According to Norris, social capital can be bonded best in heterogeneous local associations. The other benefits that can come from heterogeneous associations are building social capital, generating interpersonal trust and reinforcing community ties. It is more difficult to build social capital in a homogeneous organizations “in pluralistic societies splintered by deep-rooted ethnonational, enthnoreligious or racial conflict” (Norris 2004).
The benefits of SNSs such as Facebook allow you to reconnect with people you went to high school or college with that you may not have talked to or seen in a while. If you want to know what someone’s been up to, a good way to find out is to go to their Facebook page. Facebook also allows you to form new connections with people. I have met new people through friends I already have and it is a good way to meet people. Another benefit is that it can be used to promote events for certain organizations. If you ‘like’ a certain organizations’ page, their statuses will pop up on your page. So if they share a picture of whatever events they have coming up, everyone that’s liked the page will be made aware of it. If you’re friends with someone in the organization, it is a good chance they will share the picture too. The only negative things on Facebook I can think of is just harassment/bullying.
One of the frustrating things about Facebook over the last year is their pay to promote policy with prohibits Facebook users from seeing all of the content from “friends” or “liked” groups/organizations in their feeds. Now if an organization wants for all of their subscribers to see their statuses, they have to pay to promote that content. I would like to see some scholars study how this will affect bridging and bonding on Facebook going forward.
Facebook used to be such a great tool to bring awareness about organizations and businesses. Unfortunately, like Meagan pointed out, it has become a huge moneymaker and they are now inserting business posts in our newsfeed even if we haven’t liked the page. This takes space away from the pages that we actually care about. It’s sad to see Facebook go down the drain, but something bigger and better will eventually come about.
I do agree that Facebook as well as any SNS site can lead to bullying & harassment. Would you say bullying & harassment is part of bonding and bridging? Some people may feel that it is the only way they know to connect or form a relationship with others.
I also think its interesting to look at how a lot of SNS have been used to connect people to products or intangible items. I think that some SNS has become more of an evolved social media tool that goes beyond Person to Person connections.
I don’t have Facebook, so I wasn’t aware of the fact that liking an organizations page allowed you to be connected to that social group. That sounds like a really cool way to meet new people or network among others that share a common hobby or belief as yourself. I think of Facebook in terms of an online meeting place for friends, but your post made me realize you can do a lot more on it than just that. I think that is definitely a way people can make a ton of new relationships without doing it just to bulk up their “list”.
“The benefits of SNSs such as Facebook allow you to reconnect with people you went to high school or college with that you may not have talked to or seen in a while.” I can say that I did not create a Facebook until after graduation mainly to keep in contact with friends from high school. I also have seen Facebook evolve into this tech savvy place that allows you kept in touch with old friends and bond with people life yourself in groups.