Does Facebook Make Someone Social Offline?

Does Facebook Make Someone Social Offline?



THE SOURCE “Got Facebook? Investigating What’s Social About Social Media,” by S. Craig Watkins and H. Erin Lee, the University of Texas, Austin.

Were you creeped out by the ominous trailer for “The Social Network” (“I want you to notice, when I’m not around ...”) and what it may say about you? Does logging on to Facebook for the fourth time today make you feel like a soulless shut-in?

If so, fear not: According to a cheery report out of the University of Texas, Austin, Facebook actually makes us more sociable. Surveying 900 current and recent college graduates nationwide, Craig Watkins and Erin Lee of the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas examined the impact of Facebook on users’ social lives, concluding that “social media afford opportunities for new expressions of friendship, intimacy and community.”

The two point to young peoples’ propensity to use Facebook to stay in touch with far-flung friends (47 percent say it’s very important) and family members (35 percent). Four to five years ago, Dr. Watkins said, young people’s social networks were far more limited. “It would have been unimaginable for young people to have their family members as part of their network.”

“Over the last year or so, there’s been a lot of concern and frustration expressed towards Facebook, in particular over privacy,” Dr. Watkins said. “But despite those concerns, not only do people keep using it, but the ways they use it continue to expand.”

Still, does that really mean Facebook makes people more social? Sherry Turkle, author of a new book, “Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other,” said that the study allows Facebook to define what makes for social behavior.

“I’m all for sharing photos, but you can be pro-photo sharing without being convinced that it expands our social lives,” Dr. Turkle said. “It’s a way of defining downwards what it means to be social.”

Whether or not it helps us truly connect, not all sharers share alike. Men tend to use Facebook more functionally, posting news, information and task-oriented content. They’re also more likely than women to share political views (49 percent vs. 36 percent) and religious views (51 percent vs. 43 percent).

Women are more likely to demonstrate online affection, share family photos and commiserate remotely over snapshots from girls’ night out. But roughly the same percentage of both genders (84 percent) broadcast their relationship status.

Over all, though, it seems people grow up and shut up. As users make the transition from dormitory to real life, they’re less likely to reveal their political and religious views. And that may be as it should. “Just because we grew up with the Internet, we think the Internet is all grown up,” Dr. Turkle said. “It’s not all grown up. It’s in its toddler days.” Perhaps our online selves are, too

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