Connected Teens: Measuring the Impact of Mobile Phones on Social Relationships through Social Capital

Vidales-Bolaños, María-José and Sádaba-Chalezquer, Charo Connected Teens: Measuring the Impact of Mobile Phones on Social Relationships through Social Capital. Comunicar, 2017, vol. 25, n. 53, pp. 19-28. [Journal article (Paginated)]

[thumbnail of In English]
Preview
Text (In English)
c5302en.pdf - Published version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike.

Download (2MB) | Preview
[thumbnail of En español]
Preview
Text (En español)
c5302es.pdf

Download (3MB) | Preview

English abstract

Over the past twenty years, the high penetration of mobile phones as a means of interpersonal communication, especially among adolescents, has facilitated access to broader social environments outside their own family. Through the extension of their social environment, teenagers are able to establish new and more extensive relationships, while facing risks that may negatively affect their socialization process. The aim of this article was to find out how computer-mediated communication helps or obstructs the creation of social capital between teenagers, and what are the consequences of its use for this age group. To achieve this, an index of social capital was developed in the study, designed to determine the positive or negative impact of certain components of mobile mediated communication in the creation of this intangible resource. Questionnaires were distributed among Spanish adolescents of secondary and high school age, from different public and private schools of Navarre. Furthermore, the study considered the adolescents’ own perceptions about the incidence of the use of mobile phones in their social relationships. As reflected in the results, to identify the components of mediated communication that significantly affect social capital it is necessary to conduct an objective measurement of this resource.

Spanish abstract

La alta penetración del teléfono móvil entre los adolescentes y su uso como medio de comunicación inter-personal ha facilitado para este público el acceso, durante los últimos veinte años, a entornos más amplios, distintos al familiar. A través de la extensión de su ámbito social, estos son capaces de establecer nuevos vínculos y relaciones más extensas, al tiempo que se enfrentan a riesgos que afectan de manera negativa a su proceso de socialización. El objetivo de este trabajo fue conocer de qué manera la comunicación mediada por la tecnología favorece o no la creación de capital social entre las comunidades de adolescentes, y cuáles son las consecuencias que pueden resultar de su uso para este grupo de edad. Para ello se propuso un índice de capital social, que permitiera conocer el impacto positivo o negativo que tienen determinados componentes de la comunicación mediada por el móvil en la creación de este recurso. Se repartieron cuestionarios entre jóvenes españoles de la ESO y Bachillerato, en colegios públicos y privados de la Comunidad Foral de Navarra. Además, se tuvo en cuenta la propia percepción de los adolescentes, sobre la incidencia del uso de este dispositivo en sus relaciones sociales. Tal como reflejan los resultados, solo a través de una medición objetiva del capital social es posible identificar aquellos componentes de la comunicación mediada que afectan de manera significativa a este recurso.

Item type: Journal article (Paginated)
Keywords: Adolescents, mobile phones, screens, computer-mediated communication, social capital, relationships, communities, friendship, Adolescentes, teléfonos móviles, pantallas, comunicación mediada, capital social, relaciones, comunidades, amistad
Subjects: B. Information use and sociology of information > BJ. Communication
G. Industry, profession and education.
G. Industry, profession and education. > GH. Education.
Depositing user: Alex Ruiz
Date deposited: 16 Jan 2018 11:54
Last modified: 16 Jan 2018 11:54
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/32159

