Facebook usage and risk of poor social capital

Abstract

Recently, researchers have shown an increased interest in the relationship between Social Network Site (SNS) and Social Capital (SC) [1]–[3]. However, there have been no studies which compare differences in risk of poor social capital of SNS users. This paper will focus on the relationship between three features of Facebook usage (online time, friends and emotion) and risk of poor SC. In addition, this paper will also examine the relationship between measure of cognitive “important of social capital” and risk of poor SC. This cross-sectional study collected 288 survey of Vietnamese Facebook users, who were conventional sampled. We classified users into two groups poor SC and rich SC based on median. Other variables such as Online time, Friends, Emotion and Cognitive were classified into two groups based on median values. We compared risk of poor SC for each group. Group A1 (friends ≤ 200) ratio of poor SC was 13.55% larger than group B1 (friends > 200). Risk ratio A1:B1 was 1.27 (63.1% vs 48.6%; 95% CI: 1.02— 1.59) and proportion test ratio poor of SC A1 greater than ratio poor of SC B1 was P-value = 0.017. Group A2 (daily online time ≤ 30 minutes) ratio of poor SC was 9.08% larger than group B2 (daily online time > 30 minutes). Risk ratio A2:B2 was 1.17 (62.9% vs 50.8%; 95% CI: 0.95—1.53) and proportion test ratio of poor SC A2 > B2 was P-value = 0.08. Group A3 (average emotion ≤ 3.17) ratio of poor SC was 27.4% larger than group B3 (average emotion > 3.17). Risk ratio A3:B3 was 1.62 (70.7% vs 43.6%; 95% CI: 1.3—2.02) and proportion test ratio of poor SC A3 > B3 was P-value < 0.001. Group A4 (average cognitive ≤ 3.75) ratio of poor SC was 26.91% larger than group B4 (average cognitive > 3.75). Risk ratio A4:B4 was 1.6 (72.1% vs 44.6%; 95% CI: 1.30— 1.96) and proportion test ratio of poor SC A4 < B4 was P-value < 0.001. Emotion of Facebook activity and cognitive “important of social capital” may reduce ratio of poor SC of users. Individuals should focus to these factors to gain SC (one factor based on SNS and one factor none related SNS). It seems that online time and number of Facebook friends have a little benefit for users.