IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v68y2018icp20-27.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Face to Facebook: The relationship between social media and social travel

Author

Listed:
  • Delbosc, Alexa
  • Mokhtarian, Patricia

Abstract

In an era of rapidly-expanding social media and smartphone use, there is much interest in understanding the impact that information and communication technology (ICT) can have on travel behaviour. In particular, some have conjectured that the prevalence of social media use among the millennial generation may be partially responsible for a shift away from car driving and toward more sustainable travel modes. This paper uses a purpose-designed survey to examine the relationship between physical and virtual social interaction. It quantified the frequency of interaction with members of one's social network through telephone, email, texting and social media and explored the association with face-to-face social interaction. Multiple regression and structural equation modelling revealed that in general, more frequent ‘virtual’ interaction was associated with more frequent face-to-face interaction, not less, even after controlling for income, age, gender, extroversion, and other covariates. The relationships differed in strength across different age groups; notably, social media interaction was only associated with face-to-face interaction amongst 18–29 year olds. This provides no evidence to support the hypothesis that social media use is reducing travel demand amongst the younger generation.

Suggested Citation

  • Delbosc, Alexa & Mokhtarian, Patricia, 2018. "Face to Facebook: The relationship between social media and social travel," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 20-27.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:68:y:2018:i:c:p:20-27
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.04.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X17300525
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.04.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Urry, John, 2012. "Social networks, mobile lives and social inequalities," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 24-30.
    2. Kristine J. Ajrouch & Alysia Y. Blandon & Toni C. Antonucci, 2005. "Social Networks Among Men and Women: The Effects of Age and Socioeconomic Status," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 60(6), pages 311-317.
    3. Scott Le Vine & Charilaos Latinopoulos & John Polak, 2014. "What is the relationship between online activity and driving-licence-holding amongst young adults?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(5), pages 1071-1098, September.
    4. Patricia Mokhtarian & Ilan Salomon & Susan Handy, 2006. "The Impacts of Ict on leisure Activities and Travel: A Conceptual Exploration," Transportation, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 263-289, May.
    5. Scott Vine & Charilaos Latinopoulos & John Polak, 2014. "Erratum to: What is the relationship between online activity and driving-licence-holding amongst young adults?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(6), pages 1341-1341, November.
    6. Juan Antonio Carrasco & Bernie Hogan & Barry Wellman & Eric J Miller, 2008. "Collecting Social Network Data to Study Social Activity-Travel Behavior: An Egocentric Approach," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 35(6), pages 961-980, December.
    7. Pauline Berg & Theo Arentze & Harry Timmermans, 2012. "A multilevel path analysis of contact frequency between social network members," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 125-141, April.
    8. Aguiléra, Anne & Guillot, Caroline & Rallet, Alain, 2012. "Mobile ICTs and physical mobility: Review and research agenda," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 664-672.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Khan, Nazmul Arefin & Habib, Muhammad Ahsanul & Jamal, Shaila, 2020. "Effects of smartphone application usage on mobility choices," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 932-947.
    2. Arranz-López, Aldo & Soria-Lara, Julio A., 2022. "ICT use and spatial fragmentation of activity participation in post-COVID-19 urban societies," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    3. Arif Budiarto & Nur Shalin Abdi & Dimas Bayu Endrayana Dharmowijoyo & Nursitihazlin Ahmad Termida & Basil David Daniel & Nur Sabahiah Abdul Sukor & Liza Evianti Tanjung, 2022. "Effects of Changes in Discretionary Trips and Online Activities on Social and Mental Health during Two Different Phases of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-24, October.
    4. Debbie Hopkins & Enrique García Bengoechea & Sandra Mandic, 2021. "Adolescents and their aspirations for private car-based transport," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 67-93, February.
    5. Caballini, Claudia & Agostino, Matteo & Dalla Chiara, Bruno, 2021. "Physical mobility and virtual communication in Italy: Trends, analytical relationships and policies for the post COVID-19," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 314-334.
    6. Harsh Shah & Andre L. Carrel & Huyen T. K. Le, 2024. "Impacts of teleworking and online shopping on travel: a tour-based analysis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 99-127, February.
