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E-Associations? Using Technology to Connect Citizens: The Case of Meetup.com
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“E-Associations? Using Internet to Connect Citizens: the Case of Meetup.com” by Thomas Sander Paper Prepared for American Political Science Association Conference, Sept. 2005
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Abstract: There has been much research on whether the Internet helps or hurts social capital (the strength of our social networks). This paper explores one of the more promising examples to-date, Meetup.com, which enables individuals to find others locally who share an interest of theirs and meet monthly about this topic. This paper reviews who meets in these Meetups, whether they develop social capital through the Meetups, and what predicts whether they stick with Meetups. The paper overturns some stereotypes about Meetup (that it is attracting young people primarily, that people are drawn to Meetup by surfing Meetup’s website, that it is attracting the civically disengaged, and that it is attracting community newcomers). Given the transient nature of the commitments of Meetup participants, there is also a surprising amount of social capital being created. Creation of new social capital plays a strong role in whether Meetup participants return. And those with more social capital at the outset tend to make more social capital through Meetups.
This paper is one of the first examining in detail the social significance of what Paul Resnick calls a “convening technology,” in this case Meetup.com, which strives to enable individuals to meet face-to-face wherever on whatever issues interest them. For example, a person in Dallas or Peoria or Spokane through Meetup could find others who want to meet monthly to practice Spanish, share their appreciation for Britney Spears, talk about personal investing, or work on the Howard Dean campaign. Meetup appeared to be promising for several reasons:
• It has been growing dramatically; • In principle, it doesn’t require any pre-existing social relationships for the
Meetups to occur;
• Meetup’s founder explicitly hoped to use it to build social capital;
• Meetup set the hurdle for participating extremely low; • A lot of the Meetups concerned fun topics that might make it easier to attract
participants, especially the civically disengaged; and
• It provided a way to link to others in a way that might cut across race, class and
local geography
1
.
I start with a review of the “Bowling Alone” trends and the evidence that the Internet might make this better or worse before returning to a fuller description of Meetup and the analysis of the Meetup evidence.
1
For example, depending on what the underlying demographics were of the topic in which users were
registering to meet about, one could imagine a very interesting cross-section of participants. For example, Harry Potter fans might link in interesting ways across age, class or geography; a hip-hop Meetup might attract an interesting mix of urban and suburban teenagers; an Oprah fan Meetup might cross interesting social divides; or a Spanish-speaking Meetup group might attract an interesting mix of immigrants, Hispanics, and non-Hispanics 2
nd
or 3
rd
generation Hispanic immigrants who wanted to practice their
Spanish-speaking skills.
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“E-Associations? Using Internet to Connect Citizens: the Case of Meetup.com” by Thomas Sander
Paper Prepared for American Political Science Association Conference, Sept. 2005
- 1-
Abstract: There has been much research on whether the Internet helps or hurts
social capital (the strength of our social networks). This paper explores one of
the more promising examples to-date, Meetup.com, which enables individuals to
find others locally who share an interest of theirs and meet monthly about this
topic. This paper reviews who meets in these Meetups, whether they develop
social capital through the Meetups, and what predicts whether they stick with
Meetups. The paper overturns some stereotypes about Meetup (that it is
attracting young people primarily, that people are drawn to Meetup by surfing
Meetup’s website, that it is attracting the civically disengaged, and that it is
attracting community newcomers). Given the transient nature of the
commitments of Meetup participants, there is also a surprising amount of social
capital being created. Creation of new social capital plays a strong role in
whether Meetup participants return. And those with more social capital at the
outset tend to make more social capital through Meetups.
This paper is one of the first examining in detail the social significance of what Paul
Resnick calls a “convening technology,” in this case Meetup.com, which strives to enable
individuals to meet face-to-face wherever on whatever issues interest them. For example,
a person in Dallas or Peoria or Spokane through Meetup could find others who want to
meet monthly to practice Spanish, share their appreciation for Britney Spears, talk about
personal investing, or work on the Howard Dean campaign. Meetup appeared to be
promising for several reasons:
• It has been growing dramatically;
• In principle, it doesn’t require any pre-existing social relationships for the
Meetups to occur;
• Meetup’s founder explicitly hoped to use it to build social capital;
• Meetup set the hurdle for participating extremely low;
• A lot of the Meetups concerned fun topics that might make it easier to attract
participants, especially the civically disengaged; and
• It provided a way to link to others in a way that might cut across race, class and
local geography
1
.
I start with a review of the “Bowling Alone” trends and the evidence that the Internet
might make this better or worse before returning to a fuller description of Meetup and the
analysis of the Meetup evidence.
1
For example, depending on what the underlying demographics were of the topic in which users were
registering to meet about, one could imagine a very interesting cross-section of participants. For example,
Harry Potter fans might link in interesting ways across age, class or geography; a hip-hop Meetup might
attract an interesting mix of urban and suburban teenagers; an Oprah fan Meetup might cross interesting
social divides; or a Spanish-speaking Meetup group might attract an interesting mix of immigrants,
Hispanics, and non-Hispanics 2
nd
or 3
rd
generation Hispanic immigrants who wanted to practice their
Spanish-speaking skills.
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