Computers in Human Behavior 28 (2012) 624630

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Computers in Human Behavior

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh

Self-disclosure and student satisfaction with Facebook

Whitney P. Special, Kirsten T. Li-Barber
Department of Psychology, High Point University, NC, United States

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Available online 3 December 2011
Keywords:
Facebook
Internet
Social network site
Motivation
Self-disclosure
Satisfaction

a b s t r a c t
The purpose of the current study was to extend existing research examining the specic motives for creating and maintaining Facebook, and to connect these motives to users levels of self-disclosure and satisfaction with Facebook. Undergraduate students identied their reasons for using Facebook, privacy and
self-disclosure settings, and satisfaction with Facebooks ability to meet these motivational needs. Results
indicated that the most common motives for using Facebook were relationship maintenance, passing
time, and entertainment, although gender differences in motives for creating a Facebook page were
observed. Males and females also differed in the overall level of self-disclosure as well as the type of
information presented on their Facebook pages. Levels of self-disclosure, but not privacy levels, were
associated with greater levels of satisfaction with Facebook to meet certain motivational goals.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The rst recognizable online social network site (SNS), SixDegrees.com, was introduced in 1997 (Boyd & Ellison, 2007), creating
a new method of online communication. Since that time, online
SNSs have experienced enormous growth in both popularity and
membership (Gross & Acquisti, 2005). In 2006, the Federal Bureau
of Intelligence announced they had a list of at least 200 SNSs (Magid & Collier, 2007) and by 2008 that number had grown to 850
such sites (Swartz, 2008). These online SNSs have been established
based on careers (i.e., LinkedIn), blogging (i.e., LiveJournal), photosharing (i.e., Flickr), or maintaining contact with friends and family
(i.e., Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook).
Online SNSs allow users to create and maintain a public prole
within the SNS and to contact other SNS users (Boyd & Ellison,
2007). Other features of online SNSs may include the ability to join
groups based on shared interests or associations, participate in discussion forums with other users, upload and share media (videos
and photos), and organize events. Such features are important for
communication between people because they provide an avenue
by which individuals can maintain social interactions across long
distances.
Among the existing SNSs, Facebook remains the most widely
used and recognized. Facebook is the second most trafcked website on the internet (Alexa, 2011), the most visited social media site
in the world, and has more than 800 million active users (Facebook, 2011)many of whom are college students. Originally cre Corresponding author. Address: Department of Psychology, High Point University, 833 Montlieu Avenue, Box 37, High Point, NC 27262, United States. Tel.: +1 336
841 4620.
E-mail address: klibarbe@highpoint.edu (K.T. Li-Barber).
0747-5632/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.chb.2011.11.008

ated by Mark Zuckerberg in early 2004 just for Harvard

University students (Facebook, 2011), Facebook is a SNS that helps
individuals stay connected with friends and family online. As Ellison, Steineld, and Lampe (2007) have discussed, Facebook is very
much a part of the daily media routine of users in which 50% of active users log onto their account each day. The amount of time
spent using Facebook variesearlier studies documented an average use of 1030 min per day (Cassidy, 2006; Ellison et al., 2007)
whereas more current statistics indicate users access Facebook
an average of 55 min per day (Facebook, 2011).
For many, Facebook is a part of daily life, and its pervasiveness
raises the question of what users are doing on the site. Facebook
offers the traditional social networking elements that enable users
to network with other Facebook users, and offers additional features such as games and applications. Essentially, Facebook members can use the site in a variety of ways. Bumgarner (2007)
determined that Facebooks uses include (from most to least
important) friend functions (accepting/adding friends, browsing
friends proles, seeing how friends are connected); personal information (reading personal information, looking through photos,
reading walls, etc.); practical information (being able to nd contact information); regulatory functions (having editorial control
over the content associated with their prole, ability to update info
or photos, manage privacy settings); groups (view, create, and join
groups); events (nding or creating events.); and miscellaneous
features (liking, poking, etc.).

