Motivations Of Facebook Use Of College Students In The US

Social networking site, SNS for short, is a web site platform based on the Internet technology which could provide various types of services to help users to establish social networks. Social networking site started from the US in 2004, and later in 2005 was introduced to China mainland. According to the latest research conducted by CNNIC in 2009, the number of Internet users in China has reached 384 million in the end of December of 2009, and at the same time, the number of registered users of social networking sites has reached 124 million, among which, there are 52% of them are young adults age from 20 to 29. And most of the registered users of social networking are students. In addition, according to the latest research conducted by Pew Research Center in the US,93% of the American young adults age from 18 to 29 using Internet,87% of them are registered users of social networking sites, and most of them are college students. Besides, the most popular social networking site is Facebook established in 2004 by a student from Harvard University named Mark Zuckerberg. To some extent, social networking site is the product of new media technology, and the usage of social networking sites has become a new communication phenomenon in the new media age. Furthermore, the users of social networking sites are mainly students. Therefore, to explore the motivations of social networking sites is important and necessary. This study applying quantitative research method and making qualitative research method assistance subsidiary conducts a research on the motives of Facebook usage among college students in the US through Uses and Gratifications Theory. The researcher sampled and questionnaired 490 college students from 49 states (except Alaska) around the US. And the researcher mainly studies the motivations for the students to use Facebook, and how individual differences would influence the outcomes of Facebook usage. As a result, the statistic analysis shows that the primary motives for Facebook uses include to establish and maintain personal relationship, entertainment, to pass time and information acquisition. What's more, compared with male, females are more likely to use Facebook to maintain existed relationship, to entertainment, and to pass time. On the other side, males are more likely to establish and develop new relationship through Facebook.