Why Do People Use Facebook?

By Ashwini Nadkarni, Stefan G. Hofmann. Personality and Individual Differences, 2011

1,296 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The social networking site, Facebook, has gained an enormous amount of popularity. In this article, we review the literature on the factors contributing to Facebook use. We propose a model suggesting that Facebook use is motivated by two primary needs: (1) The need to belong and (2) the need for self-presentation. Demographic and cultural factors contribute to the need to belong, whereas neuroticism, narcissism, shyness, self-esteem and self-worth contribute to the need for self presentation. Areas for future research are discussed.

Subfields: Literature and Literary Theory, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cfe480d33e3657c9418f7662aa947f7774294ae6

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Citations in the corpus

Selfies and personality: Who posts self-portrait photographs? (2016, neutral): “In their recent review of studies investigating the social functions of Facebook – currently the most popular social networking site – Nadkarni and Hofmann (2012) suggested that social media usage satisfies two basic social needs: the need to belong and the need for self-presentation.”
The interplay between Facebook use, social comparison, envy, and depression (2016, background): “Given that sites such as Facebook serve a diversity of purposes [10,11], treating them as a one-dimensional construct is likely an oversimplification [4,5] resulting in conceptual imprecision (for an overview, see [12 ]).”
Promoting EFL learners’ intercultural communication effectiveness: a focus on Facebook (2017, background): “Facebook is used for a variety of reasons such as presenting and sharing identities, social connection, status updating, social investigation, and social network surfing (Ainin, Naqshbandi, Moghavvemi, & Jaafar, 2015; Joinson, 2008; Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012).”
Self-presentation styles, privacy, and loneliness as predictors of Facebook use in young people (2016, background): “According to Nadkarni and Hofmann (2012), one of the basic social needs behind Facebook use was the need to belong.”
Having Responsive Facebook Friends Affects the Satisfaction of Psychological Needs More Than Having Many Facebook Friends (2014, background): “The main motivation of young adults to use social network sites is to facilitate social relationships (e.g., Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012).”
Negative consequences from heavy social networking in adolescents: The mediating role of fear of missing out. (2017, background): “…and enhancement of social capital (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007), connectedness with others (Spies Shapiro & Margolin, 2014), increased self-esteem (Gonzales & Hancock, 2010), and the satisfaction of their need to belong (Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012) in a technologically dominated society.”
Travelers’ food experience sharing on social network sites (2017, background): “On the other hand, these motivational drives could be explained in terms of intrinsic motivations such as the need to belong (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012; Wasko & Faraj, 2005).”
Selfie posting behaviors are associated with narcissism among men (2015, neutral): “…of social media, and its relative novelty, are related to an emergence of new psychological and social phenomena (Back et al., 2010; Błachnio, Przepiórka, & Rudnicka, 2013; Houghton & Joinson, 2010; Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012; Ross et al., 2009), some of which have yet to be thoroughly investigated.”
Analyzing the Links Between Problematic Social Media Use, Dark Triad Traits, and Self-esteem (2018, background): “Nadkarni and Hofmann (2012) consider the motives for the usage of Facebook as two social needs: need for belonging and need for self-presentation.”
Social comparison, social media, and self-esteem. (2014, background): “…set of results is that if people primarily use SNSs to network with others, fulfill belongingness needs, and build social capital (Kim & Lee, 2011; Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012; Steinfield et al., 2008), then a person’s self-esteem might be expected to be most tied to the amount of active engagement…”