2. Research on Facebook
Research on social networking systems such as Facebook have
provided researchers with valuable information about SNSs

W.P. Special, K.T. Li-Barber / Computers in Human Behavior 28 (2012) 624630

because of its widespread use and its ability to organize relationships both off and online (Ellison et al., 2007). Facebook has experienced astronomical growth and is highly integrated with daily,
real world activities. Its popularity may lie in its features, the ease
of understanding and using the site, or its ability to permit social
contact with a wide variety of individuals within any given moment. Early research examining online SNSs have focused predominately on the characteristics of these networking sites, their
history, how they are impacting the internet (see Boyd, 2007; Boyd
& Ellison, 2007), and whether online SNSs diminish face-to-face
communication (Sheldon, 2008a).
Recently, however, research on Facebook and related SNSs have
shifted to explore the possible psychological and social gains associated with the development and maintenance of a SNS. Ellison,
Steineld, and Lampe (Ellison et al., 2007) proposed that SNSs such
as Facebook may offer the user a method of accruing social capital
in the form of multiple social relationships developed both off and
online and maintained through interaction on a Facebook page. Indeed the establishment of a moderately large and stable social network via Facebook has been associated with a sense of well-being
(Kim & Lee, 2011). On the other hand, having a very large list of
Facebook friends has not been consistently associated with perceived social support (Kim & Lee, 2011) or with perceived popularity and social desirability (Tong, Van Der Heide, Langwell, &
Walther, 2008).
Multiple studies have been conducted examining the possible
motives users of SNSs may have for creating such websites. For
example, Bumgarners (Bumgarner, 2007) study identied social
utility, directory (keep track of people), voyeurism, herd instincts
(using Facebook because other people are), collection and connection (organizing friends in one place), personal expression, and initiating friendships as motives. Similarly, in Joinsons (2008) study
such motives as social connection, shared identities, photographs,
content, social investigation, social network surng, and status updates were identied. These studies indicate that the majority of
motives described by SNS users for creating and maintaining a
SNS are social in nature, that the focus is on providing seeking
out off-line contacts using an online platform, to disclose information about oneself to other SNS users, and to ideally strengthen offline contacts using online self-disclosure and communication.
The identication of the major motives associated with the
development of a SNS in general and Facebook in particular, is an
important step in understanding why Facebook has become, practically overnight, an internet based phenomenon. On the other
hand, the extent to which Facebook is capable of meeting the social
goals of its users is a second, equally important dimension to consider. According to Aronson and Mills (1959) justication of effort
hypothesis, users satisfaction with Facebook may be derived from
the sheer amount of effort put into personalizing ones Facebook
page. More likely however, satisfaction with Facebook is derived
from its ability to provide some form of social gain.
Relationships, whether on- or ofine, require time, effort, as
well as the decision to disclose personal information to others.
Facebook offers its users the ability to create an online identity
including the disclosure of personal information to other Facebook
users, such as daily thoughts, opinions, and feelings (Qian & Scott,
2007). Facebook users also have the option of deciding what type
of personal information they would be willing to disclose to others,
effectively constructing an online identity that may or may not be
similar to their real self (Zhao, Grasmuck, & Martin, 2008). Disclosure of personal information may be done explicitly (i.e., written
statements of users thoughts and feelings) or implicitly (pictures
uploaded to their Facebook page). Previous research has identied
that Facebook users tend to construct their online identity implicitly, using a show rather than tell approach in which people post
pictures or video clips of themselves, as opposed to more explicit

625

methods, such as writing self-descriptions (Zhao et al., 2008). Further, the types of information presented in personal pages, posted
on users walls, or photos included in albums may be done to construct an idealized image of the self that users wish to present to
other people (Kim & Lee, 2011). A SNS users motivation for establishing an SNS may therefore be related to their self-disclosure levels. In turn, levels of self-disclosure may be related to users
satisfaction with the SNSs ability to meet their goals. More recent
studies by Sheldon (2008a, 2008b), explored possible motives for
creating and maintaining a Facebook page in relation to individual
differences. The results indicated that Facebook is generally used
to pass the time, maintain relationships, and for entertainment
(other less important motives include sense of virtual community,
coolness, and companionship). In considering that the internet is believed to potentially provide an avenue for normally shy individuals
to communicate (Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000), Sheldon believed personality may be the reason that introverted SNS users feel more
comfortable communicating online than in real life. However, Sheldons research indicated that people who are actively involved online are those who actively communicate in real life as well
(Sheldon, 2008b). As SNSs are believed to provide a means for establishing social capital (Ellison et al., 2007), the combination of this
and Sheldons ndings lead the current study to consider self-disclosure (opposed to personality) as a mediator of satisfaction.

