Cultural Differences between American and Japanese Self-Presentation on SNSs

Abstract

The present study compared American and Japanese user practices on social networking sites (SNSs). Analysis focused on self-presentation such as posting party and drinking pictures on SNSs. A total of 1,079 college students (583 American and 496 Japanese) participated in the survey, which provided the basis for analysis. The results of the study demonstrate cultural and SNS platform differences in self-presentation on SNSs. After controlling for preexisting conditions (gender, extraversion, offline popularity, and the length of membership with the SNS), Japanese Facebook users posted party and drinking pictures most frequently, followed by Japanese Mixi users and American Facebook users. In addition, the study found that Japanese dual-users changed their behavior according to the SNS. The implications and the underlying mechanism of Japanese users' behavioral switching on SNSs are discussed.