Self-disclosure In Enacting Friendship in Facebook

Abstract

People have always disclosed information about themselves to enact virtual friendship in social networking sites particularly in Facebook. The types of messages disclosed about themselves posted in Facebook wall have shown the initiative of Facebook users to share the happenings in their life with their Facebook friends. The case study aims to examine the ways in which Facebook users reveal themselves to others through their Facebook wall posts, in order to better understand self-disclosure as a resource for enacting friendship in Facebook. Facebook posted messages from the participants’ Facebook profiles were collected in one year’s time, then the messages were analysed and categorised into various types of self-disclosure. Content analysis was used to collect data. The majority of the posted messages are self story-telling through state and action statements and affective statement. The Facebook users act as story-tellers were noted as they story about their personal experience as a form of self-disclosure to enact friendship. The implications in term of self-disclosure and friendship are discussed.