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The Strength of Internet Ties – The internet and email aid users in maintaining their social networks and provide pathways to help when people face big decisions

This report confronts one of the great debates about the internet: What is it doing to the
relationships and social capital that Americans have with friends, relatives, neighbors,
and workmates? Those on one side of the debate extol the internet’s ability to expand
relationships — socially and geographically. Those on the other side of the debate fear
that the internet will alienate people from their richer, more authentic relations.

Once upon a time, the internet was seen as something special, available only to wizards
and geeks. Now it has become part of everyday life. People routinely integrate it into the
ways in which they communicate with each other, moving between phone, computer, and
in-person encounters.
Our evidence calls into question fears that social relationships — and community — are
fading away in America. Instead of disappearing, people’s communities are transforming:
The traditional human orientation to neighborhood- and village-based groups is moving
towards communities that are oriented around geographically dispersed social networks.

People communicate and maneuver in these networks rather than being bound up in one
solidary community. Yet people’s networks continue to have substantial numbers of
relatives and neighbors — the traditional bases of community — as well as friends and
workmates.

The internet and email play an important role in maintaining these dispersed social
networks. Rather than conflicting with people’s community ties, we find that the internet
fits seamlessly with in-person and phone encounters. With the help of the internet, people
are able to maintain active contact with sizable social networks, even though many of the
people in those networks do not live nearby. Moreover, there is media multiplexity: The
more that people see each other in person and talk on the phone, the more they use the
internet. The connectedness that the internet and other media foster within social
networks has real payoffs: People use the internet to seek out others in their networks of
contacts when they need help.

Because individuals — rather than households — are separately connected, the internet
and the cell phone have transformed communication from house-to-house to person-to-person. This creates a new basis for community that author Barry Wellman has called
“networked individualism”: Rather than relying on a single community for social capital,
individuals often must actively seek out a variety of appropriate people and resources for
different situations.

While traditional means of communications such as in-person visits and landline
telephone conversations are the primary ways by which people keep up with those in
their social networks, our research shows that email helps people cultivate social
networks. We find that email supplements, rather than replaces, the communication
people have with people who are very close to them — as well as those with those not so
close. Email is especially important to those who have large social networks.

In a social environment based on networked individualism, the internet’s capacity to help
maintain and cultivate social networks has real payoffs. Our work shows that internet use
provides online Americans a path to resources, such as access to people who may have
the right information to help deal with a health or medical issue or to confront a financial
issue. Sometimes this assistance comes from a close friend or family member.

Sometimes this assistance comes from a person more socially distant, but made close by
email in a time of need. The result is that people not only socialize online, but they also
incorporate the internet into seeking information, exchanging advice, and making
decisions.

The internet promotes “networked individualism” by
allowing people to seek out a variety of appropriate
people and resources.
The internet has fostered transformation in community from densely knit villages and
neighborhoods to more sparsely knit social networks. Because individuals — rather than
households — are separately connected, the internet and the cell phone have transformed
communication from house to house to person to person. There is “networked
individualism”: Rather than relying on a single community for social capital, individuals
often must actively seek out a variety of appropriate people and resources for different
situations.

The internet plays socially beneficial roles in a world moving towards
“networked individualism.” Email allows people to get help from their
social networks and the web lets them gather information and find
support and information as they face important decisions.

By:

Jeffrey Boase, University of Toronto

John B. Horrigan, Associate Director, Pew Internet Project

Barry Wellman, University of Toronto

Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet Project

Full Report: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Internet_ties.pdf

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