Roles of Smartphone App Use in Improving Social Capital and Reducing Social Isolation

Abstract

This study investigated the relationships among smartphone app use, social capital, and social isolation. It focused on two different smartphone apps—communication and social networking site (SNS) apps—and their effects on bonding and bridging social capital. Generational differences in smartphone use were also considered. Results from hierarchical regression analyses indicated that individuals' use of communication apps was helpful for increasing social capital and that this effect of using communication apps was stronger among those of the millennial generation than among older users. Moreover, bonding and bridging social capital was found to reduce individuals' social isolation significantly. These results imply the notable role of smartphone apps in reducing social isolation and improving the personal lives of individuals.

Introduction

As today's society has become characterized by the intensive development and use of smart devices, scholars are paying increasing attention to the various phenomena related to smart media.^1,2 In particular, the continuously accelerating penetration of smartphones is a phenomenon garnering a considerable amount of academic deliberation.^3,4 Focusing on this notable increase in smartphone use, a body of previous studies has presented on the positive functions of smartphone use on strengthening personal relations and social capital.^5,6

Nevertheless, a main limitation of previous research is that less attention has been paid to individuals' actual use of the specific apps on smartphones. Rather, studies have focused on the links between people's general use of smartphones and social capital.^5,6 However, without thorough understanding of the detailed functions of smartphone apps, it is difficult to comprehend fully the roles of smartphones in building social capital.

Therefore, one of the main objectives of this study was to scrutinize the effects of two specific apps—communication and social networking site (SNS) service apps—on bonding and bridging social capital. Furthermore, focusing on the positive functions of personal ties—the main base of social capital—for improving personal lives, another research objective was to explore the role of social capital in reducing social isolation.

Literature Review

Smartphone ownership and app use

In the United States, there has been a continuous increase in mobile phone ownership. According to a report by the Pew Research Center,⁴ in 2013, 58% of mobile phone owners were using smartphones. It is also considerable that half of all mobile phone owners download mobile apps for various purposes.³ Moreover, supported by the advancements in high-speed communication networks, the development and use of smartphone apps have also accelerated.

These trends with regard to smartphone ownership and app use are similar to those in Korea. According to Google Korea, smartphone ownership among Korean adults reached 73% in 2013. Moreover, 95.5% of mobile Internet users were using smartphones to go online.⁷ With regard to app usage, 66.1% of smartphone users had downloaded at least one mobile app in Korea.⁷ Notably, 17.8% of these users downloaded multiple apps on a daily base. These statistics show the intensive use of smartphone apps in Korea. Moreover, because of the high level of mobility they offer, smartphones are a dominant communication device that helps people to build personal relationships, implying the close link between smartphone use and social capital.

Social capital

According to Coleman,⁸ social capital relies on human relationships that can serve as resources for future benefits. Social capital has been conceptualized in multiple ways. For instance, Putnam⁹ and Fukuyama¹⁰ were mainly concerned about social capital on the community level, focusing on trust, network, and reciprocity as the three main components of social capital. Burt¹¹ and Portes¹² argued that there is a significant connection between social network and social capital. Unlike this approach, Lin¹³ placed more emphasis on the importance of individuals' interactions for building social capital. Because this study aimed at investigating the connection between the behavioral aspects of using smartphones and social capital, it applied Lin's¹³ approach for its main theoretical background.

Two different categories of social capital can be identified—bonding and bridging social capital—based on the two different types of personal ties between which Granovetter¹⁴ differentiated. According to Granovetter, while strong ties are determined by two actors' direct link between each other, weak ties are reliant on the indirect connections between them. Thus, bonding social capital is created through individuals' direct relationships with their influential others such as family members and friends. This type of social capital is often connected with emotional support.¹⁵ However, bridging social capital, which is created through the indirect link between two actors, is rarely dependent on emotional support. Based on these concepts of bonding and bridging social capital, previous research has provided ample evidence supporting the significant relationships between SNS use and the two types of social capital.

However, despite the meaningful findings generated by previous studies, the following points should be further considered. First, Park and Lee's⁶ research addressed the meaningful connections between relational motives of smartphone use and personal relationships. However, it did not analyze the actual use of smartphones. Therefore, it lacked a discussion of the behavioral aspects of actually using smartphones. Next, Park et al.⁵ scrutinized the relationships among intensity of smartphone, intensity of SNS use, and social capital. However, their study did not specify the use of smartphones for relational purposes but measured how smartphones were used for general purposes (e.g., gaming, information seeking). Thus, there exist limitations in the validity of the observed effects of smartphone use on building social capital, addressing the issue of type II error.

