Building Bridges

Abstract

The exploration of social networking sites (SNS) offers great potential for understanding novel forms of youth civic engagement within the 21st century. SNS can foster a young person’s social capital by connecting them to others with different backgrounds, thereby exposing them to alternative perspectives and lived experiences within a growingly polarized political environment. This study provides an innovative framework for examining the communication trends and perceived sociopolitical benefits for adolescents engaging diverse groups in a youth-led social-justice-oriented SNS. The author linked three school-based youth participatory action research projects involving 54 high school students through an SNS. Employing a mixed-method approach (i.e., social network analysis, key student interviews), results indicate an increase in communication between students in different schools and an increase in levels of civic participation. In addition, interviewees reported perceived gains in communication, perspective taking, and sociopolitical awareness. Implications for practitioners, as well as future research, are discussed.

Social Capital on Social Networking Sites: A Social Network Perspective

“…Third, under the conception that social capital can be specified from the ties-type approach and the resource-type approach, 88% of the literature reviewed underlies the latter, either by focusing particularly on the relational dimension or on the structural dimension [114,116,117,120,125,130]. In this sense, the researchers considered to explore the level of social engagement and participation in an SNS [104,108], reveal patterns of interaction and influence between members [122,123], define the network structure of complex communities [51,131], or demonstrate that the resources embedded in a network structure provide important information [118,124].…”

“…A process by which members are connected, create ties, and allow access to and exchange of resources [36,43,151] Prestige A measure of the relationship between members [152] Engagement Actively contributing interventions that facilitate greater communication and resource sharing [108,120] Popularity A measure to evaluate the behavior of a member in relation to others in a network [115,116] Reciprocity A measure of a member's interaction with other network members that promotes the implicit sharing of resources [7,126] Reputation A measure of the recognition of the success of a member [115] 1 Main references that support the description of the variables adopted in this work.…”

“…There is an adequate structural position, which has been evaluated with degree, outdegree, in-degree, betweenness, and closeness [120,129,130]. The frequency with which the member has been contacted or has contacted other members of the network has been recognized (in, out, respectively).…”

“…Mechanisms are identified for forming close ties with members who are similar, thereby achieving greater participation in related issues. It should be noted that larger groups are driven by a dominant member who is able to bring others together, cover the main transmission issues, and promote the widest possible engagement [120,130].…”

Making the case for youth participatory action research opportunities to enhance social developmental scholarship

“…Fifty‐four high school students (ranging from freshmen to seniors) from three schools engaged in three separate school‐based YPAR projects within a diverse urban school district located in Northern California. All three groups were connected to an online social networking site, allowing them to converse and share ideas with one another (M. E. Kornbluh, 2019; M. Kornbluh et al., 2016). Two of the schools had a predominantly Asian population (70% and 66%), whereas the other had a large Latino(a) population (45%) (GreaterSchools.org, 2014).…”