The role of self-construal in predicting self-presentational motives for online social network use in the UK and Japan

Self-presentational motives underlying online social network (OSN) use were explored in samples of British and Japanese users. Self-expression, maintaining privacy, and attention seeking were strong motives in both samples; impression management and modesty were less strongly endorsed. Measures of independent and interdependent self-construal, as well as narcissism and modesty, were investigated as potential predictors of these motivations. Independent self-construal emerged as the most important predictor across both samples, with less independent participants showing more concern with image management and modesty. Participants with more interdependent self-construals were more concerned about maintaining privacy. There were some differences in the patterns of prediction between the samples, but overall self-construal measures contributed to the explanation of the majority of the motivations, whereas narcissistic or modest personality variables did not

Social Networking Sites Withdrawal

The importance of the users for the survival of a social networking site is vital. For this reason, most of the research about this topic is focused about how to make the user to participate on the network. However, little has been researched about the reasons why a user would decide to close its account and leave the network for good. This research is aimed to study this phenomenon based on the Social Identity Theory, specifically the disidentification concept. The research implemented the means-end chain methodology using the data collected from in-depth interviews to 26 adults who have closed an SNS account. This data was analyzed through content analysis and using Social Network Analysis as an alternative to map the chains suggested by the means end chain methodology, as well as providing more information based on the centrality measures. The findings suggest that impression management, friendship, time management and emotional stability play a central role to take the withdrawal decision