Cargando…

The role of communication technology across the life course: A field guide to social support in East York

This paper builds on a body of work over the decades that examines how East Yorkers give and receive support. We go beyond the earlier work taking into consideration communication technologies and how they play a role in the ways people exchange social support across the life course. We draw on 101...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Quan-Haase, Anabel, Harper, Molly-Gloria, Wellman, Barry
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9006389/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35431394
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02654075211056898
_version_ 1784686655004737536
author Quan-Haase, Anabel
Harper, Molly-Gloria
Wellman, Barry
author_facet Quan-Haase, Anabel
Harper, Molly-Gloria
Wellman, Barry
author_sort Quan-Haase, Anabel
collection PubMed
description This paper builds on a body of work over the decades that examines how East Yorkers give and receive support. We go beyond the earlier work taking into consideration communication technologies and how they play a role in the ways people exchange social support across the life course. We draw on 101 in-depth interviews conducted in 2013–2014 to shed light on the support networks of a sample of East York residents and discern the role of communication technologies in the exchange of different types of social support across age groups. Our findings show that not much has changed since the 1960s in terms of the social ties that our sample of East Yorkers have, and the types of support mobilized via social networks: companionship, small and large services, emotional aid, and financial support. What has changed is how communication technologies interweave in complex ways with different types of social ties (partners, siblings, friends, etc.) to mobilize social support. We found that communication technologies helped siblings and extended kin to increase the frequency of interaction and help exchange support at a distance. Communication technologies helped solidify friendship ties by providing a continuous flow of interaction. We draw implications for theories of social support and for social policy associated with interventions aimed at helping vulnerable groups cope in hard times such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9006389
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher SAGE Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-90063892022-04-14 The role of communication technology across the life course: A field guide to social support in East York Quan-Haase, Anabel Harper, Molly-Gloria Wellman, Barry J Soc Pers Relat Ongoing Relationships This paper builds on a body of work over the decades that examines how East Yorkers give and receive support. We go beyond the earlier work taking into consideration communication technologies and how they play a role in the ways people exchange social support across the life course. We draw on 101 in-depth interviews conducted in 2013–2014 to shed light on the support networks of a sample of East York residents and discern the role of communication technologies in the exchange of different types of social support across age groups. Our findings show that not much has changed since the 1960s in terms of the social ties that our sample of East Yorkers have, and the types of support mobilized via social networks: companionship, small and large services, emotional aid, and financial support. What has changed is how communication technologies interweave in complex ways with different types of social ties (partners, siblings, friends, etc.) to mobilize social support. We found that communication technologies helped siblings and extended kin to increase the frequency of interaction and help exchange support at a distance. Communication technologies helped solidify friendship ties by providing a continuous flow of interaction. We draw implications for theories of social support and for social policy associated with interventions aimed at helping vulnerable groups cope in hard times such as the COVID-19 pandemic. SAGE Publications 2021-11-19 2021-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9006389/ /pubmed/35431394 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02654075211056898 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Ongoing Relationships
Quan-Haase, Anabel
Harper, Molly-Gloria
Wellman, Barry
The role of communication technology across the life course: A field guide to social support in East York
title The role of communication technology across the life course: A field guide to social support in East York
title_full The role of communication technology across the life course: A field guide to social support in East York
title_fullStr The role of communication technology across the life course: A field guide to social support in East York
title_full_unstemmed The role of communication technology across the life course: A field guide to social support in East York
title_short The role of communication technology across the life course: A field guide to social support in East York
title_sort role of communication technology across the life course: a field guide to social support in east york
topic Ongoing Relationships
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9006389/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35431394
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02654075211056898
work_keys_str_mv AT quanhaaseanabel theroleofcommunicationtechnologyacrossthelifecourseafieldguidetosocialsupportineastyork
AT harpermollygloria theroleofcommunicationtechnologyacrossthelifecourseafieldguidetosocialsupportineastyork
AT wellmanbarry theroleofcommunicationtechnologyacrossthelifecourseafieldguidetosocialsupportineastyork
AT quanhaaseanabel roleofcommunicationtechnologyacrossthelifecourseafieldguidetosocialsupportineastyork
AT harpermollygloria roleofcommunicationtechnologyacrossthelifecourseafieldguidetosocialsupportineastyork
AT wellmanbarry roleofcommunicationtechnologyacrossthelifecourseafieldguidetosocialsupportineastyork