Internet Use and Social Capital: The Case of Filipino Migrants in Japan

Reggy Capacio Figer

doi:10.29333/ojcmt/2477

Abstract

This paper explores how Internet use may result in the cultivation of social capital. It takes as its focus Filipino migrants in Japan to prove that Internet use may bring about the creation, maintenance, and enhancement of social capital in the process. Using a Likert-type 5 point scale survey, findings reveal a significant consequence on the majority of social capital items which include Filipinos getting to know each other, an easier lifein Japan, feeling proud of their national identity and belonging to a community. However, trust online is considered by Filipino migrants to be unimportant aspect of social capital. Nonetheless, a relatively high reliability was found in Cronbach‟s Alpha that covers Internet useand social capital respectively. It can be surmised then that there is a positive relationship between Internet use and social capital amongst Filipino migrants in Japan. Discussed in this paper also are the latent drawbacks and potential research trajectories of the study.

Highlights

The Internet is rapidly becoming a medium of communication technology utilized by people across the world
The results of the survey revealed that Filipino migrants‟ appropriation of the Internet has an affirmative connection to the concept of social capital and communication
Given the internal and external stresses that migrants go through, the Internet has become a haven for Filipinos tocreate their national identity and community

Summary

Introduction

The Internet is rapidly becoming a medium of communication technology utilized by people across the world. The International Telecommunication Union (2011), approximates that with 7 billion people in the world, one third are using the Internet. One of the major consequences of the Internet on people‟s lives is how it transforms and changes their ways of interaction with others. This premise is best encapsulated in Marshall Mcluhan‟s (1964) medium theory in which oral, written, electronic and the Internet, notwithstanding what is communicated, influence individuals and society (Littlejohn and Foss, 2004). For example, the Internet has afforded a variety of different methods for communication These are email, online chatting, bulletin board system (BBS), web blogs, and online communities. The Information age or Network Society, as Castells (2000) describes it, has swept the world by storm, so to speak

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Results

Conclusion