Their relationship is as follows. If the level of internet use is high then the strength of ties between the user and those they communicate with online is likely to also be high. In addition if the socialization between the user and family and friends is low than the strength of ties between the user and their non-internet friends and family is likely to be low. Lastly the definition of the word community is changing therefore the definition of what makes a community online is also changing.
The author obtained the data by looking at studies of virtual communities by others, so this is secondary data. However the author also did some of her own interviewing so there is also primary data. The primary data was obtained by the author by interviewing people about their online habits and "virtual groups" they participate in online. The secondary data was obtained by reading interviews and studies by others. The methods in these studies included surveys, interviews and a sort of participant observation adapted specifically to the virtual community. The sampling procedure used in this study is not clear, since the author doesn't go into a good explanation on how she chose her interviewees. Otherwise, in terms of secondary data and probably the authors study as well I believe cluster sampling is used. The internet users are clustered because they all have internet access and interest in using the internet, and in this case since it is virtual it is widely spread out geographically.
The data is analyzed by looking at the studies and interviews and specifically the responses of people studied and interviewed. The research design includes interview and participant observation. The experiment seems to be non experimental because the researcher is asking the question without exposing the subject to any sort of treatment or the independent variable. .
The findings of this article show that the normative definition concept of community verse the understanding of socializability on the internet is still limited.