The Role of IT Identity in Self-disclosure Behavior on Social Networking Sites

Abstract

As people use social networking sites more than ever before, disclosing personal information continues to be an issue of increasing concern both for practice and research. In spite of existing privacy concerns, people paradoxically continue to disclose personal information. IS literature has provided partial explanations for this paradox. However, recent studies have recommended the consideration of spontaneous privacy-related behaviors. The emerging research on IT identity (ITID) – the extent to which an individual views use of an IT as integral to his or her sense of self – has opened a new window on better explaining IT use behaviors. This proposed study aims to explain the role of IT identity in self-disclosing behavior of social networking sites (SNS) users. This study contributes to the research by (a) providing a better explanation of privacy paradox phenomenon and (b) considering the role of ITID in predicting privacy-related behaviors