Page 88 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2018 Vol. 44

YAN Hui / Fuel in the snowy weather or icing on the cake? Exploration of social network’s value in alleviation of digital poverty 087

digital tools, social support, digital capabilities and efforts in specific situations.
Among the fourteen composite cases of two digital poverty types, there are seven cases actively
seeking help from social networks, and strong ties are used in six cases of the seven to seek help.
The scenarios include: an old male teacher surnamed Yu in HFX village in Tianjin asked young
teachers in the office to help him print materials, a female resident surnamed Wang in TH village
in Tianjin got a computer as dowry when she got married, a male resident surnamed Ma in TH
village in Tianjin asked his neighbor to help him change 360 antivirus software into King soft and
then successfully killed the virus when his computer got a virus, an operator of grape greenhouses
surnamed Han in CKY village in Gansu asked his grandson to search for examples of successfully
killing grape pests through Baidu, a female resident surnamed Wu in LY town in Hunan was
provided with help by her husband to make QQ video chat with her daughter, and a middle-aged
female resident asked her son to help her search for medical information. In the case of seeking
help through weak ties, a student surnamed Tang in KL village in Gansu sought professional help
by email from the author several times since we met in the field study. Strong ties reduced the
degree of physical poverty, digital ability, social impact and social support.
Among the thirty-six cases of single type of digital poverty, twenty cases provided examples
of successfully seeking help from social networks to reduce digital poverty. Strong ties were
employed to seek help in twelve cases of the twenty, and weak ties were used in eight. The
scenarios for strong ties include: A neighbor’s kid of a male resident surnamed Chen in MF village
in Anhui helped him send messages by his mobile phone, four boys surnamed Wang, Li, Lin
and Zhu and a girl surnamed Wang in TH village in Tianjin were provided by their father, uncle,
aunt and other elders with computers and places for them to play games, watch videos and TV
shows for the first time, a male resident surnamed Yan in HD village in Gansu was provided with
a computer for use in his friend’s shop, a middle-aged female worker in YP town in Chongqing
let her nine-year-old son go to his classmate’s home to use computer, a self-employed boss in LY
town in Hunan recommended mobile news to peers, a doctor in LY town in Hunan asked his friend
to help him make video chat, a male resident surnamed Luo in downtown Chongqing helped his
friend install stock software, and a female resident surnamed Zhao in TH village in Tianjin sought
help from her brother-in-law’ colleague to kill virus. Strong ties in the above cases reduced degree
of poverty in digital tools, digital ability, digital effort, social support and social impact. In one case
of weak ties in this group, the boss of an Internet bar in LY town in Hunan helped his customer to
start computer, and in the other seven cases of weak ties, individuals were unable to find effective
strong ties within their own social networks, and then turned to sellers of computer and mobile
phone or communication operators for after-sales service.
Analyzing the relationships between the seven groups of the composite digital poor and social
networks, the more types of digital poverty overlap, the less likely digital poor people are to seek
help from social networks, and even if they seek help, they will prefer strong ties. The fewer types
of digital poverty overlap, the more likely they are to seek help through weak ties.