Facebook: Social Capital Analysis

Facebook has become a very popular social networking site. The popularity of Facebook is established based on the number of people using it. Statistics of Facebook users will be discussed and compared with the statistics of other social networking sites. The concept of social capital will be used in an analysis of the impact of Facebook on users. The definitions of social capital with dimensions such as relationships, trust, reciprocity, and action for a common purpose are explained. The two basic forms of social capital are described. The effect of social capital within a community is examined. The relation of social capital on the indices of psychological well-being is discussed.

With the growth of the Internet, more and more people became

Estimating that the world’s population is around 7.24 billion, the network includes roughly 18 percent of the world’s population. However, one must be at least 13 years old to be eligible to sign up for Facebook. Restricting the comparison to the set of individuals eligible to have Facebook accounts would put this percentage significantly higher. Facebook has the largest market share by a wide margin in 2013 with 71% of online adults who use Facebook (22% use LinkedIn, 21% use Pinterest, 18% use Twitter, and 17% use Instagram). There is a slight increase from the 67% of internet users on Facebook in 2012. This might mean nearly everyone on social media is on Facebook.

Facebook is popular across a broad swath of demographic groups, while other social networks have developed their own specific demographic user profiles. It is the only social networking platform which attracts users of all ages. Based on a survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2013, some 45% of internet users over the age of 64 now use Facebook, up from 35% in late 2012. Approximately 79% of middle-aged adults (30-49 years old) and 60% of online adults aged 50 to 64 years old use Facebook. Facebook is especially popular among young adults (18-29 years old) with 84% of them currently on

The study is based on a survey instrument administered to 294 respondents at a North American college in 2006. Participants were recruited through a list of subjects interested in participating in experimental studies on online networks. The survey used is sufficient with around forty questions. Acquisti and Gross were able to determine the privacy attitudes of the respondents without priming them on the subject of the study. Questions about privacy concerns were interspersed with questions on their attitudes towards economic issues, environmental issues, social issues, and security issues. This eliminates the possible bias from knowing the goal of the study. The 7-point Likert scale was used to capture the intensity of the importance of privacy policy to the subjects by ascribing quantitative values to qualitative data. This allowed statistical analysis on the categorical data collected from the survey. Respondents were also asked about their usage, knowledge, and attitude towards