Vitak and Ellison (2012) interviewed 18 Facebook users to explore support and information seeking activities along with barriers to these exchanges. Some of what the interviewees had to say really hit home with me. For example, one of the interviewees discussed how Facebook easily allowed her to keep members of her network updated on a recent surgery that she went through. She did not have to send out individual email; rather, she was able to send a mass message out through her status update. She also discussed how the comments people would post in reply would really lift her spirits.

My brother recently went through several serious surgeries and Facebook did allow our family to quickly update others on his condition. As a Christian, I view this as a significant advantage of social networking sites. For example, Facebook allowed our family to quickly inform other praying individuals of prayer requests. As the article stated, these messages are not only sent to your closest friends. These messages also inform weaker ties, and allow them to show support through prayer or other words of encouragement.

However, I also understand the point that another interviewee made that highlights a potential barrier to information sharing. This individual discussed not wanting to immediately post information requesting support due to concerns with how it may be perceived. This individual did “not want to appear ‘needy’ or have people ‘feel sorry for her’ (Vitak and Ellison 2012).” I can completely understand where she is coming from. In fact, I could almost see myself thinking these very thoughts, but it is something that I feel I should get over. We do have friends on Facebook, and we should be willing to lean on them from time to time. We should not let our pride get in the way. I should take my own advice. To me, the benefits far outweigh the costs, but I do not always act in this way.

As can be seen, this article discussed how people use social networking sites. The other two readings discussed the issue of whether or not these sites increase social capital. Burke et al. (2011) define social capital as “the actual or potential resources which are linked to a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition.” In this article, I liked how the authors classified our SNS activities into three groups.  These groups included “(1) directed communication with individual friends,” “passive consumption of social news,” and “broadcasting (Burke et al. 2011).” I think that this classification makes great intuitive sense and can be adopted very easily by future studies. Both of these readings did show some support for the idea that social networking sites can impact social capital.

Burke, M., Kraut, R., & Marlow, C. (2011, May). Social capital on Facebook: Differentiating uses and users. Paper presented at the ACM CHI 2011: Conference on Human Factors in Comput- ing System, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Vitak, J., & Ellison, N. B. (in press). ‘There’s a network out there you might as well tap’: Explor- ing the benefits of and barriers to exchanging informational and support-based resources on Facebook. New Media & Society. doi: 10.1177/1461444812451566