Considering these limitations of previous research, this present study focused on individuals' actual use of smartphones by analyzing not their general use of smartphones but their use of specific apps for relational purposes. Particularly, this study analyzed people's use of smartphone apps for communication and SNS services. According to Yim et al.,⁷ apps for communicative activities, including e-mail, blogging, messenger, and so forth, have been used by 42.6% of smartphone owners. Moreover, 50.4% of mobile Internet users are using SNSs, and 87.7% of these users access SNSs on a mobile device more than once a week. In this way, Korean smartphone owners actively use various apps for communication (e.g., texting) as well as SNS services.

With regard to the effects of using smartphones, previous studies have mostly observed that SNS use and active communication with influential others have a positive effect on building social capital.^16–21 Accordingly, this study established the following hypotheses:

H1: Individuals' use of communication apps on smartphones will positively predict bonding social capital.

H2: Individuals' use of SNS apps on smartphones will positively predict bonding social capital.

H3: Individuals' use of communication apps on smartphones will positively predict bridging social capital.

H4: Individuals' use of SNS apps on smartphones will positively predict bridging social capital.

Here, it should be considered that there exist generational gaps in smartphone use and SNS use. According to Pew Research Center's Mobile Technology Fact Sheet,²² smartphone ownership is much higher among younger generations (those younger than 35 years of age) than older generations. Such a generational gap is observed in Korea as well. Yim et al.⁷ reported that the daily amount of smartphone use was much greater among younger generations (20s: 132.6 minutes, 30s: 94.5 minutes) when compared to older generations (40s: 75.8 minutes, 50s: 61.6 minutes). Moreover, mobile SNS use is more common among younger populations (75%) than older ones (34%).⁷ Based on these generational differences in smartphone and SNS use, this study explored the following research question:

RQ1: How will the effects of using smartphone apps on social capital differ between younger and older generations?

Social capital and social isolation

In addition to the relationships between smartphone app use and social capital, it is also valuable to investigate the potential effects of social capital on individuals' personal lives. For this purpose, this study focused on the potential role of social capital in reducing social isolation. This is mainly because social capital is mostly determined by individuals' personal interactions and social relations with influential others.^8,13 Retrospectively, this implies a potential function of social capital for strengthening individuals' social connections. With regard to this issue, Ledbetter et al.²³ found a positive effect of Facebook use on relational closeness. Another study further found that social capital improves one's feelings of social support.

Here, it should be considered that the improvement of personal ties as well as relational closeness is associated with the reduction of social isolation. According to Seeman,²⁴ social isolation is one of the four dimensions of social alienation. Isolation is related to people who “assign low reward value to goals or beliefs that are typically highly valued in the given society.”²⁴^(p789) This means that socially isolated individuals rarely share the values that are commonly accepted by others in their society. Therefore, as these isolated individuals gain more chances to communicate with influential others and strengthen bonding and bridging social capital, they will be more likely to share the common values of their society. Consequently, this study established and tested the following hypotheses:

H5: Bonding social capital will reduce social isolation.

H6: Bridging social capital will reduce social isolation.

Method

Participants and procedures

This study collected survey data from South Korean citizens who were randomly selected by a large Korean research company, renowned for maintaining the largest panel pool in Korea. In order to increase the representativeness of the sample, a proportionate stratified sampling method, based on sex, age, and residential area, was used. In total, 2,708 usable surveys were collected. The average age of the participants was 37.39 years (SD=13.3 years). The sex composition was very even (50.9% male). Approximately half of the participants received a degree from a 2 year college (14.9%) or higher (37.5%). The majority of participants with employment had permanent jobs (72.1%). The median monthly income of the participants was $3,000–4,000.

Instruments

All of the measurements, except the measurement for smartphone app use, used a 5-point Likert-type scale (e.g., 1=“strongly disagree,” 5=“strongly agree”).

Use of smartphone apps

Survey participants were asked to report the amount of time they spent using two different types of smartphone apps—communication apps (e.g., KakaoTalk) and SNS apps (e.g., Facebook). They reported the time they spent on both apps, separately, per day, in hours: communication apps (M=0.70, SD=0.57, N=1,938) and SNS apps (M=0.59, SD=0.51, N=1,185). These items were measured on ratio scales. Therefore, the skewness and kurtosis of the data were checked in order to test for normality. The results from the descriptive analyses showed normal distribution for both communication apps (skewness=1.17, kurtosis=0.50) and SNS apps (skewness=1.36, kurtosis=1.33).

