Advantages And Disadvantages Of Social Support Networks

1648 Words7 Pages
Neighbours Neighbour’s support is considerably weaker than of friends. For the traditional families, neighbours lived very close are a major source of help and support. But now this support is considerably weaker than other support. Online social support Since its inception, the Internet has become a global network connecting individuals all over the world. Computer networks link people and enrich their social networks (Wellman et al., 1996). The Internet is seen as a medium that fosters memberships in multiple partial communities, providing companionship, social support, information, and a sense of belonging. Through electronic mail, newsgroups, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and ICQ (“I Seek You”) individuals are communicating, creating new social relationships, and exchanging resources such as social support, information, and knowledge (Wellman and Gulia, 1998; Wellman et al., 1996). Rheingold 1993 defined online communities as: …social aggregations that emerge from the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace. Keseier et al. (1984) noted possibilities of developing computer networks into social support networks. Adolescents are the age group disproportionately affected by this new technology (Pew Internet and American Life Project 2009). While Internet use is now common among all age groups, it is adolescents who predominately use the social communication