Everything is social relationships. If you think about that statement, there is something utterly true about it. We are humans that depend on social connections so much that the relationships we have with other people can actually become a matter of life or death – not only in a Romeo and Juliet kind of way but also, and foremost, in the sense of serious, study-proved health impact. Since the very beginning of human kind our strength and resilience came from our ability to connect between one another – or to put it differently, from our sociability – and our intelligence built on the base of it. Up to this day, social relationships are the prime reasons for the ways we think, behave and simply live. Whether it is the democratic notion that the power lies with the collective of the people or the logic behind Friday and Saturday night life that fun and happiness are equal to being together, it all comes down to the simple truth that relationships matter – they matter tremendously for the individual just as well as for the community.

The significance of social relationships may appear very self-explanatory and apparent. Still,  in academic research, the whole, interdisciplinary and multi-layered understanding of social relationships as not only the basis but the key factor of everything concerning any kind of human action or interaction found long over-due attention only in the rather recent theory of “social capital”. Breaking it down, the concept of social capital encapsulates the notion that there is positive output coming from social contexts. Simply said, being social and engaging in interpersonal relationships has broadly diversified benefits. On the level of the individual, social relationships are needed to satisfy basic human needs like validation and care just as well as they help to build a sense of belonging and identity. Given this utmost importance of relationships for human beings, it becomes very plausible how we live in such deep interdependence with each other that we cannot escape even if we wanted. Precisely for this reason, social capital is also relevant for the broader, social well-being. The relationships we entertain between one another inevitably ripple out into the larger fabric of social relations also known as society. Social well-being is influenced by the connections and interactions we have as individuals and parts of society with each other in form of the trust we have in the institutions building the societal frame, the participatory potential of social structures and our civic orientation or reciprocal responsibility – or shortly, every aspect of our common life together. Consequently, maximizing social capital is key, especially when considering the recent social trends of loneliness, distrust, and fragmentation.

In the past few centuries, the overall sentiment of a growing social and societal distance proved to be prevalent by a variety of interdisciplinary research. Not only the increasing feeling of social isolation and distrust in fellow human beings as well as institutions of public life was detected, but also a considerable aversion of and helplessness regarding friction. Simultaneously, the continuous advance of screens and social media and the parallel on-going omission of so-called “third spaces” has been detected. Considering the forms of social capital, not only the connections but the wider implications, and inclinations of these recent trends of social relationships become apparent. In a nutshell, the increase of time we spent engaged on our screens within our “bubbles” and concerned with very superficial connections and the decrease of time we spent at places outside of home and work, lead to less relationships fulfilling the criteria of social capital in terms of their nature and the shared norms of interaction underscoring them. In order for social relationships to have the positive outputs attributed to social capital, they need to be built on the basis of a supportive social structure and within a large social network as well as qualifying as strong and positively perceived relations between people from diverse backgrounds. Even though it may seem as if we are as connected as never before in this age of digitalization and globalization, in fact, the opposite is true. Undoubtedly, it is easier than ever to reach out to one another but the connections we form on social media more often than not serve merely the illusion of being large networks for lacking the reliability essential to them. Instead, these new or broadened relationships undermine the benefits coming from social capital as they underlie short-lived trends and are regulated by algorithms set on profit maximisation rather than the greater good of social and societal well-being. Overall, relationships became less strong, diverse, and positive under the influence of social media. This development contributes to a two-laned downward spiral. On the one hand, there is the loop of distrust and polarization coming from the inability to sit with people having dissimilar or opposing ideas because there is less exposure to the differences and a dangerous shift of focus to the same. On the other hand, there is the circle of growing individualism leading to social isolation and eventually loneliness. Of course, it is a grossly negligent generalization to blame the state of social disunity all on social media and that is not the intention. It is just an example showcasing the dynamics of social life together leading to negative outputs that hurt the overall well-being of society and the social space. As a result, a look towards the functions of social capital is needed to shift the negative output to a positive one. 

There are three functions generally credited to social capital – it can take on the forms of bonding, bridging, or linking. While the first, bonding, happens between individuals and groups that are alike, the last two, bridging and linking, take place between people and groups that differ in some aspect or another. It is indisputable that all three social functions are equally valuable, but the key is for all of them to be balanced. Coming back to the trends discussed earlier, it becomes inevitable that there is an evident leaning of social capital towards bonding. That is to say, benefits from social interactions are sought in relationships with people from similar backgrounds, experiences, and opinions. With this tendency towards bonding, the problem arises that one function of social capital cannot neither provide the positive effects of the three of them together nor bring about the benefits peculiar to the other two. In consequence, there is a desperate need for rethinking social relations and interactions towards more bridging and linking to compensate for the abundance of bonding. Forcibly, for the sake of the societal and social well-being, we need to find ways to bridge the differences between us of whatever sort they may be to not only find the common ground facilitating and benefiting our life together but also to regain the ability to sit with and get involved with the other as well as one another. Only when achieving this state of balancing the functions of social capital, can we foster and nurture a lasting life together that benefits everyone.  

This leaves nothing to be said except for that it is time for all of us to go out there, confront the limited perspective offered to us, and build some relationships that go beyond bonding so that we can bridge the crates we created around us in order to find the broader links between us. After all, we should not ever strive to be lonely islands but the water around them for the simplest of all reasons: Relationships matter.

Sophia Abegg

Sources:
Join or Die with Robert Putnam – What Now? with Trevor Noah, Podcast episode from January 2025
What is social capital? – Tristan Claridge, Institute for Social Capital – Social capital research, 2014