Harnessing peer potency: Predicting positive outcomes from social capital affinity and online engagement with participatory websites

This study involved data from a survey of a representative sample of 1417 US Internet users investigating positive outcomes from three types of participatory websites: social networking sites, e-commerce sites, and content communities (i.e. news organizations and content sharing sites). The findings indicate that the experience of flow (intense engagement in and enjoyment of an activity) promotes satisfaction with and affirmation for such websites as well as perceived focused and incidental knowledge-gain from them. Social capital affinity (sympathy marked by community of interest, and likeness based on weak ties) was found to strongly facilitate the experience of flow. Thus, the findings underscore the potency of online peers in terms of enhancing a variety of Internet experiences.