Keeping up with our social networks online helps us get what we want in the short term, but could be worse for our accumulation of “social capital” in the longer term, our research shows. One explanation for this is that the benefits from increased online social connectivity are outweighed by the loss of face-to-face social interactions. The idea of “social capital”, is where the use of social networks helps people achieve goals that would otherwise not be possible or would come at a higher cost.