3. Study goals
The overarching goal of the current study was to examine the
motivations of undergraduate students for using Facebook, their
levels of self-disclosure on Facebook, and the extent to which levels of self-disclosure were linked with satisfaction in Facebooks
ability to meet the users goals.
Sheldon (2008a) identied six major goals of undergraduate
Facebook users, and part of this studys goal was to replicate her
ndings using a new undergraduate sample. As Facebook undergoes periodic changes to its structure and functions, the current
study did evaluate perceptions of Facebook using a more up-todate sample of Facebook users. However it was hypothesized that
the underlying motives for using Facebook would remain the same,
despite modications to some of the features of Facebook. As part
of our analyses, we similarly examined whether male and female
users differed in which goals they assigned as most important just
as Sheldons study (2008b) did.
The second goal of the current study was to examine the factors
that contribute to satisfaction with Facebook. As stated above, two
possible explanations for satisfaction with a SNS may be derived by
either the sheer amount of time devoted to updating and maintaining their network page, but also possibly the level of personal
information users choose to disclose to others. The degree to which
a Facebook user chooses to disclose personal information on their
Facebook page may be related to the social goals and motivations
they have associated with the Facebook page. Facebook users have
the ability to disclose an array of basic information, personal information, contact information, and education and work information.
In the current study, levels of self-disclosure were examined across
each of these categories, and gender differences in self-disclosure
was also examined. In a meta-analysis of 205 studies, Dindia and
Allen (1992) examined gender differences in self-disclosure. Their
study was not about SNS specically but rather gender differences
in self-disclosure in general. Results from their meta-analysis indicated that females disclosed more than males. Additional research
(see Consedine, Sabag-Cohen, & Krivoshekova, 2007; Hinson &
Swanson, 1993; Littleeld, 1974; Sprecher & Hendrick, 2004) has
also shown that females do tend to disclose more information than
males. In the current study, we examined the relationship between

626

W.P. Special, K.T. Li-Barber / Computers in Human Behavior 28 (2012) 624630

frequency of logging onto ones Facebook page, time spent updating ones Facebook page, and levels of perceived satisfaction with
Facebook across the six motivational goals originally identied
by Sheldon (2008a) Possible gender differences in levels of self-disclosure were also examined.
The relationship between levels of user self-disclosure and perceived satisfaction on Facebook was the third goal of the current
study. Sheldon (2008a) examined users satisfaction with Facebook
using a single question: How satised are you with Facebook?
Given that users motivations for creating a Facebook may be diverse, the current study sought to compare both the specic motivations for creating a Facebook page with users reported
satisfaction with Facebook to achieve each of these six goals, as
well as whether users that were higher on levels of self-disclosure
and lower on privacy settings reported higher levels of satisfaction
with Facebook across the six main goals compared to those who
were lower on self-disclosure and higher on privacy settings.
4. Method
4.1. Participants
Participants included 127 (N = 90 females) undergraduate students from a small south-eastern university. Ages ranged from
18 to 24 years, (M = 19.24 years, SD = 0.862 years). Participants
were Introductory Psychology students recruited by teacher
announcement in their Introductory Psychology class who were
at least 18 years of age at the time of participation and had a current Facebook account. Participants were given research credit for
their participation.
4.2. Materials
Participants were administered a computer-based 128-item
survey and given instructions to access and complete the computer-based questionnaire. Questions included general demographics (age, gender, class year), motives for using Facebook,
overall satisfaction with Facebook, activities on the site including
frequency of logging onto and modifying their Facebook prole,
and to describe the type of personal information included on their
online prole. The section of the survey that dealt with the motives
for joining and maintaining a Facebook page were drawn directly
from Sheldons (2008a) Internet Motives Scale and were adapted
to be applicable to Facebooks ability to satisfy participants in
terms of their reasons for using the site to begin with.
4.3. Procedure
The survey was conducted in a small, on-campus computer lab
where only the participants and survey proctor were present. Participants completed paper consent forms in order to participate
and were given the opportunity to ask questions. The survey was
computer-based and participants were directed to the proper
web-link for completing the survey. After completing the experiment, participants received debrieng statements, were given the
opportunity to ask questions again, and thanked.
4.4. Measures
Questions about how often and when participants use Facebook, the frequency that Facebook users modied their prole,
and whether or not certain personal information was present on
their prole were used to determine general Facebook usage as
well as how much users disclose about themselves through their
prole. The questions related to self-disclosure came from doing

