LinkedIn from a different angle , Reflecting on "The Impacts of Personality Traits, Use Intensity and Features Use of LinkedIn on Bridging Social Capital ".

Young professionals and or students use professional networking services (PNS) such as LinkedIn ,  to plan and develop their careers . Among the three leading PNS, LinkedIn has more than 467 million globe wide users.

One of the main  purposes of this  study was to investigate the influence of LinkedIn users features use on their perceived bridging or gaining social capital. The concept of social capital refers to the available collection of resources  owned by the members by their own  personal social network  due to the  history of these relationships.    This study focuses on measuring individuals’ potential access to social capital. "Access to social capital refers to an individual’s collection of potentially mobilizable social resources"(Ma and Leung, 2019)

The results show that  reacting, sharing, and following professional information were the strongest factors correlated with perceived increase in  gaining social capital. creating visibility was found to be an important and an effective way to get recognized and appreciated by others.

Instead of being lurkers or passive users, by sharing and commenting,  LinkedIn users participated in a LinkedIn community.  Moreover, the study showed a strong  association between LinkedIn use and bridging or gaining social capital for individuals with higher conscientiousness compared to  lower-conscientiousness individuals. LinkedIn had a significant role here, where it might  have had facilitated communications, and possibly alleviated fears of rejections or humiliations   for those subject who were not secure about how do they  present themselves.   LinkedIn in this study  provided them with a safe and protected environment.  Theses subjects  were able to interact with strangers without being too cautious about how to present themselves. And as a result, they perceived a higher bridging / gaining social capital.

I found this study very insightful as to what A professional network as LinkedIn can add to the social skills to its career motivated  seekers/ users  in their journey for seeking and planning better careers for themselves.

LinkedIn here had a community sense of angle, where it supported the growth of its users by simply using its features. It helped its users to grow, develop and have a sense of appreciation in addition to their perceived gain in social capital. 

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