References

Appel, L., Dadlani, P., Dwyer, M., Hampton, K., Kitzie, V., Matni, Z. A., Teodoro, R. (2014). Testing the Validity of Social Capital Measures in the Study of Information and Communication Technologies. Information, Communication & Society, 17(4), 398-416. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2014.884612<br>Bauwens, J. (2012). Teenagers, the Internet and Morality. Generational Use of New Media, 31-48. (https://goo.gl/tzMhBF).<br>Baym, N.K. (2011). Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Digital Media and Society Series, 1. Cambridge: Polity Press. (https://goo.gl/z9fn4K).<br>Bourdieu, P. (1980). Le capital social. In Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 31, 2-3. (https://goo.gl/Yai2bA).<br>Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of Capital. Readings in Economic Sociology, 280-291. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470755679.ch15<br>Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L.J. (1992). An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. University of Chicago Press. (https://goo.gl/UUSGTt).<br>Boyd, D. (2014). It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. Yale University Press. (https://goo.gl/K5CrLF).<br>Campbell, S.W., Ling, R., & Bayer, J.B. (2014). The Structural Transformation of Mobile Communication: Implications for Self and Society. In Oliver, M.B., & Raney, A. (Eds.), Media and Social Life. New York, NY: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315794174<br>Coleman, J. (1988). Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital. American Journal of Sociology. (https://goo.gl/63Dmef).<br>Durston, J. (2000). ¿Qué es el capital social comunitario? Serie Políticas Sociales, 38. (https://goo.gl/MfHkwq).<br>Ellison, N., & Vitak, J. (2015). Social Network Site Affordances and Their Relationship to Social Capital Processes. The Handbook of the Psychology of Communication Technology, 203-227. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118426456.ch9<br>Ellison, N.B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The Benefits of Facebook “Friends": Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x <br>Hampton, K.N., Lee, C., & Her, E.J. (2011). How New Media Affords Network Diversity: Direct and Mediated Access to Social Capital Through Participation in Local Social Settings. New Media & Society, 13(7), 1031-1049. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444810390342<br>Hooghe, M., & Oser, J. (2015). Internet, Television and Social Capital: the Effect of “Screen Time” on Social Capital. Information, Communication & Society. (http://goo.gl/ur6JUK).<br>Jenkins, H., Ford, S., & Green, J. (2015). Cultura transmedia: la creacio´n de contenido y valor en una cultura en red. Gedisa. (https://goo.gl/XRYKeB).<br>Jiang, Y., & de-Bruijn, O. (2014). Facebook Helps: A Case Study of Cross-Cultural Social Networking and Social Capital. Information, Communication & Society, 17(6), 732-749. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2013.830636<br>Katz, J., Rice, R., & Acord, S. (2004). Personal Mediated Communication and the Concept of Community in Theory and Practice. In Kalbfleisch, P.J. (Ed.), Communication and Community, Communication Yearbook 28 (pp. 315-371). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. (http://goo.gl/2Z22Ci).<br>Korchmaros, J.D., Ybarra, M.L., Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J., Boyd, D., & Lenhart, A. (2013). Perpetration of Teen Dating Violence in a Networked Society. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 16(8), 561-567. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2012.0627<br>Lambert, A. (2015). Intimacy and Social Capital on Facebook: Beyond the Psychological Perspective. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444815588902<br>Ling, R., & Bertel, T. (2013). Mobile Communication Culture among Children and Adolescents. Handbook of Children, Adolescents and Media. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203366981.ch15<br>Liu, D., & Brown, B.B. (2014). Self-disclosure on Social Networking Sites, Positive Feedback, and Social Capital among Chinese College Students. Computers in Human Behavior, 38, 213-219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.06.003<br>Mascheroni, G., & Olafsson, K. (2016). The Mobile Internet: Access, Use, Opportunities and Divides among European Children. New Media & Society, 18(8), 1657-1679. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814567986<br>MECD (Edición 2016) Las cifras de la educación en España. Curso 2013-2014. (https://goo.gl/kMaV7I).<br>Neira, I., Portela, M., & Vieira, E. (2010). Social Capital and Growth in European Regions. Regional and Sectoral Economic Studies, 10(2). (https://goo.gl/DCjmGk).<br>Papacharissi, Z. (2005). The Real-Virtual Dichotomy in Online Interaction: New Media Uses and Consequences Revisited. Annals of the International Communication Association, 29(1), 216-238. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2005.11679048<br>Portes, A. (1998). Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern Sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 24(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.24.1.1<br>Portes, A. (2014). Downsides of Social Capital. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111(52), 18407-8. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1421888112<br>Putnam, R.D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster. https://doi.org/10.1145/358916.361990<br>Putnam, R.D. (2001). Social Capital: Measurement and Consequences. Canadian Journal of Policy Research. (https://goo.gl/j562qr).<br>Sádaba, C., & Vidales, M.J. (2015). El impacto de la comunicación mediada por la tecnología en el capital social: adolescentes y teléfonos móviles. Virtualis, 11(1), 75-92. (https://goo.gl/0kk6xK).<br>Schrock, A.R. (2016). Exploring the Relationship Between Mobile Facebook and Social Capital: What Is the "Mobile Difference" for Parents of Young Children? Social Media & Society, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116662163<br>Smith, M.A. (2014). Mapping Online Social Media Networks. In Alhajj, R., & Rokne, J. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining (pp. 848-857). New York: Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6170-8_331<br>Smith, M.A., Himelboim, I., Rainie, L., & Shneiderman, B. (2015). The Structures of Twitter Crowds and Conversations. In S.A. Matei, M.G. Russell, & E. Bertino (Eds.),Transparency in Social Media (pp. 67–108). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18552-1_5<br>Turkle, S. (2011). Alone Together: Why we Expect more from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books.<br>Vanden-Abeele, M.M. (2016). Mobile Lifestyles: Conceptualizing Heterogeneity in Mobile Youth Culture. New Media & Society, 18(6), 908-926. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814551349<br>Vyas, S., & Kumaranayake, L. (2006). Constructing Socio-Economic Status Indices: How to Use Principal Components Analysis. Health Policy and Planning, 21(6), 459-468. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czl029<br>Williams, D. (2006). On and Off the’Net: Scales for Social Capital in an Online Era. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. (https://goo.gl/5gibMj).<br>Wu, L., Wang, Y., Su, Y., & Yeh, M. (2013). Cultivating Social Capital through Interactivity on Social Network Sites. Pacis. (https://goo.gl/UKVTm2).<br>Xie, W. (2014). Social Network Site Use, Mobile Personal Talk and Social Capital among Teenagers. Computers in Human Behavior. (https://goo.gl/4TFlb3).<br>


Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item