Social and Parasocial Relationships on Social Network Sites

Social and Parasocial Relationships on Social Network Sites and Their Differential Relationships

with Users’Psychological Well-Being

Young Min Baek,PhD,1

Young Bae,PhD,2and Hyunmi Jang,MS 3

Abstract

With the advent of social network sites (SNSs),people can ef?ciently maintain preexisting social relationships

and make online friendships without of?ine encounters.While such technological features of SNSs hold a variety of potential for individual and collective bene?ts,some scholars warn that use of SNSs might lead to socially negative consequences,such as social isolation,erosion of social cohesion,or SNS addiction.This study distinguishes types of SNS relationships,and investigates their relationships with social isolation,interpersonal trust,and SNS addiction.We classify SNS relationships into two types:(a)social relationships based on reci-procity between a user and his/her friends,and (b)parasocial relationships in which an ordinary user is aware of activities of a celebrity (e.g.,famous actors,athletes,and others)but not vice versa.Based on achievements in studies of media effect and social psychology,we constructed a set of hypotheses,and tested them using a subsample of SNS users drawn from representative survey data in South Korea.We found that dependency on parasocial relationships is positively related with loneliness but negatively correlated with interpersonal distrust,while dependency on social relationship is negatively correlated with loneliness but positively related with trust.However,more dependency on both social and parasocial relationships are positively related with SNS ad-diction.Implications based on ?ndings are also discussed.

Introduction

S

ocial network sites (SNSs)such as Twitter,Facebook,Cyworld,or MySpace provide mediated social relation-ships enabling users to share their thoughts with friends,re-store old relationships with acquaintances,and make online friendships without of?ine encounters.1,2SNSs are different from conventional mass media,in terms of interactivity,and instant and personalized communication based on social networks.2While social media are different from mass media,both are dominant platforms for mediated communication in a modern society.Since people interact with others using communication technologies,the emergence of a new me-dium is expected to change existing social interaction.3Human relationships are an important factor in?uencing constructs often used to de?ne the quality of psychological well-being,such as loneliness or belongingness,trust towards others,and technology addiction.Therefore,diffusion of a new medium changes how people interact with others,which in turn in?uences people’s psychological well-being.

In this vein,it is natural to observe scholastic controversies over the effect of SNS use on psychological well-being.On one hand,some scholars expect that frequent message ex-change between SNS friends helps people to form stronger membership 2,4and also to obtain so-called ‘‘weak ties’’5that provide users with a greater volume and higher quality of news.Conversely,others contend that these newly available SNS relationships are super?cial or ephemeral,and that they displace authentic face to face relationships,which in turn leads to social isolation and dismantles social cohesion.6,7The goal of this study is to explain why SNS use can result in such opposite in?uences by distinguishing types of SNS mediated relationships.

Two types of SNS relationship

Basically put,SNSs comprise a new type of online service.In order to evaluate SNSs’effects on users’psychological well-being,it is helpful to refer to previous studies examining people’s different usage of the Internet and its social

1Department of Communication,Yonsei University,Seoul,Republic of Korea.

2

Department of Information Sociology,Soongsil University,Seoul,Republic of Korea.3

Department of Communication,Seoul National University,Seoul,Republic of Korea.

C YBERPSYCHOLOGY ,B EHAVIOR ,AN

D S OCIAL N ETWORKING Volume 16,Number 7,2013ªMary Ann Liebert,Inc.

DOI:10.1089/cyber.2012.0510

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