Facebook 'found good' for friendships, politics.

WASHINGTON: Contrary to popular fears that cultivating Facebook friends will harm people's ability to make friends offline, research suggests that users of social networking sites have higher measures of social well-being.

According to results of a Pew Research Centre survey released on Thursday, Facebook users are more trusting, have more close friends, and are politically-engaged.

"There has been a great deal of speculation about the impact of social networking site use on people's social lives, and much of it has centred on the possibility that these sites are hurting users' relationships and pushing them away from participating in the world," lead author of the report Keith Hampton said.

More close relationships

"We've found the exact opposite - that people who use sites like Facebook actually have more close relationships and are more likely to be involved in civic and political activities."

Last fall, researchers surveyed 2,255 adults about their use of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The research indicates a sea change in social relations. Forty seven per cent of adults use social networking sites, up from 26 per cent in 2008, when a similar survey was conducted.

Facebook users who sign in to the site several times a day are 43 per cent more likely than other Internet users and more than three times more likely than non-Internet users to feel that most other people can be trusted. Frequent Facebook users were particularly active during the US midterm election season.

They were two and half times more likely to attend a political rally or meeting and 43 per cent more likely to have said they would vote, the report said.

Muscat Press and Publishing House SAOC 2011

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