On and Off the 'Net: Scales for Social Capital in an Online Era

TLDR

Scholars studying Internet‑mediated social capital face obstacles from outdated television‑based frameworks and a lack of suitable measures, as online interactions differ fundamentally from TV, necessitating new assumptions and tools. The article develops and validates the Internet Social Capital Scales (ISCS) to fill this research gap. The ISCS measure bridging and bonding social capital in both online and offline contexts. The scales’ items were validated as psychometrically sound, and the article discusses their potential applications.

Abstract

Scholars investigating the relationship between the Internet and social capital have been stymied by a series of obstacles, some due to theoretical frameworks handed down unchanged from television research, and some due to the lack of an appropriate yardstick. For example, the social interactions that occur through television are prima facie different from those that occur online. Given this basic functional difference, we cannot approach social capital research in an online era with the same set of assumptions and measures. To address this gap in the literature and in our measurement toolkits, this article reports on the development and validation of the Internet Social Capital Scales, or ISCS. These scales are intended to measure two different types of social capital—known as "bridging" and "bonding"—for both online and offline contexts. Question items are developed and tested and found to be valid and psychometrically sound. Potential uses of the scales are then discussed.