Relationship Between Internet Use And The Social Capital Of Undergraduates In Mainland China

The most magnificent scenery has emerged in Mainland China with the rapid diffusion of internet and its effect on politics, economy and culture in the past several years. And adolescent who were born in the 1980s and grow up in the digital era were called"Net Generation".Compared with their parents, the Net Generation's life has been changed completely——they are companied with the Internet and digital media and these new media have affected their thinking and action. Based on the analysis of current situation, the relationship between Internet use and undergraduates'social capital (which is centered as interpersonal interaction, trust and social participation etc.) was researched in this thesis from the view of sociology. In addition, quantitative method of Questionnaire and qualitative method of Focus Group were used to obtain scientific data. And this research could provide a kind of new view to study computer-mediated communication for other research subsequently.The research has fulfilled such work as follows:(1) the social capital of undergraduates were described quantitatively;(2) several factors that effect the social capital significantly in statistics were found out through multiple hierarchical regression analysis;(3) two types of Internet use——ritualized use and instrumental use and their"time displacement"and"functional supplement"respectively were put forward to explain the mechanism of how Internet use affects social capital.1.The quantitative description of undergraduates'social capitalQuantitative method of Questionnaire were used to obtain the data about social capital of undergraduates. The results show that within 4 dimensions of social capital, the values of interpersonal interaction-special trust and life satisfaction are both more than 3(expressed by 5-point Likert Scale); however, the dimensions of universal trust and organization participation are less than 3.The data of Questionnaire show that compared with their parents, the structure of trust of undergraduates has not been changed drastically——the people they trust most are their parents and relatives, other than those who have no consanguinity with them. For a social system in which each other trust, and each other treats sincerely, the government could obtain high operating efficiency by low run cost, so universal trust should have the positive sense compared to the special trust. Thus it is a serious topic for us to further expand the undergraduates'trust to those without blood relationship or intimate relation, so that universal trust in the entire society could be established.Nowadays, the number of organizations has become an important criterion to weigh the degree of a nation's socialization and a person's social position. But the survey results show that the undergraduates have less organization participation, which means that as a tool of self-exercises and cultivating participation and cooperation consciousness, organization participation has not aroused enough enthusiasm among undergraduates. We can image that an active-participation college student would grow up into an active-participation citizen. So under the background of constructing harmonious society, it is quite a realistic topic of cultivating the sense of organization participation of undergraduates.2.What are these factors that related to Internet use have influenced undergraduates'social capital? To which degree?Through multiple hierarchical regression analysis, 6 independents which influenced social capital significantly were found out from 10 independents, and then were ordered according to their influence-power: (1)News-information preference is the most important independent, and it influences 4 dimensions of social capital positively. (2)Motive of interpersonal interaction and frequency of Internet use are the second important independents which influence 3 dimensions of social capital positively.(3) Internet reliance is the third important independent which influences 2 dimensions of social capital negatively;(4) Surfer time and motive of entertainment are the forth important independents which influence one dimension of social capital respectively.From those findings above,we can see that Internet use mainly has a positive relationship with social capital. Therefore a conclusion could be drawn that Internet has played a positive role in promoting an individual's integration with the society. Based on this conclusion, and from the view of technological evolution, this paper analyzed the argument of"advantages and disadvantages of Internet"with the theory of technophobia and the third-person effect. These analysis could offer a rational and comprehensive explanation about the function of Internet.3.The mechanism of the influence of Internet use on social capitalThe technology itself is neutral, and how it operates dependents on how people use it.Through the qualitative method of Focus Group, the research found that distinguishing Internet use into two types——instrumental use and ritualized use could explain well the mechanism of the influence of Internet use on social capital . For seeking information and new knowledge are the main objective of instrumental Internet users, and they concern more about the specific contents online,so they obtain"content gratifications". As the instrumental Internet users have clear motive, they will not dependent on the Internet and abuse it. Compared to instrumental users, ritualized users do not have strong motive and surfing is a routine or a customary behavior, and killing time or alleviating depression are the excuses.Without strong or enough motive, ritualized users concern more about the Internet itself, so they obtain"process gratifications".Based on the two typical Internet use——instrumental use and ritualized use,and the results of Focus Group, the paper deduces that as the Internet has both mass and interpersonal communication functions, instrumental use could compensate those traditional media or"old activities"for similar functions——with the diverse and rich functions, the Internet would impact on the use of traditional media, social activities and entertainment participation. In one word, the Internet is being as a new media at the same time it has become a highly influential"non-mass media activities"tool. Accordingly, this paper argues that under the condition of instrumental use, even if the people in the real world alienated the newspapers, television, radio, interpersonal communication, entertainment or other social activities, their social capital would not be lost. For people in the virtual cyberspace, their virtue forms of social interaction, community involvement, et al. could supplement the loss of social capital in reality. Therefore, the instrumental use of Internet and its"functional supplement"effect is a positive factor for the social capital.On the contrary, the ritualized Internet use has a function of"time displacement". For the purpose of killing time or alleviating depression, ritualized Internet users are usually addicted to the fantasy feelings so that they could not control the time spent on surfing. As a result, surfing occupies the free time for interpersonal contact, social participation, etc.. For ritualized Internet users, they pay more attention to the Internet itself than to the content of it, and they often browse the website impulsively and purposelessly for the purpose of temporary self-satisfaction, so these online activities neither could help to maintain the existing interpersonal relations, nor could help to establish new relationships in cyberspace. Thus, the ritualized Internet use is a negative factor for the social capital and its"time displacement"function would destroy social capital.Finally, this paper refers that with the effect of"functional supplement", the social capital could be transferred from reality to cyberspace. In cyberspace, interpersonal contact, community participation, and trust, etc. could generate new social capital. In order to distinguish the new social capital from those in reality, this paper called it"social capital in cyberspace". With the high-speed diffusion and in-depth penetration of Internet in Mainland Chinese, social capital in cyberspace and its related theories would be a new meaningful research topic in the future.