  Broadband internet access is a major enabling technology for building social
capital (SC) by better connecting rural and regional communities which are
often geographically dispersed both locally nationally and internationally. The
main objectives of this paper were determine to what extent Social Networking
Sites (SNS) can build SC for households in a rural and regional context of
rural household adoption and use of broadband internet. A large scale survey of
households was used to collect empirical data regarding household adoption and
use of Broadband internet services including SNSs and their contribution to
building SC in rural communities. The results of this study confirmed that SNSs
would appear to build SC two high level dimensions bonding and bridging for
households in rural communities such as Western Downs Region. Moreover SNS
users would appear to have significantly higher levels of SC than Non-SNS users
in rural communities.
