Self-Disclosure on Online Social Networks: Motives, Context Feature, and Media Capabilities

On online social networks (OSNs) such as Facebook and Twitter, the massive self-disclosure has attracted the attention of both academic researchers and marketers. Despite of the impressive scope of this phenomenon, few studies have systematically studied why people self disclose so much on OSNs; let alone what context feature or media capabilities within OSNs will influence people’s voluntary self-disclosure behavior. In this study, we propose a theory-grounded model to better understand people’s self-disclosure behavior on OSNs. Three leading motives (i.e., relationship management, social validation, and self-expression) are identified. In addition, we carefully investigate the moderating effects of the specific online social network context feature (i.e., anonymity) and media capabilities (i.e., reprocessability, symbol sets) on the relationships between the three motives and self-disclosure behavior. Thereby, this study provides theoretical contributions for online human behavior research and practical implications for OSNs providers, policymakers and OSNs participants