Facilitating online social capital in higher education

I tend to believe the Internet is a positive thing. It’s true that the Internet can also easily lend itself to negative uses such as false identities, misinformation, the potential for decreased face-to-face contact, and to a more extreme extent, a lack of community involvement and an increase in social isolation. It’s also true that the Internet can be used to increase communication among groups of people with both similar and diverse interests, and when used effectively can strengthen community bonds and create social capital as seen in online social movements.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the economy lately. With all the doom and gloom in the news who hasn’t been? I’ve also been considering the challenges students looking for work may be facing as they search for employment in the coming months. The not so good news: maybe it’s not going to be as easy to find a job as it was last year. The not so bad news: the jobs are still out there and students have the skills and experience needed to find a job, even in tough economic times. My job is to help students find information about careers so they may make informed decisions during their career exploration and ultimately find relevant employment. The question is: how does one go about finding these available jobs? This is where networking comes in. Networking has always been crucial to the job search even more so now during an economic downturn. I’ve also been thinking a lot lately about how online social networking can facilitate the job search process. Can social networking sites such as Facebook and Linkedin really work? Even Twitter, perhaps? But how does one employ social networking for this end? What skills and level of competency are necessary for such use to be successful?

As I think about some of the answers to these questions I consider the prevalence of Generation-Y users in social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. I work with students in this age range everyday and I recognize that many are very tech-savvy when it comes to using the Internet and web-based technologies; therefore using social networking sites for job search purposes seems like a natural fit. The article Spatially Bounded Online Social Networks and Social Capital: The Role of Facebook by Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe shows us that social capital benefits do exist in within Facebook. If current social networking “allow for maintenance of existing social ties and formation of new connections” as the authors argue then it is likely that sites such as Facebook can be targeted for purposes such as networking during a job search. We also see that online connections often result in face-to-face meetings which points to the potential for students to meet employers through social network contacts. It seems clear that social networking sites can build connections and facilitate opportunities for students both in the short and long-term. The challenge is to determine what motivates students’ use of online social networking sites and the skills and knowledge they need to find and potentially create their own volunteer, work, and internship opportunities. Higher education institutions must also strive to better understand how to encourage and facilitate the use of social networking sites to engage students in building social capital that is relevant and meaningful to them. Perhaps a good starting point is to begin exploring ways that universities can create a bridge between the Internet, place-based environments, and social capital production in everyday learning opportunities.