The Faces of Facebookers: Investigating Social Enhancement and Social Compensation Hypotheses; Predicting Facebook™ and Offline Popularity from Sociability and Self-Esteem, and Mapping the Meanings of Popularity with Semantic Networks

Abstract

This research investigates two competing hypotheses from the literature: 1) the Social Enhancement (“Rich Get Richer”) hypothesis that those more popular offline augment their popularity by increasing it on Facebook™, and 2) the “Social Compensation” (“Poor Get Richer”) hypothesis that users attempt to increase their Facebook™ popularity to compensate for inadequate offline popularity. Participants (n= 614) at a large, urban university in the Midwestern United States completed an online survey. Results are that a subset of users, those more extroverted and with higher self‐esteem, support the Social Enhancement hypothesis, being more popular both offline and on Facebook™. Another subset of users, those less popular offline, support the Social Compensation hypotheses because they are more introverted, have lower self‐esteem and strive more to look popular on Facebook™. Semantic network analysis of open‐ended responses reveals that these two user subsets also have different meanings for offline and online popularity. Furthermore, regression explains nearly twice the variance in offline popularity as in Facebook™ popularity, indicating the latter is not as socially grounded or defined as offline popularity.

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The effect of social network sites on adolescents' social and academic development: Current theories and controversies

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