Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
By
Rob Nyland
Raquel Marvez
Jason Beck
Graduate Students
Brigham Young University
Department of Communications
Paper Presented at the AEJMC Midwinter Convference, Feb 23-24, 2007 in Reno, Nevada
Rob Nyland
547 E. 200 N.
Provo, UT 84606
(801) 885-0745
Introduction
Social networking sites have seen a dramatic surge in popularity since the beginning of
the decade. These sites (i.e. MySpace, Facebook, Xanga and Friendster) are an appendage of the
new wave of the Internet, or what is referred to as the Web 2.0. This new version of the web,
works on a user generated model for the creation of web content: users can upload their own
text, photos and music easily to websites that are accessible to anyone who is online. Social
networking sites act as a personal directory for this content. Users create their own profiles – a
virtual persona – and use their profile to list their favorite music, movies, and television, as well
Because of this ability to create an identity, social networking has become an essential
part of the lives of adolescents and young adults – the most frequent users of these sites. danah
boyd (boyd & Jenkins, 2006) comments that “MySpace is a cultural requirement for American
high school students. Or, as one teenager said, ‘If you’re not on MySpace, you don’t exist.’ Not
all MySpace users are teenagers, but most American teenagers have accounts on MySpace” (para
3).
The popularity of these sites has made them new media powerhouses. For the month of
August 2006, Myspace received 35 billion views (Rosenbush, 2006) while Facebook received
14.8 billion views in the same month (Rosenbush, 2006). In response to traffic like this, Rupert
Murdoch’s media conglomerate Newscorp bought MySpace for 580 million dollars (Mintz,
2006) and experts say that it could be worth up to 15 billion dollars in 3 years (Rosenbush,
2006).
The amount of time that youth have been spending on social networking sites has caused
a great deal of moral panic among the population. Concern has been shown as to the safety of
these sites, with some worrying that such sites are playing ground for sexual predators (Hempel,
2005). Others are concerned over the morality of these sites – arguing that there is too much
material that would be deemed as pornographic on these sites (Social networking sites are porn
directories according to ChristianNet study, 2006). Studies suggest that this may be correct: In a
content analysis of MySpace profile photos, Pierce (Sex, Myspace: Fresno State Professor Finds
Links, 2006 ) found that 59 percent of photographs on the site contained risqué or sexual poses,
Another main concern over the use of social networking sites is that the youth who use
them already have busy enough lives and that time spent on social networking sites only
contributes to their workload. A recent study by the Kaiser family foundation (Roberts, Foehr &
Rideout, 2005) found that teen media users were cramming in 8.5 hours of media content into a
space of 6.5 hours daily. This has led the Foundation to describe the lives of youth as being
“media saturated” – they are exposed to multiple sources of media at once. For this reason they
have been dubbed by the Foundation as “The Multi-tasking generation” (Roberts, Foehr &
Rideout, 2005). Hempel (2005) argues that adults and adolescents use the Internet in different
ways: adults use the Internet for a more utilitarian purpose, to supplement their daily lives, while
youth are more likely to use it as a place to communicate and hang out with their friends.
This divide between perceptions of online space has caused parents to become concerned
that their children aren’t interacting with their friends enough in real life. In fact many users of
Myspace seem to be closing their accounts because they feel that they aren’t receiving enough
face-to-face interaction, or that the interaction that they have online isn’t as meaningful
(Noguchi, 2006).
Is there a link between the amount of time that a person uses social networking profile
and the amount of interaction they have in real life with their friends? Do the connections that
are created through social networking add to or take away from the connections that one feels in
their relationships? The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between one’s use
of social networking sites and their feeling of involvement in real world relationships.
Literature Review
Social Networking
Because social networking is such a new phenomenon, few published studies have
addressed the topic. What is needed within the field is a great deal of collaboration so that
simple research questions can be answered and literature regarding the subject can be built.