a line-by-line breakdown of the possible elds and items that users

can choose to complete and include in their prole.
4.4.1. Motives for using Facebook
Participants rated statements that corresponded to one of six
motives for using Facebook (relationship maintenance, passing
time, virtual community, entertainment, coolness, and companionship) using a ve-point Likert scale. Sample statements that participants rated include: I use Facebook for the following reason: (1)
To interact with others through Facebook groups. (2) To send a
message to a friend. (3) To post a message on my friends wall.
This measure was adopted from Sheldons (2008a) motives for
Facebook use. Higher scores represent that the participant strongly
agrees with the statement and lower scores represent that the participant strongly disagrees with the statement. The scores from the
statements that corresponded to the same motive were summed
together to create a total endorsement score for each motive. These
scores were then averaged across all participants to provide an
indication of endorsement for each motive.
4.4.2. User satisfaction ratings
To obtain a more detailed understanding of how satised participants are with Facebook, user satisfaction was also assessed
through questions about Facebooks ability to fulll their motives
for using the site. Participants rated the same 38 motives using a
ve-point Likert scale based on how satised they were with Facebooks ability to perform the given motive. For example, the participants rated how satised they were with Facebooks ability to
occupy my time varying from very satised to not at all satised.
Each of the 38 statements related to one of the six main motives
people have for using Facebook.
A satisfaction score was generated similarly as the motives
score in which each of the 38 satisfaction questions received a
score (15) based on the degree to which the participant felt that
Facebook was able to satisfy that particular need. These scores
were then summed together to create the six different satisfaction
scales based on the original six motives for using Facebook identied by Sheldon (2008a).
4.4.3. Participant disclosure
Levels of participant self-disclosure were assessed by examining the number of personal items (i.e., photo albums, personal
biography) that were present on their Facebook prole, privacy
settings, frequency of status updates, and the number of uploaded
photo albums. Each time a personal item was present on a persons
Facebook prole it was assigned a value of 1 and the absence of a
personal item was assigned a value of 0. For features on a prole
that were not as straightforward as present or absent (i.e.,
number of photo albums), participants were instructed to respond
using a series of categorical response choices (i.e., having 5 or fewer photo albums versus 10 or more). The total possible number of
items that could be included on a participants prole page was 29.
A median split was used to categorize participants into high and
low self-disclosure users.
Privacy settings are controlled by the user and determine which
other Facebook users can view information on their prole. Participants privacy level score was calculated by assigning a numerical
score to whom the participant allows view their prole and other
information, and whom the participant adds as a friend on Facebook. A lower score indicates the participant is more selective of
whom they add as a friend and whom they let view their prole
(i.e., they only add their real friends from real life and only allow
friends to view their prole) whereas a higher score indicates the
participant is less selective (i.e., they may add anyone and allow
any user to view their prole and information). A median split
was then used to create high and low privacy users.

627

W.P. Special, K.T. Li-Barber / Computers in Human Behavior 28 (2012) 624630

5. Results
5.1. General information on Facebook use
The majority of Facebook users (76.6%) log into Facebook several times a day and spend approximately 510 min each time they
log in (30.5%). 14.8% of participants log in once per day, 5.5% 35
days a week, 2.3% 12 days a week, and a mere 0.8% every few
weeks. 29.7% of participants spend 1120 min using Facebook each
time they log in, 16.4% spend between 20 and 30 min, 7% less than
5 min, 7% between 30 and 40 min, 3.9% more than an hour, 3.1%
between 50 min and an hour, and 2.3% between 40 and 50 min.
A chi-square test was performed to examine the relation between gender and frequency of Facebook use and how long was
spent on Facebook. The relation between gender and frequency
was not signicant, X2 (4, N = 128) = 2.48, p = .65, nor was the relation between gender and time spent using Facebook, X2 (7,
N = 128) = 12.77, p = .08.
5.2. Motives for Facebook use
The rst hypothesis was intended to examine the main reasons
individuals have for using Facebook and to compare these results
with those of Sheldon (2008a, 2008b). The factor relationship maintenance (M = 4.08; SD = 0.619) was the strongest motivator for using
Facebook followed by passing time (M = 3.79; SD = 0.799), and
entertainment (M = 3.60, SD = 0.725). Less important motives were
coolness (M = 2.89; SD = 0.807), virtual community (M = 2.19;
SD = 0.758), and companionship (M = 2.16, SD = 0.903).
A one-way ANOVA suggests there is no signicant gender
difference for most motives for using Facebook (relationship maintenance, passing time, virtual community, coolness, or companionship). However, there was a signicant effect for gender and the
entertainment aspect of using Facebook, F(1, 125) = 6.44, p = .012,
with females indicating they use Facebook more for the entertainment value it provides (M = 3.71, SD = .680) than do males
(M = 3.35, SD = .779).
5.3. Level of satisfaction with Facebook

