Title: Social capital or social interruption: the impact of smartphone use

Authors: Hui-Jung Chang

Addresses: Graduate Institute of Mass Communication, Fu-Jen Catholic University, Taipei, 24205, Taiwan

Abstract: The study aims to explore the impact of smartphone use on Facebook users' daily lives, particularly in terms of the development and maintenance of one's social capital, the level of perceived social interruption and the relationships between the two. The sample consisted of 789 university students in Taiwan. Two types of social capital, namely bonding and bridging, are examined. The results indicated that smartphone users developed and maintained social capital more easily and at the same time were interrupted more than non-smartphone users. A positive relation between social interruption and social capital was found for Facebook users with or without smartphones. The more social interruptions one experienced, the more social capital one possessed, regardless of smartphone uses.

Keywords: smartphones; Facebook users; social interruption; social capital; social networking; smartphone usage; Taiwan; bonding; bridging.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMC.2015.069129

International Journal of Mobile Communications, 2015 Vol.13 No.3, pp.299 - 316

Received: 10 Aug 2013
Accepted: 04 Jul 2014
Published online: 29 Apr 2015 *

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