Jinah Seol, Journal of Internet Computing and Services, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 87-94, Apr. 2014
10.7472/jksii.2014.15.2.87, Full Text:  HTML
Keywords: Social Media, Facebook, ambivalence, social fatigue

Abstract

Social media which includes Facebook enable users to construct relationships and networks as well as sharing of information. By enlisting Facebook users as proxy, this paper attempted to analyze the different emotional states experienced by social media users, specifically to gauge what effect their usage motivation and usage pattern had on the ambivalence level of the users. The quantitative survey result revealed that usage duration or the time of day when Facebook was accessed had no relevant impact on one's ambivalence level. However, there was a direct correlation between frequency of Facebook usage and the ambivalence level. The more the user logged onto Facebook the more suppressed his or her expression became due to fear of giving negative impressions to others and also receiving their negative feedbacks, which then subsequently added to the user's ambivalence. People's main reasons for using Facebook were identified as "chatting," "communicating," "maintaining relationships," "relationship building," "networking," and "finding information about friends," but only "maintaining relationships," "communicating," and "networking" had observable effect on ambivalence. There were no noticeable differences among genders with regards to ambivalence and usage levels, but there was a marked difference based on the user's age. For example, people in their forties showed higher levels of ambivalence than those in their twenties. This may be attributed to anxiety they face as they use Facebook primarily to expand their networks and to maintain relationships. As such, it is surmised that their fatigue level from using social media will only increase. Meanwhile, Korean Facebook user's emotional manifestation tended to skew toward relation-involved ambivalence rather than the self-defensive type. This relation-involved ambivalence might be something that can actually help prevent damage to relationships by limiting excessive emotional expressions. In other words, such ambivalence by Facebook users may be a positive element in a user's social media interaction.

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