Investigating dual effects of social networking sites

Abstract

This paper investigates the dual effects (i.e. benefits and dangers) of a social networking site (SNS). Our dependent variables are subjective vitality and addiction. We employ self-determination theory (SDT), specifically the concepts of autonomous and controlled motivation and hypothesize that social enhancement and enjoyment represent autonomous motivation and contributes to subjective vitality while voyeurism and exhibitionism represent controlled motivation and contribute to SNS addiction. We test our hypotheses with data from 289 student Facebook users using Partial Least Squares (PLS). The results suggest that both social enhancement and enjoyment predict subjective vitality. In contrast, exhibitionism is the sole predictor of SNS addiction while voyeurism has no effect.