Facebook Conserves Offline Relationships

An EU study lead by anthropologists finds that contrary to popular ideas that social media is weakening or transforming social bonds, Facebook in particular is reinforcing offline connections. People tend to form friendships with people from the same ethnic and religious backgrounds, and individuals tend to “friend” their family members. One of the anthropologists told The Guardian: “It seems that social media works not towards change… but rather as a conservative force that tends to strengthen the conventional social relations…”

Most people report that they censor and think more about what they write on Facebook than when they use Skype or mobile apps.

The researchers also find that Facebook is less popular amongst older teenagers, who feel resistant to their family members’ expectations that they post specific updates about their lives.

The study covers other patterns: 40% of users had never changed their privacy settings and the majority (80%) were unconcerned about how their personal data was used by Facebook.

Visit the study’s website: http://buff.ly/1czKjc9

Guardian article: http://goo.gl/dARrSL #anthropology #sociology #facebook #socialmedia #research #science