Mean

In terms of general satisfaction with Facebook, users derive

most satisfaction from relationship maintenance (M = 4.39,
SD = .516), passing the time (M = 4.04, SD = .669), entertainment
(M = 3.95, SD = .582). Users are less satised with Facebooks coolness factor (M = 3.23, SD = .750), virtual community (M = 3.20,
SD = .634), and companionship (M = 2.95, SD = .831).
A gender difference in user satisfaction across the six motives
was also observed, F(1, 125) = 4.78, p = .031, with females

5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

(M = 4.46, SD = 0.461) more satised with Facebooks ability to help

maintain relationships than males (M = 4.24, SD = 0.611). Females
were also more satised with Facebooks ability to entertain
(M = 4.02, SD = 0.564) than males (M = 3.77, SD = 0.595),
F(1, 125) = 5.13, p = .025. Females were more satised with the coolness of Facebook (M = 3.33, SD = 0.749) than males (M = 3.01,
SD = 0.714), F(1, 125) = 4.81, p = .030. No signicant differences in
satisfaction were obtained for: passing the time, F(1, 125) = 3.67,
p = .058; virtual community, F(1, 125) = 1.46, p = .228; and companionship, F(1, 125) = 3.53, p = .063 (see Fig. 1).

5.4. Self-disclosure levels on Facebook

Facebook offers users the ability to disclose different categories
of information on their Facebook pages, including basic information (e.g., users sex, birthday, hometown, relationship status), personal information (i.e., favorite activities, interests, and music),
contact information (i.e., emails, IM screen names, mobile phone,
website), and work and educational info (i.e., college/university,
class year, high school, work). Self-disclosure was evaluated in
terms of whether or not items were included on a users prole
across these four before-mentioned categories. Overall, 56% of
users include basic information on their prole, 71% include personal information, 28% include contact information, and 81% include work and educational information.
A one-way ANOVA to investigate gender differences in self-disclosure across the categories revealed a signicant effect for basic
information, F(1, 126) = 5.65, p = .019, and contact information,
F(1, 126) = 4.63, p = .033. Males disclosed more basic information
(M = 4.87, SD = 1.14) than females (M = 4.27, SD = 1.37). Males also
disclosed more contact information (M = 3.03, SD = 2.17) than females (M = 2.26, SD = 1.70).

5.5. Privacy settings on Facebook

Privacy settings were used as another indicator of self-disclosure on Facebook. Users could vary their privacy settings to allow
just their personal Facebook friends, or all users to view their Facebook prole. To obtain a more clear representation of who users let
view their information (privacy level) on Facebook, it was evaluated in terms of many categories: the users prole (as a whole),
basic information, personal information, status updates, photo albums, tagged photos, tagged videos, friends, wall posts, education
information, and work information. Overall, about half (54.2%) of
Facebook users only allow just friends to view their prole;
25.8% allow users from all of their networks and all of their friends
to view their prole; 16.4% allow users in their main network and

Males

Relationships
Maintenance
* p < .05

Females
*

Pass Time

Virtual
Community

Entertainment

Coolness

Companionship

Motives for Facebook Use

Fig. 1. Mean differences representing gender differences in perceived levels of satisfaction across the six motives for using Facebook.

628

W.P. Special, K.T. Li-Barber / Computers in Human Behavior 28 (2012) 624630

all of their friends to view their prole; and 3.1% allow friends and
friends of friends to view their prole.
A one-way ANOVA indicated a signicant effect for gender on
privacy levels, F(1, 121) = 6.70, p = .011, with females indicating
having higher privacy settings (M = 20.90, SD = 11.67) than males
(M = 27.05, SD = 13.00).
5.6. Time spent Facebook and satisfaction levels
A series of Pearson correlations were run to examine the relationship between frequency of logging onto Facebook, the duration
of time participants spent on Facebook, and perceived satisfaction
across the six motives.
The results indicated a negative correlation between frequency
of logging onto Facebook and perceived satisfaction with Facebooks ability to pass the time, r(128) = .29, p = .001, as well as
a negative relationship between frequency of logging onto Facebook and satisfaction with Facebooks ability to entertain,
r(128) = 2.84, p = .001.
Duration of time spent on Facebook each time the user logged
on was positively associated with perceived satisfaction in Facebooks ability to past the time, r(128) = .24, p = .007, and a strong
trend was observed with perceived satisfaction in Facebooks ability to entertain, r(128) = .17, p = .05.
5.7. Levels of self-disclosure and privacy settings on satisfaction with
using Facebook
The relationship between level of self-disclosure and ratings of
overall satisfaction across the six motives for using Facebook indicated that level of self-disclosure and satisfaction with Facebooks
ability to entertain was signicant, F(1, 126) = 5.19, p = .024. Users
high in self-disclosure were more satised (M = 36.66, SD = 5.19)
with the entertainment element of Facebook than were users with
low self-disclosure scores (M = 34.56, SD = 5.21). Also signicant
was level of self-disclosure and satisfaction with Facebooks ability
to pass the time, F(1, 126) = 4.64, p = .033. High self-disclosers
(M = 29.22, SD = 4.79) were more satised than low self-disclosers
(M = 27.45, SD = 4.48). No signicance was obtained for relationship maintenance, F(1, 126) = .116, p = .73; virtual community,
F(1, 126) = .66, p = .42; coolness, F(1, 126) = 1.25, p = .265; and companionship, F(1, 126) = .235, p = .63 (see Fig. 2).
A one way ANOVA was used to explore the relationship between user privacy levels and satisfaction with Facebooks ability
to fulll user motivation for using Facebook. Results indicated no
signicant effect between privacy level and satisfaction across
any of the six motives for using Facebook: relationship maintenance, F(1, 122) = 2.70, p = .10; passing the time, F(1, 122) = .004,

