People are becoming increasingly reliant on online socio-technical systems that employ algorithmic curation to organize, select and present information. We wanted to understand how individuals make sense of the influence of algorithms, and how awareness of algorithmic curation may impact their interaction with these systems. We investigated user understanding of algorithmic curation in Facebook's News Feed, by analyzing open-ended responses to a survey question about whether respondents believe their News Feeds show them every post their Facebook Friends create. Responses included a wide range of beliefs and causal inferences, with different potential consequences for user behavior in the system. Because user behavior is both input for algorithms and constrained by them, these patterns of belief may have tangible consequences for the system as a whole.

Research suggests that social network sites can support social capital exchanges, which are often triggered by requests for assistance, such as seeking recommendations or asking for favors. Responsiveness to these requests for help is important to study because these interactions have the potential to affect users' overall satisfaction with the experience of using SNSs, signal social grooming functions that are an essential part of relationship maintenance, and affect social capital processes. In this paper, we study a corpus of public status updates posted to Facebook (N=7,466) in order to identify the pattern of responses to status updates that attempt to mobilize resources from the poster's Facebook network. Findings suggest that mobilization requests are treated differently than other kinds of posts; posts that attempt to mobilize help receive more comments than non-mobilization attempts. Additionally, responses occur more quickly and are shaped by the type of support requested (e.g., a recommendation vs. a favor). These findings help us better understand the role of help-seeking behaviors in the social capital conversion process as it unfolds via social media.

Past research has demonstrated a link between perceptions of social capital and use of the popular social network site, Facebook. Williams' Internet Social Capital Scales, based on Putnam's formulation, tap into sub-dimensions of social capital that have not been broadly used yet may enlighten our understanding of the different ways in which connecting with others online can facilitate access to resources embedded within our social relationships. In this study, we segment Williams' Internet Social Capital Scales into various sub-dimensions using factor analysis and explicate the distinct facets of social capital through a lab experiment in which Facebook users (N=98) request a small favor from their Facebook network. We find that some sub-dimensions play a significant role in getting favors from Facebook friends while bonding and bridging social capital do not significantly predict responses to favor requests.

Research has identified a link between Facebook use and bridging social capital, which speaks to the informational resources provided by a diverse network of connections. In order to explicate the mechanism through which Facebook may help individuals mobilize these embedded informational and support resources, this study explores the role of bridging social capital, question type, and relational closeness on the perceived utility and satisfaction of information obtained through questions posed to one's network of Facebook Friends through the status update feature. Employing a mixed-method approach, we utilize survey data collected from a sample of non-academic university staff (N=666), as well as actual Facebook question examples and responses collected during a follow-up lab session from a subset of this sample (N=71). Results indicate that question-askers' bridging social capital positively predicts the utility of responses received on SNS, while useful responses are more likely to be received from weaker ties.

Facebook has become an increasingly important tool for people engaging in a range of communication behaviors, including requesting help from their social network to address information needs. Through a study of 614 staff members at a large university, we show how social capital, network characteristics, and use of Facebook are related to how useful individuals find Facebook to be for informational purposes and their propensity to seek different types of information on the site. We find that bridging social capital and engagement with one's network through directed communication behaviors are important predictors of these dimensions of information seeking; furthermore, a number of demographic and usage behavior differences exist between those who choose to engage in information-seeking behaviors on Facebook and those who do not. Finally, when predicting information-seeking behaviors, we identify a significant interaction between users' perceptions of Facebook as appropriate for purposes beyond the purely social and their engagement with their network.