Social and psychosocial variables affecting the difference between an individuals' online and offline presentation of self

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between social and psychosocial variables affecting the difference between an individual's online and offline presentation of self, specifically focusing on offline social involvement, romantic relationship status satisfaction, private self-awareness and public self-awareness. A quantitative study was conducted using a snowball methodology to access social network site users and data were collected anonymously using an online survey site, generating a sample size of 258 respondents. Items from the survey were used to create indexes to measure the respective variables and were analyzed using multiple regression analysis The findings from the study revealed that two variables were found to be significantly correlated with the difference between an individual's online and offline presentation of self: offline social involvement and private self-awareness. Furthermore, results from multiple regression analysis indicated that the four predictor variables were not significantly related to the difference between an individual's online and offline presentation of self.