Those studies that have been published have focused on such issues as privacy (Govani &
Pashley, 2005; Gross & Acquisti, 2005; Jones & Soltern, 2005). Through a content analysis
utilizing concept mapping, Anton et al (2006), determined that student and mainline newspapers
framed issues relating to social networking differently, illustrating the divide between the
Ellison, Steinfield, and Lamp (2006) study is most closely mirrored to the present study.
Using a population from MSU, they sought to explore the relationship between Facebook usage
and social capital. They found that students who intensely used Facebook reported higher levels
of bonding, bridging and high school social capital. Although this study touches upon the
relationship between social involvement and social networking use, it only looks at the
relationship between Facebook exposure and social capital. Our study aims to look at the
individual uses of social networking and how those uses mediate feelings of social involvement.
Internet Use and Social Involvement
Several studies have argued over the issue of the use of Internet and its effect upon social
capital. Robert Putnam, a political scientist at Harvard, has heavily studied social Capital and its
interaction with the usage of the media. Putnam envisions social capital in two parts: network
capital (relationships with friends and neighbors) and participatory capital (involvement in
politics and volunteer organizations) (as cited in Wellman, Haase, Witte, and Hampton 2001).
Putnam argues that the growth of new massified media has led to the decline in social capital for
members of society.
This has led many researchers to ask about the relationship between the use of the
Internet and an individual’s level of social capital. Originally, the Internet was envisioned as a
democratic form of media, a place where users could come together and everyone would have a
voice— The Internet would provide users with more abilities to interact with their communities.
However, the results from the studies investigating this relationship between community
The first group of studies are the most influential and most controversial. These studies
suggest that there is a negative relationship between the use of the Internet and the social capital
of the user. The first in this group is a study performed by Kraut et. al (1998). In the study, the
researchers followed a group of 93 families in 1995, which were provided access to the internet
through HomeNet. Through survey, they determined that use of the internet was related to small
but statistically significant declines in social involvement, and the size of local networks. They
also found that internet users had higher reports of loneliness and depression. Additionally, Nie
and Erbing (2000) found that individuals who spent more time on the internet were more likely
to lose touch with their social environment: they turned their back on traditional media and spent
The combination of these two studies suggest that users of the internet are isolating
themselves and not fulfilling the vision of the internet to connect with ones community.
However, these studies – particularly the Kraut study – are quite old. Users of the internet at the
time would be considered early adopters and it is difficult to determine if their relationship to the
Shah et al. (2002), provides different results from the previous studies mentioned. In
their study they indicate that time spent on the internet is not a significant predictor of informal
The final groups of studies argue that exposure to the internet alone is not a good
predictor of social involvement. Instead, these studies take a “multi-modal” approach to internet
use and find that certain uses of the internet are significant predictors of ones level of social
involvement. Moy et al (2005) found that internet activities such as searching for information,
emailing interpersonal sources, community based activity and political activity was positively
related to levels of civic engagement. Whereas other uses, such as chatting socially was not
Shah et al (2001) also utilize this multi use model, claiming that the use of the internet for
information exchange was positively related to engagement in civic activities, trust in other
people and life contentment. The researchers also found that there was a negative relationship
between the use of the internet for social recreation and the individual’s engagement in civic
activities.
The results of these studies suggest that we should look back at the results from the
earlier studies from Kraut et al (1998) and Nie and Erbing (2000). Their studies take an
approach that looks at overall exposure to the Internet as a predictor of social involvement.
However, as these later studies indicate such an approach may be too simple and as a result may
overshadow the real results. These later studies suggest instead that we need to look at the way
that an individual uses the internet, and how that particular use can predict their overall level of
civic engagement.
In an attempt to examine the ways that individuals use the internet for specific purposes,
and how those uses media effects of the media, this study takes a uses and gratifications
Blumler and Elihu Katz, is a reaction to the behavioralist, effects driven model of
communications that was prevalent in the early 20th Century. Instead of concentrating on the
effects of media content on media audiences, the uses and gratifications approach was more
concerned with why media audiences attended to media content, more specifically what types of
needs are satisfied through the use of a particular medium. Katz, Blumler, and Gurevitch (1973)
“With (1) the social and psychological origins of (2) needs, which generate (3)
expectations of (4) the mass media or other sources, which lead to (5) differential patterns
of media exposure (or engagement in other activities), resulting in (6) need gratifications
and (7) other consequences, perhaps mostly unintended ones” (p. 510).
