Bowling alone but tweeting together: the evolution of human interaction in the social networking era

Angelo Antoci, Fabio Sabatini and Mauro Sodini

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to theoretically analyze how human interaction may evolve in a world characterized by the explosion of online networking and other Web-mediated ways of building and nurturing relationships. The analysis shows that online networking yields a storage mechanism through which any individual contribution - e.g. a blog post, a comment, or a photo - is stored within a particular network and ready for virtual access by each member who connects to the network. When someone provides feedback, for example by commenting on a note, or by replying to a message, the interaction is finalized. These interactions are asynchronous, i.e. they allow individuals to relate in different moments, whenever they have time to. When the social environment is poor of participation opportunities and/or the pressure on time increases (for example due to the need to increase the working time), the stock of information and ties stored in the Internet can help individuals to defend their sociability.

Keywords: Internet; computer-mediated communication; online networking; Facebook; social networks; social capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 D85 O33 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-10-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-cis, nep-evo, nep-ict, nep-net and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Bowling alone but tweeting together: the evolution of human interaction in the social networking era (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:34232

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