p = .95; virtual community, F(1, 122) = .246, p = .62; entertainment,

F(1, 122) = .40, p = .53; coolness, F(1, 122) = .094, p = .76; and companionship, F(1, 122) = .191, p = .66.
6. Discussion
The development of SNSs has dramatically changed the way individuals use the internet to communicate with others. Most popular
among these is Facebook, a SNS that permits users to upload personal information such as photos, videos, statements, and links to
favorite websites for other Facebook users to view and comment
on. Research examining the utilization of Facebook and similar SNSs
has indicated that users see such websites as a method of establishing social capital (Ellison et al., 2007) in the form of new social contacts created online as well as the maintenance of off-line social
contacts using online methods. More recent research has provided
support for this theory through an examination of the motivations
and social goals users have for establishing a Facebook page (Bumgarner, 2007; Joinson et al., 2008; Sheldon, 2008a, 2008b). One question not fully explored however is the extent to which users own
decision to disclose personal information to other users via posting
of photographs, contact information, and personal statements on
Facebook is at all linked with users perceived satisfaction with Facebooks ability to meet their social goals.
In the current study, we (1) replicated the ndings of Sheldons
(2008a) research identifying the goals for creating and maintaining
a Facebook page, (2) examined the levels of self-disclosure and privacy levels of Facebook users, and (3) examined the relationship
between satisfaction with Facebook to meet social goals and levels
of self-disclosure. The majority (77%) of students access Facebook
every day. Regardless of how many times someone may log into
their Facebook account, for most individuals accessing Facebook
occurs daily, indicating that Facebook plays a large role in the social interactions among college students. Further, the majority of
Facebook users spend 510 min using Facebook each time they
log into the site. No gender differences for frequency of use of
amount of time spent using the site was observed.
Findings from the current study replicate Sheldons study about
user motives for maintaining a Facebook account. The leading motives for using Facebook were relationship maintenance, passing
the time, and entertainment; and less important motives were
coolness, virtual community, and companionship. These ndings
provide additional evidence that the main reasons for utilizing
Facebook are socially derived, and that despite recent changes to
some of the features of Facebook, users motivations for creating
and maintaining a Facebook page stay the same.
With respect to levels of self-disclosure, males disclosed more
basic information and more contact information than females.

High Self-Disclosure

4.5
Low Self-Disclosure

4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0

Relationship
Maintenance

Pass Time

Virtual
Community

Entertainment

Coolness

Companionship

Fig. 2. Mean differences in levels of self-disclosure and ratings of overall satisfaction across the six motives for using Facebook.

