Factor analysis of social networking services behaviour and some characteristics of its users Boris Popov*, Bojana Bodroža Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad

Social Networking Sites (SNS) The most popular SNS: Prevalence: –North America - over 90% college students use Facebook (Ellison, Heino & Gibbs, 2006) –Serbia - among young people who use the internet 61% uses Facebook and 37% uses MySpace (Strategic Marketing Research, 2008).

What are the Social Networkins Sites and how do they look? - virtual space for communication and development of social relations - “Profile” – personal page where users provide information about themselves - Common elements on SNS profiles:  Name – real or virtual (nickname)  Basic socio-demographic and personal information  Personal interests and hobbies  Friends  Photos  Messages

Why are the Social Networking Services interesting for psychology? - Identity construction: - lack of face-to-face contact - anonymity - Self-presentation - Hidden self - Hopped-for possible self (Zhao, Grasmuck & Martin, 2008) - SNS addiction }→ Enables people to carefully craft their virtual identity!

The Research Aims to explore the latent structure of virtual behaviours on the Social Networking Sites, to determine the differences between groups of SNS users in their virtual behaviour relative to:  their socio-demographic characteristics and  their usership status on the SNS.

Sample users of the Social Networking Sites MFMissingAll %65.7%1%100% MinMaxAMAMSDN Table 1: Gender structure Table 2: Age descriptives Graph 1: Age distribution

Instruments & Variables  Social Networking Behaviour Scale (SNB, Popov & Bodroža, 2008) -73 items - Likert response format  Socio-demographic variables: gender, age, level of education, place of living...  Variables considering the use of Social Networking Services, e.g.: - How long do you use SNS (form less than 6 moths to more than 2 years) - How many hours per day do you spent on SNS? (from less than 1 hour to more than 5 hours) - The level of privacy of user’s profile (completely private, partly private, public)...

Results

Factor analysis of the SNB principal component analysis with promax rotation interpretability as a criteria for determination the number of factors extracted 5 interpretable factors, which accounted for 41,6% of total variance 1.SNS addiction (19,8%) 2.SNS socializing (6,9%) 3.negative attitude towards SNS communication (6,3%) 4.flirty communication (4,9%) 5.SNS profile as social self (3,8%)

I factor – SNS addiction Nr of item ItemLoadings 70.I often delay my work because of chatting or sending messages via SNS Some people from my surrounding have drawn attention to me that I use SNS too much I have tried to reduce time spent on SNS several times, but I haven’t managed to do so I usually spend more time on SNS than I planned..69 Table 3: I factor items with factor loadings

II factor – SNS socializing Nr of item ItemLoadings 61.I'm always glad to meet in person someone I know from Internet I have initiated meeting with someone I met via SNS For me, Internet is just another way of meeting new and interesting people By using Internet, I have met a person with whom I was or still am in close relationship..63 Table 4: II factor items with factor loadings

III factor – Negative attitude towards SNS communication Nr of item ItemLoadings 40.I consider SNS communication sterile and impersonal I have a feeling that people on SNS pretend to be different than they are I feel that SNS communication is full of stereotypes and pretending Most people who use SNS are loiterers..67 Table 5: III factor items with factor loadings

IV factor – Flirty communication Nr of item ItemLoadings 27.I like to flirt using SNS I have glozed some information about myself when communicate on SNS in order to win someone’s sympathy I have got in contact with persons via SNS for sex..56 Table 6: IV factor items with factor loadings

V factor – SNS profile as social self Nr of item ItemLoadings 16.I never miss to reply to any SNS message I carefully pick photos that I attach to my SNS profile I carefully look for who will be on my 'top friends' list..57 Table 7: V factor items with factor loadings

Correlations among SNB factors IIIIIIIVV I1.54**.08.33**.34** II **.23* III IV1.19* V1 ** significant at p<.01; * significant at p<.05

Reliability of the SNB scale Factorα I SNS addiction.91 II SNS socializing.91 III Negative attitude towards SNS communication.77 IV Flirty communication.78 V SNS profile as social self.77 Table 8 : Reliability of the SNB factors reliability of the whole SNB scale (without items 49, 52, 57, 65, 71 which did not load any factor) is.92

Differences among various SNS users SD variableSNS addiction SNS socializing Negative attitude FlirtProfile as social self SNS in use (myspace/facebook) t(95)=.70 p>.40 t(95)=4,51 p=.00 t(95)=.86 p>.10 t(95)=-.17 p>.80 t(95)=2.01 p<.05 Length of user status F(103)=4.66 p<.01 F(103)=11.1 p=.00 F(103)=1.01 p>.30 F(103)=2.78 p<.05 F(103)=.18 p>.60 Hours per day useF(104)=21.4 p=.00 F(104)=8.66 p=.00 F(104)=.64 p>.50 F(104)=3.19 p<.05 F(104)=.85 p>.40 Table 9: socio-demographic variables and differences in SN behaviour

Differences among various SNS users (cont.) SD variableSNS addiction SNS socializing Negative attitude FlirtProfile as social self Distance of virtual friends F(104)=.13 p>.90 F(104)=1.22 p>.30 F(104)=.12 p>.90 F(104)=3.50 p<.05 F(104)=1.14 p>.30 Number of virtual friends F(104)=1.70 p>.10 F(104)=3.14 p<.05 F(104)=.22 p>.80 F(104)=1.05 p>.30 F(104)=.63 p>.60 Ager(105)=.02 p>.80 r(105)=.05 p>.57 r(105)= -.10 p>.30 r(105)= -.06 p>.50 r(105)= -.22 p<.05

Conclusions

social networking behaviour is multidimensional construct SNB - instrument with interpretable 5-factor structure there are significantly different patterns of behaviour among various SNS users further researches: clusters of SNS users personality dimensions and SNS behaviour internet & SNS: can these services help users enrich their “off-line” social life?