The Internet in Everyday Life provides us with the opportunity to examine several studies that evaluate how the Internet’s existence is transforming our daily actions. These studies, collectively, offer examples on how the Internet alters one’s social capital. Before evaluating how Eons affects its users’ daily lives, we must see what social capital really is.
Under any context, social capital is all about connections. We experience it within our interactions especially when a set of values or norms are shared among members. Within virtual communities, social capita’s value extends from the associations that one creates in social networks. As the Internet rapidly becomes vital to our everyday actions, it remains difficult for researchers to determine if the medium’s use is increasing or decreasing social capital.
Barry Wellman states in The Internet in Everyday Life:
The Internet adds a new layer of communication opportunities and competencies to pre-existing communication environments, shaping our social lives through reinforcement rather than through displacement (421).
Eons members are using this virtual community has an enhancement to their daily lives. In agreement with Wellman, Eons is shaping its members’ social lives through reinforcement. In a press release, Jeff Taylor provides an explanation for Eons rapid growth, which is direct accordance with Wellman’s statement:
‘The Eons Generation is looking to connect meaningfully to the world around them. The Internet is quickly turning into the logical next meeting ground. Users are flocking to the People section of our site to build their profiles, create groups, blog and populate message boards. It’s loud and clear that they want to make connections, grow friendships and share their experiences online.”
Registered users can find their social capital expanding as members of Eons. They have the opportunity to connect and find people who share similar values and norms. Eons provides this connection through various services such as:
• Member-to-Member Searching: Search tools enable members to instantly search out new acquaintances based on geography, age, hobbies and interests.
• Groups Directory: Easy-to-use search directories help visitors navigate to online communities that focus on their hobbies, interests and passions.
• Enhanced Member Profile Page: Profile enhancements enable fellow members to learn more about whom they most want to connect with online, from their LifeDreams to blogs to photos they have uploaded.
With services as these, members are able to make new friends and possibly enhance their virtual meetings to actual meetings. Wellman has found this possibility to be true as he states that “most relationships formed in cyberspace continue in physical space,” (294).
Now, let’s see how strong these connections really are.
