REDEFTIE Data

The REDEFTIE data are the data from subproject 1 (longitudinal study) of the ERC-Project ERC-Project “Redefining tie strength: How social media (can) help us to get non-redundant information and emotional support” (REDEFTIE), funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement no 312420. Ethical approval for the longitudinal study was provided by the institutional review board (Lokale Ethikkommission) of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (Tübingen, Germany; LEK 2013/016). More information about the project can be found at www.redeftie.eu.

Goal

The goal of the longitudinal study was to examine the effects of social media use on various indicators of social capital and well-being such as life satisfaction, social support or civic engagement. A representative sample of adult Dutch online users received an online survey twice a year over a period of 4 years (eight waves). The dataset contains information about the use of various platforms (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) over the years and is therefore especially interesting for social media researchers. The data might however also be useful – inter alia - for scientists interested in developing/ comparing statistical models for the analysis of longitudinal data or for sociologists interested in the relationship between SES and social capital. On this page you can also apply for a user account and download data.