This paper investigates the uses of social networking site Facebook, and the gratifications users derive from those uses. In the first study, 137 users generated words or phrases to describe how they used Facebook, and what they enjoyed about their use. These phrases were coded into 46 items which were completed by 241 Facebook users in Study 2. Factor analysis identified seven unique uses and gratifications: social connection, shared identities, content, social investigation, social network surfing and status updating. User demographics, site visit patterns and the use of privacy settings were associated with different uses and gratifications. Author Keywords Social networking sites, uses and gratifications, motivation

Abstract Online social networking sites have revealed an entirely new method of self-presentation. This cyber social tool provides a new site of analysis to examine personality and identity. The current study examines how narcissism and self-esteem are manifested on the social networking Web site Facebook.com. Self-esteem and narcissistic personality self-reports were collected from 100 Facebook users at York University. Participant Web pages were also coded based on self-promotional content features. Correlation analyses revealed that individuals higher in narcissism and lower in self-esteem were related to greater online activity as well as some self-promotional content. Gender differences were found to influence the type of self-promotional content presented by individual Facebook users. Implications and future research directions of narcissism and self-esteem on social networking Web sites are discussed.

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ABSTRACT- Research examining friend networking sites has greatly increased in the past several months exploring topics related to general use, psychological well being, and content analysis of profiles to name a few. The current study sought to identify dimensions of uses and gratifications for users of friend networking sites. Results identified the following three dimensions: the Information Dimension, the Friendship Dimension, and the Connection Dimension. Sex differences also existed with regards to use of friend networking sites. For example, men were more likely to use the sites for dating purposes and women were more likely to set their accounts to private. A discussion of the results is presented in light of the uses and gratifications obtained from the use of friend networking sites. Since the internet originated in the US (Lievrouw, 2000), its uses and capabilities have expanded greatly (Harris, 2006). For example, the use of the internet has facilitated relationship building and communication between individuals (Kiesler, 1997). One venue for achieving these goals is friend networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook (Thayer & Ray, 2006). Friend networking sites are mediated social communities (Goodings, Locke, & Brown, 2000) that allow people with similar interests to gather

Social cognitive theory suggests a likely relationship between behavior mod-eled on increasingly popular reality television (RTV) and user behavior mod-eled on social networking sites (SNSs). This study surveyed young adults (ND 456) to determine the extent to which RTV consumption explained a range of user behavior in the context of social network sites. Results show a consistent relationship between RTV consumption and the length of time spent on these sites, the size of users ’ networks, the proportion of friends not actually met face to face, and photo sharing frequency while controlling for age and gender. In the now-classic work Life on the Screen, sociologist Turkle (1995) effectively captured the radical zeitgeist of the early public Internet: absent physical cues in the text-based medium, individuals free to construct and deconstruct identity as they saw fit. Gender, race, and ability only became a component of social exchange to the degree that individuals chose to introduce it. Significant amounts of subsequent research energy were devoted to exploring how computer mediation affects personal identity construction and social interaction (e.g., Ellison, Heino, & Gibbs, 2006;

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In this article, we provide the nontechnical reader with a fundamental understanding of the components of virtual reality (VR) and a thorough discussion of the role VR has played in social science. First, we provide a brief overview of the hardware and equipment used to create VR and review common elements found within the virtual environment that may be of interest to social scientists, such as virtual humans and interactive, multisensory feedback. Then, we discuss the role of VR in existing social scientific research. Specifically, we review the literature on the study of VR as an object, wherein we discuss the effects of the technology on human users; VR as an application, wherein we consider real-world applications in areas such as medicine and education; and VR as a method, wherein we provide a comprehensive outline of studies in which VR technologies are used to study phenomena that have traditionally been studied in physical settings, such as nonverbal behavior and social interaction. We then present a content analysis of the literature, tracking the trends for this research over the last two decades. Finally, we present some possibilities for future research for interested social scientists.

There is growing evidence to suggest that bullying results in deep emotional damage. Borderless cyberspace transforms the nature of bullying and serves as a risky territory where more and more bullies are at large, which in turn, increases the extent of victimization in cyber-space. The current study investigated the cyberbullying victimization among Turkish members of an online social utility. The analysis sample consisted of 1470 participants who were recruited with a 28-item web-based survey. The survey had a high internal consistency coefficient and explained more than half of the total variance with a single-factor structure. Findings revealed that several background variables influenced cyberbullying victimization, including: gender; marital and socioeconomic status; purpose; frequency; location; time and nature of Internet use and language proficiency. Observed gender differences varied according to Internet connection locations. In addition, socioeconomic differences varied according to surfing patterns. Forum and blog use predicted victimization significantly. On the other hand, some critical variables did not have an influence on the extent of victimization such as age, education level and Internet proficiency. The source of victimization was predominantly international websites rather than Turkish websites. Findings were discussed followed by implications and suggestions for further research.

a b s t r a c t A survey (N = 292) was conducted that measured self-promoting Facebook behaviors (e.g. posting status updates and photos of oneself, updating profile information) and several anti-social behaviors (e.g. seeking social support more than one provides it, getting angry when people do not comment on one's status updates, retaliating against negative comments). The grandiose exhibitionism subscale of the narcissistic personality inventory was hypothesized to predict the self-promoting behaviors. The entitlement/exploitativeness subscale was hypothesized to predict the anti-social behaviors. Results were largely consistent with the hypothesis for the self-promoting behaviors but mixed concerning the anti-social behaviors. Trait self-esteem was also related in the opposite manner as the Narcissism scales to some Facebook behaviors.

People share pictures online to increase their social presence. However, recent studies have shown that most of the content shared in social networks is not looked at by peers. Proper metadata can be generated and used to improve the retrieval of this content. In spite of this, we still lack solutions for collecting valid descriptors of content that can be used effectively in the context of social information navigation. In this paper, we propose a mechanism based on persuasive techniques to support peers in providing metadata for multimedia content that can be used for a person’s self-promotion. Through an iterative design and experimentation process, we demonstrate how this methodology can be used effectively to increase one’s social presence thus building more enjoyable, rich, and creative content that is shared in the social network. In addition, we highlight implications that inform the design of social games with a purpose.