The benefits and drawbacks of attending social networking sites and online communities almost go hand-in-hand with one another. The sites and communities both allow people to communicate with other individuals who share similar interests and/or hobbies. The participants can also become associated with heterogeneous local associations that, according to Norris’s findings, have reputations of helping to build social capitals, generate interpersonal trust, and reinforce ties between differing communities. These benefits are equally rivaled by the potential consequences that can arise with these social sites. For instance, either online communities or SNSs can just as easily become affiliated with homogenous bonding organizations. Norris states that while these organizations can do what the heterogeneous local associations can, they can also worsen social conflicts that may exist in societies containing histories of conflict. These conflicts may deal with race, religion, or the nation itself. This could prove to be an unfortunate set of events for individuals who simply want to make friends over the internet.
Social capitals can develop online with little effort. According to the conclusive findings of Ellison, Steingfield, and Lampe, sites such as Facebook have numerous features that could be used to help bring those people together, whether they are similar to each other, like those found in bonding social capitals, or are of different sorts, such as the ones who make up bridging social capitals. These sound a lot like some of the sites that I have seen while looking at various pages on Facebook. The people in social sites like these definitely have differing likes and dislikes, which could potentially lead to more online friendships and form more social capitals.
The homogeneous bonding of people on the internet is both promising and troubling. I worry that people will further isolate themselves within their own point of view by only associating and being exposed to like minded individuals. However, there is research to show that positive things can come from these behaviors as well. We touched on this briefly last semester, but there is scholarly research on the role that SNS played in the Arab Spring. Because people in favor of the revolt were able to connect with other like minded people online, they were able to organize themselves and impact the political situation they found themselves in.
The question about bridging vs. bonding may ultimately be a social, rather than technological question. I think Tim touched on this is one of his comments, but maybe we, as humans, are just naturally inclined to connect with similar people. Think about the old adage “birds of a feather flock together.” While bonding certainly can create intimacy and strengthen ties, there is, as Meagan says, also the danger of living in a bubble.
Do we need to challenge ourselves to step out of our bubbles?
Bridging seems more likely to occur in online communities, whereas social network sites seem to foster bonding between people with pre-existing offline relationships. I’ve never met someone through a social network site that turned into an offline friend. I can say the same for online communities, though I think I would be more likely to turn a relationship that was established through bridging in an online community into an offline friendship. I post on MemphisTigers.org from time to time, and I know many of the personalities pretty well. As I’m sure most lurkers do, I think the majority of the MT.org board members have no idea what they’re talking about about 99% of time, but there are a few posters who know their stuff. If I ran into them in person and was able to identify them, I’m sure we’d have things to talk about.
I think bridging vs bonding is more of a social question the can be described as Extraverts- bridging and introverts-bonding. Bridging seems to be what SNS developers want to strive for but they filled with introverted bonding.
“Norris states that while these organizations can do what the heterogeneous local associations can, they can also worsen social conflicts that may exist in societies containing histories of conflict.” I also enjoyed this statement mainly because it is true. I have seen this happen many times when someone of a particular race or religion get bashed because of something that was seen on televison or on an online broadcast.