Social Capital in Online Networks

This lecture explores the motivations behind using Facebook, such as social grooming and social capital. It delves into Dunbar's number, the maximum number of social relationships one can maintain, and the types of social capital. The impact of the internet on social capital is discussed, along with the relationship between Facebook usage intensity and social capital. The lecture also covers the features extracted from Facebook activity logs and their implications on bonding and bridging social capital. Linear regression results reveal the associations between Facebook activity, social capital, and loneliness. The importance of strong and weak ties in online networks is highlighted, drawing from the book 'Networks, Crowds, and Markets'.