Social Capital

When considering social capital, the first individual who comes to mind is PewDiePie. PewDiePie, a Swedish YouTuber whose real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, has a massive amount of social capital, and was the most-subscribed channel on YouTube for more than five years. Kjellburg, created content focussed around video games, but made his videos comedic through the use of commentary. After growing in popularity, PewDiePie began to post a variety of other videos, while retaining a solid fan base.

PewDiePie has an exceptional amount of social capital, because he has created a social environment where millions of people feel a sense of belonging. He has bridged a gap of sorts between so many people around the world, and in doing so has acquired vast amounts of social capital. However, Kjellburg’s social capital highlights his mistakes as well. While we’re all human, celebrities and people who have great amounts of social capital such as PewDiePie will be criticized for making the slightest mistake by the entirety of their respective followers or subscribers.

With this being said, my take on social capital is that it can be a positive thing, if it is taken advantage of in a positive manner. However, with the negatives seemingly outweighing the positives, I personally am glad that I don’t have a great deal of social capital. Now that’s not to say that I consider it a bad thing, but I wouldn’t want to be dealing with criticism from mass amounts of people every time I made a mistake.