The Evolution of Social Ties in the Age of the Internet

这项研究调查了地理流动性和通信，包括计算机中介的通信，如何影响个人和工作关系的形成、维持和解除，以及这些因素如何影响人们从这些关系中提取社会资源的能力。维持个人关系需要在时间和金钱上投入大量资金。地理上的接近使建立个人关系变得更容易，而地理上的流动性则会使关系处于危险之中。大量的美国人现在正在使用互联网，通过电子邮件和其他服务进行人际交流。互联网可能会减少地理位置对社会关系造成的限制。这也可能会影响在线人际关系的质量。这项研究考察了互联网交流的使用是否改变了社会关系的数量和质量以及由此产生的社会支持。通过审查通过不同方式(访问、电话、电子邮件和即时消息)进行的交流的内容，它将有助于确定交流导致社会支持的机制。这项研究将同时引起关注社会关系和工作关系基本过程的社会科学家以及对互联网对社会生活的影响感兴趣的更多应用研究人员和政策制定者的兴趣。

This research investigates the ways geographic mobility and communications, including computer-mediated communication, influence the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of personal and work relationships and the ways these factors influence people's ability to extract social resources from them. Maintaining personal relationships requires significant investment in time and money. Physical proximity makes building personal relationships easier, while geographic mobility puts relationships at risk. Large numbers of Americans are now using the Internet, with electronic mail and other services for interpersonal communication. The Internet can potentially reduce the constraints that geography imposes on social relationships. It may also influence the quality of relationships conducted online. This research examines whether use of Internet communication changes the number and quality of social relationships and the social support derived from them. By examining the content of communication conducted over different modalities (visits, phone calls, email and instant messaging), it will help identify the mechanisms through which communication leads to social support. The research will simultaneously be of interest to social scientists concerned with the basic processes underlying social and work relationships and to more applied researchers and policy makers interested in the impact of the Internet on social life.