November 12th, 2021
By Sarah Leung
With the introduction of social media, it has become easier to connect with people in multiple ways. For some, social media platforms have become an extension of our face-to-face social interactions, while others may mainly have social media interactions with friends. This begs the question: do online friendships offer the same health benefits that face-to-face friendships do?
To answer this, I will draw on a set of studies conducted within Portugal in 2017, analyzing the effects that both online and “offline” Facebook friendships have on individuals.
What Pre-existing Studies Say
There is no doubt that social interaction is good for one’s health: social isolation and loneliness increase the likelihood of mortality. Building stronger social bonds with others increases one’s chances of survival, especially with deeper connection and trust.
There have been previous studies about Facebook and social relationships, but those were focused specifically on university students. In those studies, Facebook was a positive factor in students’ interactions with others on campus. However, university students are not Facebook’s entire demographic of users — it appeals to many people within many age groups, economic statuses, and social statuses. Do the positive effects of Facebook on social relationships within university students also occur within the general public?
At the time of these studies’ publication, only one prior study explored the wellbeing of the general public in relation to face-to-face and online experiences. Only face-to-face interactions with friends had a tangible effect on people’s wellbeing, and an increase in Facebook friends actually decreased wellbeing.
For a more in-depth look, the set of studies below, Study 1 and Study 2, seek to understand the effects of online and “offline” relationships within a broader demographic that is more representative of Facebook’s user base.
Bridging and Bonding Social Capital
Before diving into the study, the term “social capital” needs to be defined because it is a very important term to understand. Social capital is the value people place on social relationships.
There are two types of social relationships that have beneficial effects on health: bonding and bridging social capital. Bonding is more emotionally connected, while bridging is more socially connected through community. Specifically, bonding elements are important for relationships with support and loyalty, while bridging is important for community interaction. Bondings tends to create smaller, but more personal relationships, whereas bridging helps create larger, but more casual relationships with peoples’ social groups. While, bridging is good for the multitude of shared social groups that people have, like school clubs; bonding has a stronger effect than bridging. Nonetheless, both are still important to have.
Study 1
Study 1 was a study conducted through phone interviews with 350 individuals in an urban area. The average age of participants was 46.4 years old and 65.7% of those surveyed had a Facebook account. Participants were asked questions about their friendships — how many friends they had, how many close or trustworthy friends they had, and how many of those people were their Facebook friends — as well as their ratings of their personal health.
Results of Study 1
While 49% of this group had over 300 Facebook friends, a majority of those Facebook friends were not close friends, or friends that they regularly saw face-to-face. 68% of people said that they only had a couple of close friends added on Facebook.
Younger participants tended to have a larger number of friends and close friends, but participants over 55 had less people that they felt close to. Many of these participants felt connected to their social media groups, but the results show that online friendships can only provide limited comfort to people. In other words, this is something which cannot replace the health benefits of face-to-face interaction.
Study 2
Study 2 was a study conducted through an online platform with 803 individuals from urban and rural areas. The average age was 44.1 years old and 89.2% of those surveyed had a Facebook account. These participants were asked similar questions about friendships, like how often they talked to their friends through Facebook and how often they met up with friends in-person, as well as their self-esteem.
Results of Study 2
41.7% of people had over 300 Facebook friends, but like Study 1, 70.5% of people said that they had three or less close friends added on Facebook. Also similar to Study 1, older people tended to have less Facebook friends or close friends than younger people.
What Do the Results Tell Us?
It may be easier to increase the number of friends that a person has through Facebook, but this has no correlation with increased bonds between people. In both cases, the number of Facebook friends does not necessarily mean that someone has more close friends. In fact, Facebook had a negative correlation with bonding. This means that the more Facebook friends that a person has, the harder it is to develop close relationships. Facebook friendships lack the same amount of benefits as face-to-face ones do, because these friendships have a lack of a bonding aspect and bonding has a more impact on health, compared to bridging.
In conclusion, the above studies show how important face-to-face friendships are, even in our technology-focused world.
Study Limitations
While there is useful information within this set of studies, it may be limited by only studying one platform. Facebook remains a popular social media website for many, but there are a multitude of social media platforms on the internet. When it comes to online friendships, these can be formed on any website — not just Facebook. Do websites like Instagram or Twitter offer the same benefits? This is unknown because the study is limited to one website. It would be beneficial to expand this research to multiple platforms in order to get a fuller picture of online friendships in contrast to offline friendships.
Source
Lima, M. L., Marques, S., Muiños, G., & Camilo, C. (2017). All you need is Facebook friends? Associations between online and face-to-face friendships and health. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00068.
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