Since its inception as a method, studies have applied to the uses and gratifications method
to several different media. The main purpose of these studies is to understand that uses and
gratifications that each media fulfill. Katz, Blumler and Gurevitch (1973) suggest that further
steps need to be taken beyond merely identifying the uses of each media. They suggest that
studies need to look at how the particular uses and gratifications of a particular medium mediate
any effects from the medium. This is the main purpose of our study.
Several studies have attempted to apply the uses and gratifications approach to the
Internet. Papacharissi and Rubin (2000) identified 5 different uses of the Internet in their study:
for information seeking, for interpersonal utility, to pass time, convenience, and entertainment.
They also found that those people that viewed the internet as being more socially present (that it
is warm, social and active) were more likely to use it to pass time, because it was convenient, for
entertainment and for interpersonal utility. Additionally, those users who found face to face
interaction to be less rewarding and who found their social environment to be less valuable were
more likely to use the internet for social interaction, while those who found their social
environment as more valuable were more likely to use the internet as primarily an information
tool.
LaRose and Eastin (2004) identify 6 different expected outcomes of internet use, many of
which are very similar to those identified in earlier gratifications studies. These are: Activity
outcomes (similar to entertainment uses), monetary outcomes (using the internet to get money),
novel outcomes (obtaining information), social outcomes (similar to interpersonal utility), self-
reactive outcomes (using to pass time, relax), and status outcomes. These uses were found to be
significant predictors of total internet use, with status uses (r = .53) being the heaviest predictor.
Studies have also looked at other aspects of the online experience. Flanagine (2005)
identified four significant usage factors in the use of instant messaging by college students:
the researchers compared the relative gratifications that were fulfilled by different media. They
found that while face-to-face communication was seen as the most useful and versatile channel
Most of the studies that have utilized a uses and gratifications approach to the internet
have done so with the intent of identifying the reasons which individuals are using it. As we
have seen from these studies, the uses tend to be similar. Focusing around issues such as
new facet of the internet experience, we expect its uses to be similar to the ones from the
previous studies. However, it will be interesting to see if any new uses can be derived from our
research.
Hypotheses
The first set of hypotheses will test overall exposure to social networking sites. Since use
of social networking sites is predicted to augment already existing social relationships, and
produce higher levels of social capital (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2006). The first two
H1: People who spend more time on social networking sites are more socially involved
H2: People who have more contacts on social networking sites are more socially involved
In order to take a multi-modal approach to the relationship between social networking use
and social involvement, a typology of uses of the sites must be developed. This prompts the first
research question;
Once the uses of different uses of social networking sites are determined, those uses can
be tested against the individuals’ level of social involvement, in order to determine how
particular uses may mediate effects. This prompts the final research question:
RQ2: Is there any relationship between social networking uses and social involvement?
Sample
Data was collected via a survey administered on Qualtrics.com. The purposive sample
was collected through two primary methods: 1) By posting the link to the survey on various
message boards (available in several directories including Google, Yahoo, and Big-Boards.com)
and 2) By sending the link to the survey via message to randomly selected members of social
networking sites. The survey was available for approximately 3 weeks. Only those respondents
who were 18 years and older were invited and allowed to take the survey.
