How Social Network Site Users’ Motives Predict Their Online Network Sizes: A Quantile Regression Approach to Japanese Twitter Usage

ABSTRACT

This study examines the relationships between Twitter users’ motives for using the service and their egocentric network sizes on Twitter in terms of online social capital. Based on the literature, we focus on quantiles of egocentric network sizes rather than on means. The respondents were 1,559 Japanese Twitter users; they participated in an online survey and allowed us to collect their log data on Twitter. A socializing motive was associated with the number of mutual follows only in the lower tails of the size distribution and was negatively linked to the number of one-sided follows. In contrast, an information-seeking motive was positively related to the number of one-sided follows. These findings suggest that cognitive constraints exert an effect on socializing through an online service.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Yoshida Hideo Memorial Foundation (Year of 2013), which was awarded to the first author.

Notes on contributors

Satoshi Kitamura

Satoshi Kitamura is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Tokyo Keizai University, Japan. His research interests include media and ICTs usage, online communication, mobile communication, and so on. His research focuses on social and psychological aspects of media and ICTs usage in everyday life.

Daisuke Kawai

Daisuke Kawai is currently an Assistant Professor in the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies at the University of Tokyo, Japan. His research interests focus on information behavior and acceptance of information technologies including AI,  particularly the use and effects of social media.

Yuichi Sasaki

Yuichi Sasaki is currently a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Tokyo Keizai University, Japan. His research focuses on the uses and perceived effects of social media and collaborative behaviors in computer-mediated environments. He is a business analyst of revenue models and service designs of Web service, as well.