Cyber communities promote social capital (6)

'People tend to cooperate online rather than breach trust, increasing solidarity'

Following is the sixth in a 10-part series exploring the issue of social capital in Korea. - Ed.

By Jang Won-ho

The term "cyber community" refers to an online communication network which combines steady social ties with shared identity and solidarity.
Newsgroups, cafes and clubs on major portal sites are examples of cyber communities. The sharp increase of cyber communities is one of the main
features of the information society.

The concept also is getting a lot of attention in academia, especially from the field of social theory. Many scholars of social theory contend that cyber
communities can influence human motivation, changing it from rationality to communication.

In modern society, as Weber puts it, people act primarily on the basis of instrumental rationality, searching for economic and political interests. That is,
people act to gain more money and power at less cost.

However, as Habermas says, people communicate with each other not just for achieving money and power. Rather, they are more interested in
expressing their thoughts and feelings. In this sense, the desire to communicate is inherent in human beings.

The busy lifestyles of modern capitalist societies make it difficult for this desire to fully emerge. Cyber communities on the internet, however, enable
people to communicate with other at a very low cost. Thus, people can now act on a different motivation - the desire to communicate - first in the cyber
community and later offline, in real life, as well.

The development of the desire to communicate in cyber communities has influenced many areas of society, both online and offline, one of which is social
capital.

Here, whether the development of cyber communities can promote social capital or not is the main issue. The main argument is that cyber communities
can promote social capital.
First, increased communication in cyber communities itself increases social capital. The more people communicate with each other, the better they
understand each other, which promotes trust.

Second, cyber communities foster the development of various communication networks on the internet and, since networks are a major factor of social
capital, the development of communication networks itself can also promote social capital.

Furthermore, well-developed communication networks in the cyber community can play a sanctioning role against free riders. If someone acts
opportunistically in a certain cyber community, the news will soon spread to other related cyber communities through the developed networks. The person
then cannot participate in any other related cyber communities. Since the participants in a cyber community usually have strong links, this can be a severe
sanction.

In cyber communities, people generally cooperate rather than breach trust, which leads to increased solidarity. In short, by participating in cyber
communities, social capital increases.

Some scholars argue the opposite, that cyber communities decrease social capital. They contend that since time is limited, people who actively participate
in cyber communities cannot participate in offline real community activities. Thus, cyber communities might increase social capital on the internet, but only
at the cost of social capital in the offline real world, which can in fact decrease the social capital of an entire society.

This argument, however, is losing ground these days when online activities and offline activities are closely interconnected. For example, activities in cyber
communities increase organizational involvement by facilitating the flow of information about offline meetings and arranging these meetings themselves.

This phenomenon is called the "convergence of online and offline activities." According to a 2006 KDI survey, those who actively participate in cyber
communities participate in offline associations almost twice as much as those who do not participate in cyber communities.

The KDI survey also provides some interesting results with policy implications. As shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, the percentage of people over 40 joining
a cyber community is much less than those of people in their 20s and 30s, while the percentage of active participants among members is not that
different. This means that although older people join cyber communities much less than younger people do, after joining they participate just as actively.

More interestingly, those over 40 who participate actively show a much higher level of trust in the general public than those who belong but do not
participate, as shown in Figure 3.

Furthermore, the gap in trust between active and inactive participants is much higher among people over 40 than among those in their 20s and 30s. This
means that for people over 40, experiences in cyber communities promote trust in the general public much more than do similar experiences for those in
their 20s and 30s. These results suggest that one way to increase social capital among people over 40 is through policies that promote participation in
cyber communities.

Although it is true that cyber communities can play a positive role in promoting social capital, we should be cautious about some dangerous possibilities.
For example, some members of cyber communities are closed-minded, showing antagonism and hostility to people with whom they disagree. This is why
we see many hostile replies and acts of slander in the cyber community. Obviously, such behavior is detrimental to the promotion of social capital.

One reason for closed-mindedness and hostility in some members of the cyber community is the absence of education on democracy and civic attitudes.
Thus, to increase the positive impact of cyber communities on social capital, we should make policies to address closed and hostile attitudes in the cyber
community.

First, we need classes on cyber ethics in the curricula of public education. This should begin in elementary school because more than 90 percent of
elementary school students use the internet.

Second, we need to establish regulations to sanction harsh abuse and groundless slander and enforce it impersonally and consistently. Penalties for abuse
and slander could include a restriction on future communication. Since those who participate in the cyber community want to communicate, restriction on
future communications in the cyber community would be a serious and appropriate sanction.

Since Korea is a low social capital society, the result is a "deepening" of conflict in society. Fortunately, we have found a new resource to promote social
capital, the cyber community. It is time to make this resource work more effectively and efficiently.

Jang Won-ho is a professor of urban sociology at the University of Seoul. The views expressed here are his own. He can be reached at wjang@uos.ac.kr -
Ed.