Because of the nature of a survey administered over the Internet, an exact response rate
cannot be assessed. However, out of approximately 5000 invitations sent out for the survey over
MySpace, and various message board postings, only 202 surveys were completed, resulting in a
total of 184 usable respondents. This indicates a response rate of less than 5 percent. Such a low
response rate to MySpace messages may indicate that users are accustomed to large amounts of
between males (N=93) and women (N=91). The average age of respondents was 27 years old
(which is higher than the average social networking user – 18-24), 81.5% (N=150) were white,
2.2% (N=4) were African-American, 5.4% (N=10) were Asian, 3.3% (N=6) were Hispanic and
Respondents were asked to list their highest level achieved in education. 3.8% (N=7) of
the respondents had less than a High School diploma. 38% (N=70) had only a High School
diploma, 45.7% (N=84) had a Bachelor’s Degree, 9.8% (N=18) had a Master’s Degree, and
Measures
Independent Measures
about their social networking use. Exposure and involvement in social networking sites was
measure by answering two questions: The first question asked the respondent how much time in
a day they would spend on social networking sites. The second question asked how many
distinct contacts (“friends” who do not overlap from site to site) the individual had on all of their
Social Networking Uses. Respondents were given a list of 23 uses and gratifications for
the use of social networking sites (see table 1). The uses were compiled from the measures
utilized in general internet uses studies (Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000; Recchiuti, 2003).
Additional uses particular to functions on social networking sites were also added (How often the
respondent uses social networking to upload photos and videos, blog, etc). To assess social
networking uses, respondents rated how often they had used social networking for the listed
purpose by responding to a 5-point Likert scale with responses ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (very
frequently).
Dependent Measures
This scale was adapted from a scale used by Ellison & George (1994). Respondents were asked
to rate how often they had felt the following from their relationships: understood, useful,
informed about the activities of your friends, listened to, that they have a definite role among
their friends, that they can consult with others about their deepest problems, that they can count
on their friends for help. Answers ranged from 1 (hardly ever) to 3 (most of the time). Answers
to these items were then combined to create an additive scale that measures the individuals
traditional demographic variables, which could be used as controls in the analysis. These
Results
Of the 184 respondents who took the survey, 79.3% (N=146) used some form of social
networking. Of those respondents who used social networking sites, 81.5% (N=40) had
accounts on MySpace, 33.6% (N=40) had accounts on Facebook, 9.6% (N=14) had accounts on
Friendster, 3.4% (N=5) had accounts on Xanga, and 31.5% (N=46) had accounts on other social
networking sites.
Social Networking Exposure. Hypothesis 1 posits that who spend more time on social
networking sites perceive themselves as more socially involved. In order to test this, a median
split was used to break users into two groups: low users (20 minutes or less of use a day) and
high users (more than 20 minutes of use a day), and the groups perceived level of social
involvement was compared. This hypothesis was not supported. In fact the opposite effect
exists, those individuals who are high users perceived themselves as being less socially involved
Hypothesis 2 claims that the more contacts a person has on social networking sites, the
more socially involved they will perceive themselves being. This hypothesis was not supported
(p=ns).
Social Networking Uses. Research Question 1 looks for the main uses for Internet social
networking. In order to determine these uses, an exploratory factor analysis was performed on
the items measured in social networking uses matrix. Results from the factor analysis are
displayed in Table 1. Only factors with eigenvalues above 1 were kept. This exploratory factor
analysis produced 5 factors, which explain 70.8% of the variance: The first factor, Use to meet
new people, (eigenvalue = 4.636) was comprised of 5 items which describe uses for meeting and
communicating with people that users didn’t know in real life. The second factor, Use to
entertain, (eigenvalue = 2.470) consisted of 3 items which describe social networking uses for
passing time and entertaining oneself. The third factor, Use to maintain relationships,
(eigenvalue = 2.070) describes uses related to maintaining already existing relationships outside
of social network sites. The fourth factor, Use for social events, (eigenvalue = 1.691) describes
uses related to learning about social activities and music. The fifth factor, Use for media
creation, (eigenvalue = 1.169) describes the user generated media capabilities of social
The scores of each of the uses from each factor (from 1 to 5) were combined to create an
additive scale, which measure the frequency of use for that certain factor. For the first factor,
Use to meet new people; scores ranged form 5 to 25 (M=12.68, ∝=. 844). For the second factor,
Use to entertain, scores ranged from 3 to 15 (M=10.74, ∝=. 927). For the third factor, Use to
maintain relationships, scores ranged from 3 to 15 (M=10.65, ∝=. 834). For the fourth factor,
Use for social events, scores ranged from 3 to 15 (M=7.5, ∝=. 729). The final factor, Use for
media creation, although weak statistically was included because of its uniqueness to Internet
Research Question 2 wants to know if there is any significant relationships between the
uses that are outlined for social networking developed in the previous questions and an
individuals perceived level of social involvement. The results from the correlation only point out
one significant relationship. The more an individual uses social networking for entertainment
purposes (Use for entertainment) the less they perceive themselves as socially involved (r=-.235,
p<. 01).
