2,228
Views
11
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Articles

Just between us: Exclusive communications in online social networks

, &
Pages 405-420 | Received 08 Jan 2017, Accepted 09 Jan 2018, Published online: 20 Feb 2018
 

ABSTRACT

Social media websites such as Facebook are used for relationship development and maintenance often through self-disclosure and sharing of personal information. However, not all forms of social media communication may be equally suitable for this task. This paper explores users’ norms about the appropriateness of using private vs. public Facebook messages to communicate different kinds of personal information, and the effectiveness of these types of communication in building relationships. Study 1, a survey, revealed that users endorse conflicting expectations about preferences for receiving information publicly or privately. Study 2, a field experiment testing the effects of private versus public Facebook communications on actual relationship development using participants’ own Facebook pages, suggested that private messages lead to greater closeness.

View correction statement:
Correction

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/g3dfy/

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/g3dfy/

Notes

1. Materials and data for Study 1 are available at the Open Science Framework, https://osf.io/g3dfy/​

2. In addition to the two experimental conditions described above, the methods originally included a condition (n = 18) in which participants were simply instructed to pay attention to their classmates’ Facebook communication. However, in retrospect, the vagueness of these instructions rendered this condition theoretically useless: We have no information about what Facebook activity these participants performed. For this reason, the ratings for participants in this condition are not included in this paper’s analysis.

3. A number of participants refrained from answering these questions, despite rating their liking and closeness for their classmates. A total of 87 ratings included appropriateness and encouragement scores (55 in the private message condition), 85 ratings included liking scores (53 in the private message condition), and 93 ratings included personalness scores (58 in the private message condition).

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 53.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 168.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.