The Impact of State-Level Social Capital on the Emergence of Virtual Communities

摘要

The paper analyzes the 48 contiguous states of the Union and their ability to create and maintain online communities (Yahoo! groups). Multiple regression analysis indicates that the number of online groups and overall amount of online activity increase with amount of social capital. Also, ethnic homogeneity positively influences the number of online groups, while population density and number of IT workers are positively associated with level of online activity. In broad terms, the analyses support the idea that the Internet strengthens offline interaction, sociability online building on sociability offline.