Bonding social capital

In order to measure this variable, this study used eight items from Williams' study.¹⁵ Examples of the items are: (a) There are several people who I trust to solve my problems; (b) There is someone I can turn to for advice about making very important decisions; and (c) I have people who I can talk to when I feel lonely. The reliability for this measurement (M=3.0, SD=0.67, N=2,708) was acceptable (α=0.92).

Bridging social capital

Bridging social capital was measured through six items also from Williams' study.¹⁵ The following are examples of the items: (a) Interacting with people makes me want to try new things; (b) Interacting with people makes me feel like a part of a larger community; and (c) Interacting with people reminds me that everyone in the world is connected. The reliability for this measurement (M=3.14, SD=0.67, N=2,708) was acceptable (α=0.88).

Social isolation

In order to measure social isolation, this study developed eight items. The following are examples of these items: (a) I don't know people who have an interest in me; (b) I don't know people who I can talk to when I am distressed; and (c) I rarely socialize with other friends. The reliability test provided an acceptable Cronbach's alpha score (α=0.84) for this variable (M=2.51, SD=0.69, N=2,708).

Results

Hypotheses tests

Table 1 shows the correlations for key study variables.

Table 1.

Correlations for Key Study Variables

		1	2	3	4
1	Use of communication apps
2	Use of SNS apps	0.49^***
3	Bonding social capital	0.09^***	0.06†
4	Bridging social capital	0.07^**	0.05†	0.62^***
5	Social isolation	−0.04	0.01	−0.39^***	−0.30^***

N=2,169.

†p<0.10; ^**p<0.01; ^***p<0.001.

To test the hypotheses, this study conducted a series of hierarchical regression analyses based on maximum likelihood estimation. Considering the generational gap in smartphone use, the age of survey respondents was coded into a dummy variable composed of two groups: millennial and older generations. The millennial generation is composed of those who were born after 1980.²⁵ Therefore, survey participants who were younger than 35 years old were coded as millennial generation (= 1). In order to control for the effect of generation, this dummy coded variable was added into block 1. Then, the main independent variables were entered into block 2, enabling the calculation of the change in the explained variance of the dependent variables.

H1 and H2 focused on the effects of individuals' use of two different smartphone apps—communication apps (H1) and SNS apps (H2)—on bonding social capital. After controlling for the effect of generation, individuals' use of communication apps positively and significantly predicted bonding social capital (β=0.14, p=0.002), while there was no significant association between SNS apps and bridging social capital (β=−0.05, p=0.04; see Table 2). The inclusion of these two variables significantly increased the explained variance of bonding social capital (ΔR²=0.01, df=1004, F=5.20, p=0.006). These results fully supported H1 but rejected H2.

Table 2.

Results from Hierarchical Regression Analysis (Dependent Variable=Bonding Social Capital)

Predictor variables	Block 1	Block 2	R²	ΔR²
Generation	0.04		0.001
Use of communication apps		0.14^**	0.011	0.01^**
Use of SNS apps		−0.05

p<0.01.

Next, this study hypothesized the positive effects of the use of communication (H3) and SNS (H4) apps on bridging social capital. As Table 3 shows, after the effect of generation was controlled, individuals' use of communication apps positively and significantly predicted bridging social capital (β=0.09, p=0.03). However, the effect of using SNS apps on bridging social capital was not statistically significant (β=0.03, p=0.56). The addition of these two variables into the regression model significantly increased the explained variance of bridging social capital (ΔR²=0.007, df=1,004, F=3.52, p=0.03). Therefore, H3 was fully supported, but H4 was rejected.

Table 3.

Results from Hierarchical Regression Analysis (Dependent Variable=Bridging Social Capital)

Predictor variables	Block 1	Block 2	R²	ΔR²
Generation	0.04		0.001
Use of communication apps		0.10^*	0.008	0.007^*
Use of SNS apps		0.03

p<0.05.

In order to explore RQ1, two separate hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for two groups of survey participants. First, as Table 4 shows, among millennial participants, their use of communication apps on smartphones significantly predicted bonding social capital (β=0.15, p=0.009). However, this positive effect of communication apps was not significant among the older generation (β=0.10, p=0.10). Next, while millennial generations' use of communication apps significantly predicted bridging social capital (β=0.11, p=0.05), older generations' use of those apps did not significantly affect bridging social capital (β=0.06, p=0.36). In addition, Table 5 reports the results from a series of independent samples t tests, which compare the differences in main study variables between the two age groups. The results clearly show the significant age differences in app use as well as bridging social capital.

Table 4.

