articleJournal of Computer-Mediated CommunicationOct 1, 2008Closed access

The Faces of Facebookers: Investigating Social Enhancement and Social Compensation Hypotheses; Predicting Facebook™ and Offline Popularity from Sociability and Self-Esteem, and Mapping the Meanings of Popularity with Semantic Networks

JZJolene ZywicaJAJames A. Danowski

University of Illinois Chicago

Indexed incrossrefdoaj

Abstract

This research investigates two competing hypotheses from the literature: 1) the Social Enhancement ("Rich Get Richer") hypothesis that those more popular offline augment their popularity by increasing it on Facebook™, and 2) the "Social Compensation" ("Poor Get Richer") hypothesis that users attempt to increase their Facebook™ popularity to compensate for inadequate offline popularity. Participants (n= 614) at a large, urban university in the Midwestern United States completed an online survey. Results are that a subset of users, those more extroverted and with higher self-esteem, support the Social Enhancement hypothesis, being more popular both offline and on Facebook™. Another subset of users, those less…

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Topics & keywords

Topics
Keywords
  • Popularity
  • Psychology
  • Compensation (psychology)
  • Variance (accounting)
  • Online and offline
  • Social media
  • Social psychology
  • Internet privacy
UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • No poverty
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