Motives for Online Friending and Following: the Dark Side of Social
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SMSXXX10.1177/2056305116664219Social Media + SocietyOuwerkerk and Johnson 664219research-article2016 Article Social Media + Society July-September 2016: 1 –13 Motives for Online Friending and © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Following: The Dark Side of Social DOI: 10.1177/2056305116664219 Network Site Connections sms.sagepub.com Jaap W. Ouwerkerk and Benjamin K. Johnson Abstract Motives for “friending,” following, or connecting with others on social network sites are often positive, but darker motives may also play an important role. A survey with a novel Following Motives Scale (FMS) demonstrates accordingly that positive, sociable motives (i.e., others providing a valued source for humor and information, others sharing a common background, as well as relationship maintenance) and inspirational motives (i.e., others providing a target for upward social comparison) can be distinguished from darker motives related to insecurity (i.e., others providing reassurance, preference for online interaction, mediated voyeurism, as well as social obligation), and even darker antisocial motives related to self-enhancement (i.e., others providing a target for downward social comparison, competition, schadenfreude, gossip, as well as “hate-following”). Results show that lower self-esteem and higher levels of need for popularity, narcissism, and dispositional schadenfreude characterize users with stronger dark side motives, whereas users with more sociable motives report more satisfaction with life, thereby providing construct validity for the novel scale. Convergent validity is demonstrated by positive relations between following motives and both time spent and following counts on different social network sites. Moreover, an embedded experiment shows that antisocial motives predicted acceptance of a Facebook friendship request from a male or female high school acquaintance who suffered a setback in the domain of appearance or status (i.e., a convenient source for self-enhancement), thereby providing additional convergent validity for the Antisocial Motives subscale. Keywords social network sites, self-esteem, narcissism, need for popularity, schadenfreude, social comparison “Thank you for making me realize how little I care about my SNSs (e.g., Krishnan & Atkin, 2014). The number, naming, friends on Facebook.” and types of motivations identified for general SNS use vary (Anonymous participant) between these studies, but typically include maintaining exist- ing relationships as well as seeking new ones, entertainment, One of the defining characteristics of social network sites passing time, information seeking, and self-presentation. (SNSs) is the user’s ability to choose who he or she wants to Although such motivations may directly or indirectly influ- connect with, referred to as “friending” (on Facebook), “con- ence the decision to follow others on SNSs, we argue that they necting” (on LinkedIn), or “following” (on Instagram and do not fully reflect the wide variety of motives for the specific Twitter). However, studies addressing specific motives for choice to follow others. For one thing, measures assessing following others on SNSs are lacking, as scholars have motivations for general SNS use tend to be skewed to the posi- focused predominantly on motivations for general use and tive and sociable, focusing on harmless enjoyment and typically use measures that do not reflect specific features of strengthening social connections, thereby neglecting the dark SNSs (cf. Smock, Ellison, Lampe, & Wohn, 2011). For exam- ple, research from a uses and gratifications perspective (Katz, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974) has investigated motivations for Corresponding Author: general use of MySpace (e.g., Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, Jaap W. Ouwerkerk, Department of Communication Science, Vrije 2008), Facebook (e.g., Joinson, 2008; Papacharissi & Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Mendelson, 2011), Twitter (e.g., Chen, 2011), or various Netherlands. Email: [email protected] Creative Commons Non Commercial CC-BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 Social Media + Society side of SNSs in general (cf. Fox & Moreland, 2015), and fol- who they met offline, or to engage in so-called social brows- lowing behavior in particular (cf. Wang, 2015). This lack of ing (Lampe, Ellison, & Steinfield, 2006). A strongly related attention for darker motives in past research may partly reflect motive for following someone on SNSs is that he or she shifted norms and practices on SNSs over time. Indeed, the shares a common background or social identity, although this presence of darker following motives may help explain why does not necessarily require a pre-established offline rela- current users tend to maintain relatively expansive social net- tionship. In line with this notion, a study by Barker (2009) works. Online social networks are distinct from offline net- demonstrated that communication with peer group members works in allowing interaction with, and social observation of, was the most important motivation for general SNS use, a greater number of weak ties (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, especially for people who place a high value on group mem- 2011). SNSs make these connections possible, but the motives bership. Moreover, based on the aforementioned finding that for forming and maintaining them are less clear. The goal of entertainment and information seeking are often identified as the present research is therefore to identify a wide variety of important motivations for general SNS use, we assume that motives for the specific choice to follow others on SNSs users are motivated to follow others when they are perceived rather than for general SNS use. More specifically, using an as valued social sources for humor or information. Finally, online survey with a novel Following Motives Scale (FMS) consistent with the notion that social comparison processes and an embedded experiment, we attempt to show (a) that may play an important role on SNSs (Haferkamp & Krämer, positive, sociable motives for following others can be distin- 2011; Vogel, Rose, Roberts, & Eckles, 2014) and that people guished from darker motives related to social insecurity and are often motivated to engage in upward social comparisons from even darker antisocial motives related to a need for self- with superior others to serve self-improvement goals enhancement, (b) that these motives are related differently to (Lockwood & Kunda, 1997), we suggest that users can be personality traits, (c) that these motives are related to self- motivated to follow others on SNSs because they provide a reported time spent as well as following counts on SNSs, and source for inspirational upward social comparisons. (d) that antisocial following motives predict the inclination to Several studies have alluded to darker motives for follow- accept a hypothetical Facebook friendship request from a ing behavior on SNSs that are related to social insecurity. high school acquaintance who suffered a setback, thereby Research has shown that some people feel safer, more effica- providing a convenient source for self-enhancement. cious, more confident, and more comfortable with online interpersonal interactions and relationships than with tradi- Following Motives: The Good, the Bad, tional face-to-face activities, a preference that has been linked and the Ugly to problematic Internet use (Caplan, 2002). Accordingly, we suggest that some users may be motivated to follow others on Our approach to the development of the FMS was to identify SNSs because they prefer to interact with them online. A a wide range of possible motives from relevant literature that related phenomenon is that people may want to observe oth- could explain the specific choice to follow others on SNSs ers—both close friends and more distant acquaintances— rather than general SNS use, thereby allowing for a more from a safe distance by mediated surveillance (Ellison et al., detailed understanding of how and why users relate to others 2011). This behavior has also been characterized as mediated on SNSs. These motives are reviewed below and can be voyeurism, the discrete observation of others’ personal lives grouped into three larger categories expected to yield dis- (Bumgarner, 2007), and is linked to a higher number of crete factors. Specifically, we distinguish between positive, friends on Facebook (Joinson, 2008) and retention of friends sociable motives for following others (i.e., the good), darker on Facebook who are considered seldom contacts (Wang, motives related to feelings of social insecurity (i.e., the bad), 2015). Users may thus be motivated to follow others on SNSs and even darker antisocial motives related to a need for self- to enable them to engage in mediated surveillance or voyeur- enhancement (i.e., the ugly). ism. In addition, feelings of insecurity may lead people to We suggest that positive, sociable motives for following seek contact with others who they expect will provide posi- others are closely related to motivations that are commonly tive