Comparisons in Regression Coefficients Between Millennial and Older Generations

	Bonding social capital		Bridging social capital
Predictor variables	Millennials	Older generations	Millennials	Older generations
Use of communication apps	0.15^**	0.1	0.11†	0.06
Use of SNS apps	−0.07	0.03	0.03	0.006

p<0.01; †p<0.10.

Table 5.

Comparisons in Study Variables Between Millennial and Older Generations

Study variables	Age group	M	t Value
Use of communication apps	Millennials	2.0	14.53^***
	Older generations	0.64
Use of SNS apps	Millennials	1.2	8.42^***
	Older generations	0.40
Bonding social capital	Millennials	3.02	1.14
	Older generations	3.0
Bridging social capital	Millennials	3.19	3.56^***
	Older generations	3.09
Social isolation	Millennials	2.48	−1.3
	Older generations	2.51

***

p<0.001.

Lastly, H5 and H6 predicted the roles of social capital in reducing social isolation. As Table 6 presents, after controlling for the generation effect, both bonding (β=−0.34, p<0.001) and bridging social capital (β=−0.10, p<0.001) significantly predicted social isolation in a negative direction. The inclusion of these two variables into the regression model significantly increased the explained variance of social isolation (ΔR²=0.16, df=2,704, F=254.3, p<0.001). These results confirm that both H5 and H6 were fully supported.

Table 6.

Results from Hierarchical Regression Analysis (Dependent Variable=Social Isolation)

Predictor variables	Block 1	Block 2	R²	ΔR²
Generation	−0.03		0.001
Bonding social capital		−0.34^***	0.16	0.16^***
Bridging social capital		−0.09^***

***

p<0.001.

Discussion

This study aimed at exploring the roles of smartphone use in improving social capital and ultimately reducing social isolation. For more comprehensive investigation, this study focused on individuals' use of two different smartphone apps—communication and SNS apps—that are directly related to the personal relationships that help build social capital. This study also investigated the role of social capital in reducing social isolation. Through a series of hierarchical regression analyses, it was found that most hypotheses were supported and that there existed generational differences in the effects of smartphone app use on social capital. In regards to these results, the following points are meaningful to be discussed.

First, the results from the hierarchical regression analyses indicated that only communication apps on smartphones positively predicted both bonding and bridging social capital. Unlike the predictions, there was no significant effect of SNS apps on social capital. Considering the previous findings in regards to smartphone use and SNS use,^16–21 this finding is quite interesting. In other words, previous research showed that the use of SNSs was usually positively associated with social capital. Thus, like Park et al.'s⁵ research, previous studies have assumed that the use of smartphones might have been significantly correlated to social capital by being mediated by SNS app use. However, as this present study shows, the positive effect of smartphone use on social capital is more strongly mediated by communication apps than by SNS apps. This result implies the necessity to specify the nature of smartphone use by paying attention to the actual use of apps rather than the general use of smartphones.

Next, this study found generational differences in the effects of smartphone app use on social capital. The effects of communication app use on both bonding and bridging social capital were stronger among the millennial generation than among the older generation. This finding is understandable when taking into account the main characteristic of millennials. This generation is characterized by their active adoption of new digital media.^26–28 Indeed, their lives can hardly be separated from these new media, particularly smart media, in this contemporary era. Thus, this finding can be considered as additional evidence supporting the significance of generational effects on the process of building social capital through new media.

Lastly, paying particular attention to the personal ties needed for building social capital, this study analyzed the role of social capital in reducing social isolation, which is basically caused by a lack of personal ties. Supporting the study's predictions, the results showed that both bonding and bridging social capital significantly reduced social isolation. This result readdresses the significance of social capital, especially bonding social capital, for improving individuals' personal lives. Furthermore, considering the positive effects of smartphone app use on social capital, such result highlights the usefulness of smartphone apps, particularly communication apps, for improving people's lives, in particular among younger populations. This finding contributes to widening our understandings of the realistic roles of smartphone use in improving lives.

Limitations and Future Directions

Although the findings of this study can help scholars further comprehend the roles of smartphones in contemporary society, the following points need to be considered for future research. Because this study collected cross-sectional data, it was not possible to analyze the actual processes involved in building social capital through smartphone apps. Thus, there remains a necessity to conduct longitudinal studies on this phenomenon.

Moreover, although this study observed generational differences in the relationships between smartphone app use and social capital, future research will need to consider other demographic factors such as socioeconomic status. Related to this issue, it is meaningful to link the concepts of digital divide to those demographic factors. Particularly, the second-level digital divide, which involves differences in skills needed to use digital devices,²⁹ will be important to investigate in future research.

Footnotes

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

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