Online and offline social ties of social network website users: An exploratory study in eleven societiesShow others and affiliations
2009 (English)In: Journal of Computer Information Systems, ISSN 0887-4417, Vol. 50, no 1, p. 54-64Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
This study presents results of a survey about social network website (SNW) usage that was administered to university students in China, Egypt, France, Israel, India, Korea, Macao, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States. The offline and online social ties of SNW users were examined by nationality, levels of individualism-collectivism (I-C), gender, SNW usage, age, and access location. Contrary to existing literature, we found no differences in the number of offline friends between individualist and collectivist nations. Similarly, there was not a difference in the number of online social ties between individualist and collectivist nations. However, members of collectivist nations had significantly more online social ties never met in person. Heavy SNW users in individualist nations maintained significantly higher numbers of offline social ties; however, heavy SNW users in collectivist nations did not have higher numbers of offline social ties. Related implications and recommendations are provided.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stillwater, 2009. Vol. 50, no 1, p. 54-64
Keywords [en]
Collectivism, Individualism, Online social ties, Social networking websites, Social ties
National Category
Information Systems
Research subject
SOCIAL SCIENCE, Informatics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-2155OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-2155DiVA, id: diva2:287895
2010-01-202010-01-202018-01-12Bibliographically approved