The Role of Self-Disclosure and Uncertainty in Facebook Relationships

1212 Words3 Pages

In this study, we argue that that as online self-disclosure increases uncertainty decreases. When a person knows more about someone requesting to be their “friend” on a social media site or if they are requesting to be someone’s “friend”, the more he or she knows about an individual, the more comfortable he or she is. This study presents respondents with self-disclosure when adding a “friend”. To begin, I will briefly review the issue of self-disclosure and present predictions with uncertainty made in this study.

Literature Review

The more likely someone is to reveal personal information about themselves on Social Media Websites, like Facebook and Twitter, the more likely it is for someone else to feel more comfortable friending or following someone that they do not know. The more open a profile is instead of a more private profile, the more comfortable person would feel about the person. Self-Disclosure in this sense is public pictures, public post, posting personal information publicly such as phone information, address and email, and information such as “liking” or “sharing” interests like books, movies, tv programs, and musicians.

H1: As online Self-Disclosure of an induivals profile increases, Uncertainty decreases.

Self-Disclosure

The Self-Disclosure theory stats the more information an individual is willing to expose to another individual the one comfortable said individual will feel about the other. Self-Disclosure is everything from small talk to personal life experiences that have shaped your life.Future Goals, your hometown, and your major of study are all explains of personal information that is easy to disclose, other levels however such as personal problems are not as easy to disclose. Disclos...

... middle of paper ...

...its of Facebook “friends:” Social capital and college students’ use of online social network sites.
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12, 1143-1168.

Griffin, E. A. (2006). A first look at communication theory (6th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Palmieri, Cynthia , Kristen Prestano, Rosalie Gandley, Emily Overton, and Qin Zhang. "The Facebook Phenomenon: Online Self-Disclosure and Uncertainty Reduction." China Media Research 8.1 (2012): 48-53. Print.

Sheldon, P. (2009). "I'll poke you. You'll poke me!" Self-disclosure, social attraction, predictability and trust as important predictors of Facebook relationships” .Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 3(2), article 1.

William, I.M. (2008). The effects of anticipated future interactions and self-disclosure on Facebook. Manuscript submitted for publication, Texas Tech University.

Open Document