Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/287456 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Citation: 
[Journal:] Population Research and Policy Review [ISSN:] 1573-7829 [Volume:] 41 [Issue:] 3 [Publisher:] Springer Netherlands [Place:] Dordrecht [Year:] 2021 [Pages:] 1111-1135
Publisher: 
Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht
Abstract: 
Qualitative studies have found that the use of Information and Communication Technologies is related to an enhanced quality of life for older adults, as these technologies might act as a medium to access social capital regardless of geographical distance. In order to quantitatively study the association between older people's characteristics and the likelihood of having a network of close friends offline and online, we use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and data from Facebook. Using a novel approach to analyze aggregated and anonymous Facebook data within a regression framework, we show that the associations between having close friends and age, sex, and being a parent are the same offline and online. Migrants who use internet are less likely to have close friends offline, but migrants who are Facebook users are more likely to have close friends online, suggesting that digital relationships may compensate for the potential lack of offline close friendships among older migrants.
Subjects: 
Social networks
Social capital
Older people
Social media data
Europe
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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