W.P. Special, K.T. Li-Barber / Computers in Human Behavior 28 (2012) 624630

Generally speaking the majority of users include basic information,

personal information, contact information, and work and educational information on their prole. This study provides a basic
understanding of what and how much college Facebook users disclose about themselves on their Facebook prole. Our analyses
examining the relationship between satisfaction with Facebook
and self-disclosure levels revealed an inconsistent relationship between each of the six scores of satisfaction with Facebook and degree of self-disclosure. Although users who disclose more were
more satised with Facebooks ability to entertain, there was no
support for the other ve motives. Although entertainment was
not a primary motive for using Facebook, its relationship to selfdisclosure is worth consideration. Entertainment on Facebook
can be obtained in a variety of forms and for some users this entertainment may come from browsing through friends proles and
photos, reading through the mini-feed updates of what their
friends are doing on Facebook (and in their real life), or using applications on Facebook. Users that have a high level of self-disclosure
on Facebook may be more entertained because they appreciate
when other users provide disclosure about themselves as well.
Two possible explanations for satisfaction in using Facebook
had been proposed: rst, that satisfaction with Facebook could
be derived purely through the amount of time and effort exerted
in developing a Facebook page (Aronson & Mills, 1959), and second
that levels of self-disclosure, potentially related to the desire to
present a desirable online image to other Facebook users, may be
related to perceived satisfaction with Facebook. Results indicated
that interestingly, users who frequently logged onto their Facebook
account reported being less satised with Facebooks ability to pass
the time, and provide entertainment. On the other hand, the more
time users spent updating their Facebook page each time they
logged on was associated with higher levels of perceived satisfaction in Facebooks ability to pass the time. This provides some support for Aronson and Mills justication of effort hypothesis
(Aronson & Mills, 1959) as putting in more effort updating and
maintaining Facebook was associated with some degree of increased satisfaction.
With respect to levels of self-disclosure and satisfaction, users
high in self-disclosure were more satised with the entertainment
element of Facebook as well as with Facebooks ability to pass the
time. Subsequently if self-disclosure levels (rather, the presumed
effort of disclosing) on Facebook does not lead to people feeling
more satised, what factors, if any, could predict satisfaction?
Sheldon (2008a) investigated the trait of unwillingness-to-communicate in relation to the pleasure users seek and obtain from
using Facebook. Although her ndings suggested that Facebook
benets extraverts (those willing to communicate), satisfaction
may be related to other Big 5 personality traits such openness
to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Another personality trait that could be a predictor of satisfaction
is narcissism. It would seem plausible that those high in narcissism
may be more satised with Facebook because it provides another
outlet for them to admire themselves. The development of social
contacts and the establishing of social capital is an important goal
for many people. The development of SNSs provides individuals an
alternative method of creating and maintaining social relationships
using an online method. Facebook in particular has been especially
popular because of its ability to provide users a great deal of exibility in determining what information is disclosed to other online
users, and to what extent this information is made available to others. While the majority of existing research examining Facebook
has focused on understanding the social motivations associated
with the creation of a Facebook page, the current study sought to
identify factors relating to users perceived satisfaction with Facebooks ability to meet these same goals. Our ndings indicate that
both the effort exerted in maintaining a Facebook page, as well as

629

the degree of personal information made available to other users

partially explains users satisfaction with Facebook.
6.1. Limitations
A limitation of the current study and a possible reason the third
hypothesis was not supported, is the number of participants and
that they were predominantly female. In the current study, the
percentage of female participants was roughly 71% and although
a larger, more gender-balanced participant pool may have provided further insight into any existing gender-based differences
in Facebook motivation and use, it is important to remember participation in the study was voluntary and actually representative of
the population at the university (more females than males). Additional limitations include the possibility that participants were not
completely accurate in the reporting of the contents and level of
privacy of their Facebook page. The researchers of this project were
unable to personally examine the Facebook pages of each individual for ethical reasons, thus our data collection relied on participant self-report, which may be prone to error.
6.2. Future research
The results of the current study have indicated that satisfaction
with Facebook is somewhat related to levels of self-disclosure and
time spent maintaining ones Facebook page. One area yet to be explored however is to what extent specic motivations are associated with users conscious decision to disclose specic types of
information to others. For example, if a Facebook users motivation
is to nd a romantic relationship, does that lead to the conscious
decision to post information about his/her relationship status, personal and work contact information, and personal interests? Such
information could be valuable for SNS administrators in seeking
to provide users with more specialized tools that are dedicated
to meeting specic goals.
Recent modications to Facebook have allowed users to access
their Facebook pages on their cellular phones and other mobile devices, dramatically increasing the ability of individuals to access
and update their Facebook pages. Future studies may consider
examining if how people use Facebook has changed due to the increased mobility and portability of the site. Although Facebook represents a much more modern method of social interaction, a second
direction for further research could be examining changing motivations for using Facebook. For example, do older individuals have the
same motivation for using Facebook as younger individuals?
Another nal possible direction of inquiry could be whether or not
the social networks established through this site are enduring or
prove benecial in later years. Currently, the majority of SNS users
are adolescents or young adults (Lenhart, 2009). However, one of
the fastest growing demographics of online users is people 35 years
of age and older (Facebook, 2009). In fact, approximately 35% of all
adults over 35 years of age are members of at least one SNS (Lenhart
et al., 2009). To date there is no known research that examines potential age differences in user motivation to create and maintain SNSs.
As the popularity and usage of Facebook continues to increase,
the current study enhances the existing research about SNSs and,
more specically, Facebook. Such results provide valuable information including why and how such sites are used, what and how
much users disclose on them, and user satisfaction with these sites
in relation to motives for using the site.
References
Alexa (2011). Top sites. <http://www.alexa.com/topsites> (Retrieved 24.01.11).
Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group.
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59, 177181.

