'Since their inception, Social Networking Sites (SNS) have been perceived to enhance social interactions and social capital. However, the exact mechanisms related to these systems benefits are still heavily debated. Let's explore some of the psychological impacts of SNS!
The Need to Belong "Belongingness" is described by Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary as a fundamental human motivator. In their seminal article, they highlight belongingness as "a pervasive drive to form and maintain at least a minimum quantity of lasting, positive, and significant interpersonal relationships." In this context, social interactions and communication with strong ties would further develop the established and sustained feeling of belongingness. SNS can allow us to establish these positive interpersonal relationships.
Relationship Maintenance SNS innately support a platform that has the ability to heavily influence your communications and relationships with others. In order to keep social relationships and ties strong, relationship maintenance theory suggests the need for regular investments and frequent communication. The periodicity of these interactions is directly related to the strength of the relationship; with more frequent communication leading to more self-disclosure and social support. SNS play an interesting role in this maintenance because direct one-on-one communications are not necessarily required to maintain relationships with others. Broadcasted communications (like a Facebook wall post) appear to maintain and increase social ties. Surprisingly, passive consumption of these broadcasted communications is found to increase social ties as much as direct communication. Related to Social Exchange Theory in Behavioral Economics, individuals use SNS to minimize the costs associated with relationship maintenance.
Relational Investment Specific signals given through online communications help users gauge the value of their relationships. Frequency and length of communications help SNS users proxy and value their social ties. The implicit assumption there is that longer and more frequent communications take more time. As our most valued resource, time is a good signal of someones commitment to a relationship. This signaling theory suggests that broadcasted messages are less meaningful and have less social impact than more directed communications.
Social Support and Facilitation Social interactions, specifically through SNS, have the ability to increase personal well-being by increasing social support. However, there is a huge difference between perceived and actual social support. It is easy to manufacture unauthentic social support in an online, removed environment. Further, social support differs between strong and weak ties with stronger ties providing more effortful and emphatic support. These stronger ties are usually reinforced through SNS where a degree of reciprocity has already been established. While weaker ties provide less support, they do provide a network into new ideas and opportunities.
Social Facilitation theory implies that people try harder in the presence of others. This goal-setting behavior drives people to compete with each other in a way that seems to enhance surface level performance for simple tasks. However, it is noted that some social settings can reduce performance on a task when related to evaluation apprehension or distraction.