Building social capital with Facebook: Type of network, availability of other media, and social self-efficacy matter

Findings about Facebook's effect on relationships are mixed, possibly due to lack of models that acknowledge differences across users, types of their friends, and use of competing media. To address this, we proposed and tested how Facebook and traditional media influence bridging and bonding social capital in two different networks: core network of high school friends and network of first-semester college friends. Facebook was expected to compensate for traditional media in the first network while social self-efficacy was expected to interact with media use in the latter. Results provide reasonable support for our models. In the network of high school friends, Facebook promotes bonding social capital and traditional media promotes both bridging and bonding social capital. Facebook also promotes bridging social capital but only when it substitutes for traditional media; it harms bridging social capital otherwise. In the network of college friends, Facebook promotes both bridging and bonding social capital and the effect on bonding social capital strengthens with decreasing social self-efficacy of the user. Traditional media too promotes bonding social capital in this network but this effect weakens with decreasing social self-efficacy of the user. Traditional media promotes bridging social capital as well but only for those with high social self-efficacy; it may harm bridging social capital for users with low social self-efficacy. Our results suggest that instead of asking whether Facebook builds relationships and social capital, researchers should focus on finding the conditions in which it does. University officials concerned with students' adjustment to university life can employ these results to suggest appropriate media when they counsel students about how to maintain and develop social capital in their networks of high school and college friends.