630

W.P. Special, K.T. Li-Barber / Computers in Human Behavior 28 (2012) 624630

Boyd, D. (2007). Why youth (Heart) social network sites: The role of networked
publics in teenage social life. In David Buckingham (Ed.), MacArthur foundation
series on digital learning Youth, identity, and digital media volume. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Denition, history, and
scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1). Article 11.
Bumgarner, B. A. (2007). You have been poked: Exploring the uses and gratications
of Facebook among emerging adults. First Monday, 12(11). Article 4.
Cassidy, J. (2006). Me media. The New Yorker, May 15, 5059.
Consedine, N. S., Sabag-Cohen, S., & Krivoshekova, Y. S. (2007). Ethnic, gender, and
socioeconomic differences in young adults self-disclosure: Who discloses what
and to whom? Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13(3), 254263.
Dindia, K., & Allen, M. (1992). Sex differences in self-disclosure: A meta-analysis.
Psychological Bulletin, 112, 106124.
Ellison, N. B., Steineld, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benets of Facebook friends:
Social capital and college students use of online social network sites. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 11431168.
Facebook (2009). About. <http://www.facebook.com/> (Retrieved 07.05.09).
Facebook (2011). Statistics. <http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statstics>
(Retrieved 07.11.11).
Gross, R. & Acquisti, A. (2005). Information revelation and privacy in online social
networks (the Facebook case). Proceedings of the ACM Workshop on Privacy in the
Electronic Society (WPES), 2005. <http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/acquisti/papers/
privacy-facebook-gross-acquisti.pdf> (Retrieved 10.12.08).
Hinson, J. A., & Swanson, J. L. (1993). Willingness to seek help as a function of selfdisclosure and problem severity. Journal of Counseling & Development, 71,
465470.
Joinson, A. N. (2008). Looking at, looking up, or keeping up with people? Motives
and uses of Facebook. Proceeding of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on
Human factors in computing systems, April 05-10, 2008, Florence, Italy. <http://
people.bath.ac.uk/aj266/pubs_pdf/1149-joinson.pdf> (Retrieved 28.08.10).

Kim, J., & Lee, J. R. (2011). The Facebook paths to happiness: Effects of the number of
Facebook friends and self-presentation on subjective well-being.
Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 14(6), 359364.
Lenhart, A. (2009). Adults and social network websites. Pew Internet and American
Life Project. <http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Adults-and-SocialNetwork-Websites/1-Summary-of-ndings.aspx> (Retrieved 07.05.09).
Littleeld, R. P. (1974). Self-disclosure among some Negro, white, and MexicanAmerican adolescents. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 21, 133136.
Magid, L. J., & Collier, A. (2007). MySpace unraveled: A parents guide to teen social
networking from the directors of blogsafety.com. Berkeley: Pearson Education.
Papacharissi, Z., & Rubin, A. (2000). Predictors of internet use. Journal of Broadcasting
and Electronic Media, 44, 75196.
Qian, H., & Scott, C. R. (2007). Anonymity and self-disclosure on weblogs. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 12, 14281451.
Sheldon, P. (2008a). The relationship between unwillingness-to-communicate and
students Facebook use. Journal of Media Psychology, 20(2), 6775.
Sheldon, P. (2008b). Student favorite: Facebook and motives for its use.
Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, 23, 3955.
Sprecher, S., & Hendrick, S. S. (2004). Self-disclosure in intimate relationships:
Associations with individual and relationship characteristics over time. Journal
of Social & Clinical Psychology, 23, 857877.
Swartz, J. (2008). Social-networking sites work to turn users into prots. USA Today.
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/industry/2008-05-11-socialnetworking_N.htm>.
Tong, S. T., Van Der Heide, B., Langwell, L., & Walther, J. B. (2008). Too much of a
good thing? The relationship between number of friends and interpersonal
impressions on facebook. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13,
531549.
Zhao, S., Grasmuck, S., & Martin, J. (2008). Identity construction on Facebook: Digital
empowerment in anchored relationships. Computers in Human Behavior, 24,
18161836.