The Use Of Social Network Sites: A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Based on prior scholarship on computer-mediated communication (CMC), this thesis extends research on Social Network Sites (SNS) in two different cultures: China and the United States. Adopting a cross-cultural perspective, this thesis examines the users'attitudes towards self-presentation; privacy and group activity involvement on SNS, trying to find out the culture dimensions that will fit in SNS studies.According to Hofstede's cultural dimension theory and prior research on SNS, three main hypotheses were proposed.H1: Individualism-collectivism is associated with self-presentation on profile and group activity involvement on SNS;H2: Close in uncertainty avoidance score, there is no significant difference between American students'and Chinese students'preferences towards privacy concern on SNS;H3: Cultural differences exist between American and Chinese college students'self-presentation and privacy concern on SNS.A quantitative method was adopted concerning correlations between cultural variables and SNS studies and a survey was then conducted to test the hypotheses. The results suggest significant correlations between individualism/collectivism and self-presentation, privacy preferences on SNS; cultural differences between the two countries are also statistically significant. Chinese students also display higher-than-expected individualism tendencies.