Regulation of Interpersonal Boundaries and its Effect on Self-Disclosure in Social Networking Sites

Abstract

Users in social networking sites (SNS) can often choose to (or not to) share, to a certain extent, personal information about themselves. Drawing from the perspective of Altman’s theorisation of boundary regulation, SNS users optimise their privacy boundaries by moving dynamically along a continuum with the self and social environment at both ends. To achieve this, SNS users employ certain boundary mechanisms (e.g. privacy settings) to set the desired permeability of their interpersonal boundaries. Using a set of data (n = 454) collected from active Facebook users, this study show that, during the process of interpersonal privacy boundary regulation, social-environmental factors (i.e. descriptive norms and trust in SNS provider) exerts greater influence on users’ adjustment of privacy settings, compared to individual level factor (i.e. attitude towards sharing personal information). It was concluded that the more restrictive privacy settings adopted, the greater the accuracy of self-disclosure among SNS users. However, restrictive privacy settings have got no effect on SNS users’ disclosure of in-depth or negatively-valenced information about themselves on the platform. Rather, both dimensions are directly influenced by the regulatory process in the optimisation of privacy boundaries.