Social Capital

Social capital is a difficult concept. It is not how we are used to thinking about how capital is accumulated. You aquire social capital through communiation. You have to strengthen and sometimes even weaken relationships. You build things called communication pathways through social capital. It is about the amount of connections you have, where it comes from. Social capital is not a concrete thing. It is an effect that merges through social interaction. The effect can be deployed, but it is quite interesting because unlike financial capital where you can spend 50 dollars and have nothing after, with social capital if you spend it, then you have more.

One blog spoke about social capital and the Influence of Social networks which was interesting to see what others thought. The author states, "Someone once asked me if reputation is interchangeable with Social Capital. Yes and no. To me, reputation is merely a dimension of Social Capital, not truly interchangeable. Social Capital is much more complex and includes:
connections, reputation, influence, bridging capital - the number of connections you have across to different industries, social strata, etc.
bonding capital - the depth of your close connections (how close and how much you could ask of your connections) (Hunt 1).

I believe this is a good point to include because one needs to understand the concept before he/she can express it.

Through sociotechnical capital opportunities emerge. It is through this where we learn about sociotechincal capital. Emotional support and value should also be included when discussing this term. Shows like Oprah and Dr. Phil are types of shows that emotional support and value are all included. In the audences of these shows, they have to all have something in common, and that provides the opportunity for sharing and trust.