The advent of social media have allowed us to build massive networks of weak ties: acquaintances and nonintimate ties we use all the time to spread information and thoughts. Conversely, strong ties are the people we really trust, people whose social circles tightly overlap with our own and, often, they are also the people most like us. Unfortunately, the majority of social media do not incorpor...

Social ties are strongly related to well-being. But what characterizes this relationship? This study investigates social mechanisms explaining how social ties affect well-being through social integration and social influence, and how well-being affects social ties through social selection. We hypothesize that highly integrated individuals – those with more extensive and dense friendship network...

This study examined the relationship between the number of communication technologies used for social interactions (i.e., multimodal connectedness) and well-being across the lifespan. Consistent with the assumptions of media multiplexity, multimodal connectedness and frequency of strong-tie communication enhancedwell-being, but only for older-age cohorts (35–54 and 55–70+). For young adults (18...

This study examines how novel words originate in and disperse through online communities. It asks whether larger numbers of people or closer social ties are better environments to foster the adoption of new words. The data stem from Reddit, a large sample of web-mediated, asynchronous conversations. Reddit communities are divided by size in this study: larger communities are based on discussing...

The research examined individual differences in people’s propensity to connectwith others (PCO). Ameasure of PCO, with components for making friends (strong ties), making acquaintances (weak ties), and joining others (bridging ties), was developed and tested in two studies involving 144 undergraduates and 197 health-care employees. PCO and its components were significantly positively associated...

Based on data from a 2005 survey conducted in Shanghai, China, this research examines the role of social capital in income inequality between rural migrants and urbanites. We find strong income return on social capital, in particular on social capital from strong ties. We also observe a great disparity in social capital possession between rural migrants and urban local residents. Although socia...