The Facebook Phenomenon: Online Self-Disclosure and Uncertainty Reduction (Report‪)‬

Social networking sites (SNSs) have experienced an unprecedented growth in the last few years. One of the most recognized and trafficked SNSs in the world, Facebook, has over 500 million active users who spend an average of 700 billion minutes per month on the site (Facebook, 2010). Since 2004, Facebook's prime role has been to create connections and help people communicate more efficiently by building virtual communities that connect friends, family, and coworkers (DeGroot, 2008). Since its takeoff, Facebook has become a prime vehicle for communication among college students. The site's main features, a Home page and Profile, allow individuals to disclose a great deal of personal information, as well as see information of friends and networks (Facebook, 2010), thus facilitating direct access of personal disclosure. Facebook has begun to transform the way in which individuals perceive relationship development and interpersonal reactions, namely through self-disclosure. A self-disclosure is any message or interaction between individuals that communicates information about oneself to others (Wheeless & Grotz, 1976). It thus plays a central role in communication and relationship development by allowing individuals to make themselves known to others (Williams, 2008). Recent communication research on Facebook highlights the distinct form of self-disclosure on the social networking site, since its users tend not only to disclose personal information, their likes and interests, but also pictures of themselves and their friends on a more public level (DeGroot, 2008; Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007; Park, Jin & Jin, 2009; Sheldon, 2009; Taylor & Stern, 2007; Williams, 2008). This research creates a substantial outlet for exploration in regard to student's use of Facebook as a tool for uncertainty reduction management.