Looking at, looking up or keeping up with people?

TLDR

The study examines how Facebook users employ the platform and the gratifications they obtain. The authors first elicited 137 user-generated descriptors of Facebook use, coded them into 46 items, and then administered these items to 241 participants. Factor analysis revealed seven distinct uses and gratifications, and demographic, visitation, and privacy-setting variables were linked to variations in these uses.

Abstract

This paper investigates the uses of social networking site Facebook, and the gratifications users derive from those uses. In the first study, 137 users generated words or phrases to describe how they used Facebook, and what they enjoyed about their use. These phrases were coded into 46 items which were completed by 241 Facebook users in Study 2. Factor analysis identified seven unique uses and gratifications: social connection, shared identities, content, social investigation, social network surfing and status updating. User demographics, site visit patterns and the use of privacy settings were associated with different uses and gratifications.