An Analysis of the Relationship between Online Social Capital and Social Media Experiences

Abstract

In the Web 3.0 era, online communities such as the DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization, and the Metaverse are expected to become more important. To propose a good community design from the perspective of social capital for the Web 3.0 era, we surveyed 1019 Japanese social media users to investigate the relationship between social media experience and the accumulation and imbalance of social capital. Results suggested that the accumulation and imbalance of social capital directly induced experiences of Curiosity, Challenge, and Flow. Considering the total effect, those with a bridging-biased social capital imbalance were found to be strongly induced to experience Curiosity. In contrast, those with a bonding-biased social capital imbalance were strongly induced to experience Flow and Challenge. The behavioral principles of the latter type of people are likely to be influenced by environments that amplify biased opinions, such as filter bubbles and echo chambers. For people with bonding-biased social capital to appropriately utilize online communities, online community operators should provide a mechanism for noticing information bias.