High Risk, High Reward: Social Networking Online in Under-resourced Communities

Expanding one’s social network has been associated with greater access to resources and social support. However, little is known about how under-resourced populations decide to make new connections online and under what circumstances. We interviewed 36 under-resourced individuals in the U.S. to understand these decisions and found that people make new connections in order to seek advice and exchange support, particularly around coping with challenges more prevalent in under-resourced settings. However, participants were sometimes dissuaded from making new connections online due to fear of being scammed and hesitance around the social norms of reaching out to people outside their network. We discuss how people in under-resourced contexts grapple with `high risk yet high reward' social networking and outline implications for supporting safe and purposeful network development among under-resourced SNS users.