Whoever said friend requests can't buy happiness may be sorely mistaken. According to a new study from Michigan State University (MSU), general social networking Web site usage may lead to a boost in self-esteem and the ability to build relationships.
The study, conducted with 286 MSU undergraduates from various backgrounds and personalities, examined the connection between the use of social networking sites and the development of a person's "social capital" - the resources one gains through relationships with other people.
According to the study, social capital determines what people can do once they make new friends. For example, a student with a lot of social capital might be able to group a large amount of people together for a birthday party, land a highly competitive job, or find the fastest way to Chinatown from an acquaintance living there.
The researchers involved have found that the Internet plays a large role in closing the gaps in social capital. Weak ties between people, due to distance or other factors, can be mended by using the tools the Internet provides.
They found that closing these gaps helps people to maintain their social capital, which has been linked to lower crime rates and better public well-being - though many other factors affect those statistics as well.
Cliff Lampe, an assistant professor of telecommunication studies at MSU and one of the researchers for the study, said that the study shows how students use Facebook.com as a tool as well as a toy.
"I would say, as a general statement, that the take-away from this article is that college students are using Facebook to maintain their relationships," Lampe said in an e-mail to the Daily. "Despite the media hype about Facebook, students seem to be savvy about how they use the site, and overall they are receiving real benefits from using Facebook."
One Tufts student agreed.
"It's a great feeling for people to check it every day and see that they have hundreds of friends and messages," senior Matt Cohen said. "As long as people don't go overboard with it, I'm all for it."
The study revealed interesting facts about relationships after students head to college. Even though a high percentage of participants listed their high school network in their profile, many of them reported that they do not use Facebook to communicate with their old classmates.
"The important thing is that they could contact their high school friends," Lampe said. "While it's true that people are not using Facebook to maintain deep relationships with high school friends, they are using it to keep lightweight contact. This is different than how previous waves of college students have been able to maintain those relationships."
But some students are skeptical about the study's findings.
"If Facebook is helping to boost self esteem, isn't it artificial - based on the Internet relationships?" freshman Carla Roberts-Toler said.
The study also found that MSU students who weren't avid, intense users reported that they were dissatisfied with student life there.
"I really like using Facebook, but sometimes I think there is so much social pressure to have the most events or wall posts," senior Natalie Wolchover said.
"In social capital research, there are benefits we get not only from our very close friends, but from our larger, looser network of acquaintances and friends we've moved away from," Lampe said.
He said people who connect each other to different groups or have unique information are particularly helpful, even as casual acquaintances.
"Facebook allows for people to maintain a wider network of these acquaintances than was feasible in the past," he said. "The offline analogy might be systems like Christmas card letters or photo directories in organizations."
Lampe said there are also negative effects of social network use, but that they have been overdocumented and exaggerated.
"The popular press has focused on a few cases of Facebook addiction or stalking that can occur from Facebook, though the data seem to indicate that these are very rare events," he said. "From a social capital perspective, we found that people are using Facebook to supplement their friendship networks, not replace them."
But Lampe said making friends - even superficial ones - never hurt anyone.
"It's not the case that people are losing 'real' friends in the pursuit of Facebook friends. Really, the only time we've seen overt friction on Facebook for our participants was in cases where a couple would break up."
