TY - JOUR
T1 - Who commits virtual identity suicide?
T2 - Differences in privacy concerns, Internet addiction, and personality between Facebook users and quitters
AU - Stieger, Stefan
AU - Burger, Christoph
AU - Bohn, Manuel
AU - Voracek, Martin
PY - 2013/9/1
Y1 - 2013/9/1
N2 - Social networking sites such as Facebook attract millions of users by offering highly interactive social communications. Recently, a counter movement of users has formed, deciding to leave social networks by quitting their accounts (i.e., virtual identity suicide). To investigate whether Facebook quitters (n=310) differ from Facebook users (n=321), we examined privacy concerns, Internet addiction scores, and personality. We found Facebook quitters to be significantly more cautious about their privacy, having higher Internet addiction scores, and being more conscientious than Facebook users. The main self-stated reason for committing virtual identity suicide was privacy concerns (48 percent). Although the adequacy of privacy in online communication has been questioned, privacy is still an important issue in online social communications.
AB - Social networking sites such as Facebook attract millions of users by offering highly interactive social communications. Recently, a counter movement of users has formed, deciding to leave social networks by quitting their accounts (i.e., virtual identity suicide). To investigate whether Facebook quitters (n=310) differ from Facebook users (n=321), we examined privacy concerns, Internet addiction scores, and personality. We found Facebook quitters to be significantly more cautious about their privacy, having higher Internet addiction scores, and being more conscientious than Facebook users. The main self-stated reason for committing virtual identity suicide was privacy concerns (48 percent). Although the adequacy of privacy in online communication has been questioned, privacy is still an important issue in online social communications.
KW - Adolescent
KW - Adult
KW - Aged
KW - Behavior, Addictive/psychology
KW - Child
KW - Female
KW - Humans
KW - Internet/statistics & numerical data
KW - Male
KW - Middle Aged
KW - Personality
KW - Personality Assessment
KW - Privacy/psychology
KW - Social Media/statistics & numerical data
KW - Surveys and Questionnaires
KW - User-Computer Interface
KW - Young Adult
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84884261018&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1089/cyber.2012.0323
DO - 10.1089/cyber.2012.0323
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 23374170
SN - 2152-2715
VL - 16
SP - 629
EP - 634
JO - Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
JF - Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
IS - 9
ER -