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American Behavioral Scientist
http://abs.sagepub.com Does the Internet Increase, Decrease, or Supplement Social Capital?: Social Networks, Participation, and Community Commitment
BARRY WELLMAN, ANABEL QUAN HAASE, JAMES WITTE and KEITH HAMPTON American Behavioral Scientist 2001; 45; 436 DOI: 10.1177/00027640121957286 The online version of this article can be found at: http://abs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/45/3/436

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Wellman et al. / THE INTERNET AND SOCIAL CAPITAL AMERICAN BEHAVIORAL SCIENTIST

Does the Internet Increase, Decrease, or Supplement Social Capital?
Social Networks, Participation, and Community Commitment

BARRY WELLMAN ANABEL QUAN HAASE
University of Toronto

JAMES WITTE
Clemson University

KEITH HAMPTON
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

How does the Internet affect social capital? Do the communication possibilities of the Internet increase, decrease, or supplement interpersonal contact, participation, and community commitment? This evidence comes from a 1998 survey of 39,211 visitors to the National Geographic Society Web site, one of the first large-scale Web surveys. The authors find that people’s interaction online supplements their face-to-face and telephone communication without increasing or decreasing it. However, heavy Internet...