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The ubiquity of online social network sites (SNSs) is evidenced in the 1.01 billion daily active Facebook users (Facebook, 2015), 400 million Instagram users (Instagram, 2015), 1 billion YouTube users (YouTube, 2015) and 320 million monthly active Twitter users (Twitter, 2015). SNSs, allow users to create public or semi-public profiles that identify a list of other profiles to which they are connected. Users can also view each other’s connections (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). The data generated from these interactions provide a unique opportunity for researchers to examine the effect of public social networks on individuals’ social behaviours.
Despite key differences between SNSs, the sustained popularity of Facebook has led researchers to focus on it as the primary example of SNSs (Wilson, Gosling & Graham, 2012). Research investigating motivations for Facebook-use has identified two key factors: a need to belong and a need for self-presentation (Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012).
The “Belongingness Hypothesis” (Baumeister & Leary, 1995) states that humans experience a drive to form and maintain positive relationships. These relationships extend beyond social contact and are characterised by sustained positive exchanges with desired individuals. A sense of belonging is associated with better health outcomes (Tomaka, Thompson & Palacios, 2006), greater life and relationship satisfaction (Mellor, Stokes, Firth, Hayashi & Cummins, 2008), reduced stress (Young, Russell & Powers, 2004) and reduced loneliness (Baskin, Wampold, Quintana & Enright, 2010). SNSs provide a platform for maintaining relationships and sustaining that sense of belonging amongst communities that span geographical and temporal distances. Facebook use, in particular, has been shown to predict social capital, facilitate networking and community and support relationship maintenance (Steinfield, Ellison & Lampe, 2008). It also acts as a buffer against loneliness (Lou, Yan, Nickerson & McMorris, 2012). However, these benefits seem to be moderated by the extent of active participation on Facebook (Burke, et al., 2010) and personality (Seidman, 2013).