| This study explores the social capital theory as a lens for understanding and contextualizing the influence of Internet on social capital, measured in terms of subjects' involvement in formal and informal civic participation, extent of friendship network, social trust and emotional support. The study conducts a secondary data analysis using the Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey dataset and develops the measurement of social capital as five mutually exclusive dependent variables using the conceptual framework of Robert Putnam (2000). The levels of association to the Internet has been categorized into three levels, namely, first, the extent of users accessing the Internet, second, the extent of users spending time on the Internet, and finally the extent of users involvement with different online discussion groups. Television and working hours were other two independent variables which literature suggested influence social capital negatively. Political knowledge was another independent variable which was an important determinant of social capital. Multiple regression models on all four social capital indicator variables, namely social trust, informal social interaction, organizational involvement, and friendship network and ordinal logistic regression model on emotional support variable were run at two levels. One set of full model where the Internet related variables were interacted with TV, working hours and political knowledge variables and another set of reduced model where the interaction terms were not added were run. Statistical tests identified the full models with Interaction terms explained more variability than the reduced models. The social capital measures too did not show much variation among each other in all five regression models while predicting the influence of Internet variables and the combined interaction equations. Social trust is the only social capital measure that did not show significant variation with Internet use. The results are consistent with overarching hypothesis that Internet influences social capital positively and supplements social involvement not only in virtual communities but even at communities of place. Specific implications for future research and social work practice, concludes this study. |
