited by 62 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Channels where users maintain broader, more disparate networks such as Twitter and Facebook may be better for accessing informational support (consistent with Putnam, 1995), while channels with tighter more closely connected social circles such as Snapchat may be better for accessing appraisal support without the fear of negative of dissonant responses to support-seeking. Moreover, the finding of various channels lending themselves to different dimensions of social support reinforce recent calls (e.g., Krämer et al, 2014) to not collapse social support as a unidimensional construct, and rather to consider how individual media may (or may not) facilitate a specific type of social support. The focus groups echoed findings from Williams (2006), noting instrumental support may be difficult to provide online, not due to relational closeness but rather because the nature of the system itself does not lend itself to provisions of instrumental support-one cannot help you move a couch via WhatsApp.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

It’s the Audience: Differences in Social Support Across Social Media

Hayes

Carr

Wohn

2016

Social Media + Society

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Responding to recent calls to transcend social media platforms when examining media effects, and using the social information processing model to predict and explain results, this multi-method study first uses a US national survey ( N = 325) to examine perceived effectiveness of social support and relational closeness via paralinguistic digital affordances (PDAs; e.g., “Likes,” “+1s,” and “Upvotes”)—the one-click tools for phatic communication—between social media platforms. Results of the survey reveal some significant between-platform differences in perceived effectiveness of social support provided by a PDA, but no significant differences in the relational closeness of ties across platforms. These findings were used to design and conduct focus groups ( N = 36) to understand why the identified differences exist. Focus groups reveal that although social support is exchanged across all platforms, different dimensions of social support are sought and received depending on the platform and the network audience that platform accesses. In addition, the focus groups revealed meaningful differences in the nature of network relationships between the platforms, if not the degree of closeness. Taking the two studies together, it seems the adoption and continued use of a platform is an idiosyncratic function of both the social and the technological. Findings underscore the importance of conducting cross-platform studies and demonstrate the value of using PDAs as a convenient cross-platform comparison tool, as they are one of the few common features across social media.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

It’s the Audience: Differences in Social Support Across Social Media

Hayes

Carr

Wohn

2016

Social Media + Society

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“…Not only the type of use but also the type of relationship -that is, whether the communication takes place with close or distant social ties, might impact well-being (e.g. as on SNSs, Krämer et al 2014). Future research should, therefore, examine more closely the quality of interpersonal relationships among older age groups and their communicative activities on smartphones.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Age Matters’: A panel study investigating the influence of communicative and passive smartphone use on well-being

Stević

Schmuck

Matthes

et al. 2019

Behaviour & Information Technology

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Communicative and passive online use have been shown to affect individuals' well-being in opposite ways. While communicative use is often associated with beneficial outcomes, passive use may even harm individuals' well-being. However, existing studies have paid insufficient attention to the influence of age on these associations. Additionally, little evidence is available regarding the impact of communicative and passive smartphone use on individuals' well-being across the lifespan. Drawing upon the theoretical approaches of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, Social Convoy Model, and Social Compensation Hypothesis, we assumed that particularly communicative smartphone use may be beneficial for older adults' well-being, helping them to maintain their personal relationships. Results of a two-wave panel survey (N T2 = 461) revealed a significant negative influence of passive smartphone use on well-being irrespective of age. In line with the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory and Social Compensation Hypothesis, communicative smartphone use, however, only had a positive influence on well-being for adults older than 63 years, but not for younger adults. Our findings contribute to a broader understanding of the consequences of different types of smartphone use on well-being across generations in the longitudinal context.

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“…Vitak [9] tried to disentangle social, emotional and instrumental support, but found that the items all loaded onto one factor, indicating again that the classical assumptions from social capital theory do not hold anymore on social media. Similar to Krämer et al [8], Vitak [9] finds that strong ties do provide more social support, but upon closer examination of more fine-grained communication strategies and affordances, she shows that weak ties profit more from directed communication and relationship maintenance strategies. Vitak [9] argues that the technological affordances (e.g., visibility, streamlined interactions) may augment the perceptions especially for weaker ties.…”

mentioning

confidence: 78%

“…At a first glance the two studies seem to present contrasting results. Krämer et al [8] do not find support for the classical assumption that weak ties provide non-redundant information, whereas strong ties provide emotional support. Instead, they find that strong ties are perceived to provide both types of support, more so than medium or weak ties do.…”

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confidence: 88%

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Social Media and Social Capital: Introduction to the Special Issue

Utz

Muscanell

2015

Societies

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Social media, especially social network sites (SNS) such as Facebook have grown rapidly in popularity in the last ten years. Facebook now has more than 1.3 billion users. Social media make it easier to maintain connections with strong ties, such as close friends and relatives, but also with weak ties, such as acquaintances or people only met once [1]. They also allow for new connections. Further, social media often blur audience boundaries (audiences are collapsed into one general audience) [2]. To make things even more complex, social media offer public and private communication features that can be further classified, for example, into directed communication (i.e., tagging, liking, or commenting) or more passive communication (i.e., silently consuming what is on your newsfeed) [3]. Unsurprisingly, scholars have thus wondered how social media might impact the nature of interpersonal relationships and ultimately the effects of social capital, i.e., the information and emotional support that people retrieve from their (online or offline) social network.Traditional research on social capital has shown the benefits people can get from their social networks; strong ties provide them with emotional support (hence also bonding capital), and weak ties provide them with non-redundant information and different perspectives (bridging capital) [4,5]. However, these assumptions might no longer hold true on social media where different contexts and audiences collapse, individuals tend to have larger and more heterogeneous networks, and they can communicate in varied and newer ways than previously. This Special Issue brings together papers from different disciplines that focus on generating a current understanding about: (1) the benefits people seek and receive from their social media networks (i.e., informational, instrumental support, and/or emotional support); (2) how tie strength influences which benefits people receive; and (3) the OPEN ACCESS

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Let the Weakest Link Go! Empirical Explorations on the Relative Importance of Weak and Strong Ties on Social Networking Sites

Cited by 62 publications

References 55 publications

It’s the Audience: Differences in Social Support Across Social Media

It’s the Audience: Differences in Social Support Across Social Media

‘Age Matters’: A panel study investigating the influence of communicative and passive smartphone use on well-being

Social Media and Social Capital: Introduction to the Special Issue

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