After the hypotheses were tested and the research questions were answered, the
researchers were interested to see if gender mediated the relationship between social networking
use and social involvement. In comparing high and low users, no significant differences could
be found between high and low male social networking users in regards to their level of social
involvement. There was however a significant difference between high and low female users,
with high users perceiving themselves as less socially involved (t=2.235, p <. 05), suggesting
Discussion
The results of this study are interesting when compared to the results of studies
performed by Kraut et. al (1998) and Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe (2006). Our results indicate
that high users of social networking sites, feel less socially involved with the community around
them. Now while causality is difficult to determine this may suggest that those people who feel a
lack of connection with their community, are more likely to use social networking tools in a
quest to create that connection. But as the results also indicate, they are finding that they are
felling that connection less – at least with those friends around them.
These results contrast with those produced by Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe (2006). This
may be due to the social networking sample. Their study looked exclusively at the use of
Facebook. Facebook is a social networking site organized around local networks (such as
schools and cities) so that individuals can only interact with users who are in their same network.
Because their study is looking at the production of social capital within the context of a college
community, social networking sites may augment social relationships more than open networks
such as MySpace, which is based on an open network model. Because most of our sample was
This study has also been useful in pointing out the particular uses of social networking
sites. Many of these uses (to meet new people, to maintain relationships, and to entertain) mirror
the uses that are enumerated in previous internet studies. This study produces two additional
factors, which reflect the additional tools that social networking sites provide. The first, use for
social events, emphasizes the geographical aspects of social networking use. Members are able
to keep tabs of events that are happening in the community around them. The last, use for
media, emphasizes the positioning of social networking sites within the Web 2.0. On these sites,
When examining the relationship between these uses and social involvement levels, only
one significant relationship could be found: as individuals use social networking more for
entertainment, their level of social involvement decreases. This result reflects the results
produced by Shah et al. (2001) in that less active uses like recreation and entertainment may be
related to people withdrawing from the environment around them. They are not using the tools
While this study has been useful in helping us understand the relationship between uses
of social networking sites and an individuals’ level of social involvement, there are several
limitations that prevent us from drawing more substantive conclusions. These limitations are
mostly related to the choice to administer the survey on the internet. For the survey, the
researchers had a difficult time getting respondents resulting in an incredibly low response rate.
Ultimately, having a higher N is essential for a study like this where the relationship between the
variables is very slight. A higher amount of respondents would help us find more subtle
relationships.
Other limitations that come from an internet survey are self-selected bias: the final
description of the survey shows that respondents are more older and more educated than the
average social network user. Having a sample that is closer to the average user of social
networking sites would help us better understand the role that religion has in their use. Also,
because much of the survey was administered through Myspace, the final description is bound to
lean towards users of that site. Facebook is popular among many youth because they feel that it
is safer than MySpace. Also as mentioned previously, different social networking sites may
influence how users build social involvement. Future studies should be more proactive in
obtaining a sample that is closer to the proportion of social networking users, or compare the
Because of limitations with the scope of our research, we were only able to survey adult
social networking users. Further studies need to focus their attention on high school users. If
MySpace is viewed as the social currency among teens, how is the mediated experience
This study attempts to investigate the relationship between social networking usage and
an individuals feeling of social involvement within their community. It suggests that individuals
that use social networking sites feel less socially involved, and that social networking sites may
This study has been a helpful step in building the literature regarding social networking
tools. Such literature is essential in providing empirical evidence to support or refute much panic
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