Cultural Differences in Garnering Social Capital on Facebook: French People Prefer Close Ties and Americans Prefer Distant Ties. Issue 6 (2nd November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Brown, Genavee; Michinov, Nicolas
• Is Part Of: Journal of intercultural communication research. Volume 46:Issue 6(2017)
• Page Start: 579
• Page End: 593
• Publication Date: 2017-11-02
• Subjects: Facebook -- relatedness -- social capital -- network composition -- cross-cultural; Intercultural communication -- Periodicals; 303.482
• DOI: 10.1080/17475759.2017.1387166
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1747-5759

Abstract

Abstract: The link between social capital (SC) and Facebook has been widely studied in the U.S., and less is known about how students from different cultures use the site to garner SC. We measured network composition, communication on Facebook, and SC via questionnaires in France and the U.S. We found that American students have a greater proportion of distant to close ties in their networks and higher levels of bridging SC than French, the latter preferring bonding SC. A stronger relationship between SC and communication via Facebook was observed in the U.S. These findings are explained by cultural differences in relatedness.