    7. BouMjahed, Lama & Mahmassani, Hani S., 2023. "Virtual leisure activity engagement: The role of childhood technology experience," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    8. Alexa Delbosc & Maarten Kroesen & Bert Wee & Mathijs Haas, 2020. "Linear, non-linear, bi-directional? Testing the nature of the relationship between mobility and satisfaction with life," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 2049-2066, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. van den Berg, Pauline & Weijs-Perrée, Minou & Arentze, Theo, 2018. "Dynamics in social activity-travel patterns: Analyzing the role of life-cycle events and path dependence in face-to-face and ICT-mediated social interactions," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 29-37.
    2. Lin, Tao & Wang, Donggen, 2015. "Tradeoffs between in- and out-of-residential neighborhood locations for discretionary activities and time use: do social contexts matter?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 119-127.
    3. Klein, Nicholas J. & Guerra, Erick & Smart, Michael J., 2018. "The Philadelphia story: Age, race, gender and changing travel trends," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 19-25.
    4. Pauline Van den Berg & Astrid Kemperman & Boy De Kleijn & Aloys Borgers, 2015. "Locations that Support Social Activity Participation of the Aging Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-18, August.
    5. Ryley, Tim J. & Zanni, Alberto M., 2013. "An examination of the relationship between social interactions and travel uncertainty," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 249-257.
    6. Blumenberg, Evelyn & Ralph, Kelcie & Smart, Michael & Taylor, Brian D., 2016. "Who knows about kids these days? Analyzing the determinants of youth and adult mobility in the U.S. between 1990 and 2009," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 39-54.
    7. Bert van Wee & Caspar Chorus & Karst T. Geurs, 2012. "ICT and accessibility: research synthesis and future perspectives," Chapters, in: Karst T. Geurs & Kevin J. Krizek & Aura Reggiani (ed.), Accessibility Analysis and Transport Planning, chapter 3, pages 37-53, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Konstadinos G. Goulias & Ram M. Pendyala, 2014. "Choice context," Chapters, in: Stephane Hess & Andrew Daly (ed.), Handbook of Choice Modelling, chapter 5, pages 101-130, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Muromachi, Yasunori, 2017. "Experiences of past school travel modes by university students and their intention of future car purchase," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 209-220.
    10. Delbosc, Alexa & Nakanishi, Hitomi, 2017. "A life course perspective on the travel of Australian millennials," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 319-336.
    11. Parady, Giancarlos & Frei, Andreas & Kowald, Matthias & Guidon, Sergio & Wicki, Michael & van den Berg, Pauline & Carrasco, Juan-Antonio & Arentze, Theo & Timmermans, Harry & Wellman, Barry & Takami, , 2021. "A comparative study of social interaction frequencies among social network members in five countries," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    12. Han Dong & Cinzia Cirillo & Marco Diana, 2018. "Activity involvement and time spent on computers for leisure: an econometric analysis on the American Time Use Survey dataset," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 429-449, March.
    13. Nurul Habib, Khandker, 2018. "Modelling the choice and timing of acquiring a driver’s license: Revelations from a hazard model applied to the University students in Toronto," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 374-386.
    14. Matous, Petr, 2017. "Complementarity and substitution between physical and virtual travel for instrumental information sharing in remote rural regions: A social network approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 61-79.
    15. Kong, Hui & Moody, Joanna & Zhao, Jinhua, 2020. "ICT’s impacts on ride-hailing use and individual travel," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1-15.
    16. Nursitihazlin Ahmad Termida & Yusak O. Susilo & Joel P. Franklin, 2016. "Examining the effects of out-of-home and in-home constraints on leisure activity participation in different seasons of the year," Transportation, Springer, vol. 43(6), pages 997-1021, November.
    17. Giancarlos Troncoso Parady & Genki Katayama & Hiromu Yamazaki & Tatsuki Yamanami & Kiyoshi Takami & Noboru Harata, 2019. "Analysis of social networks, social interactions, and out-of-home leisure activity generation: Evidence from Japan," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 537-562, June.
    18. Iryo, Takamasa & Watling, David, 2019. "Properties of equilibria in transport problems with complex interactions between users," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 87-114.
    19. Aguiléra, Anne & Guillot, Caroline & Rallet, Alain, 2012. "Mobile ICTs and physical mobility: Review and research agenda," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 664-672.
    20. Lin, Tao & Wang, Donggen & Zhou, Meng, 2018. "Residential relocation and changes in travel behavior: what is the role of social context change?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 360-374.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:68:y:2018:i:c:p:20-27. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.