Authors:
Ming-Yi Chang | Academia Sinica | Taiwan
Yang-chih Fu | Academia Sinica
Keywords: Facebook , posting dynamics, peer influence
Nowadays, more and more users used social network site to maintain relationship, organize social events, or seek information. While posts are the basic elements to induce all kinds of social interactions on social media websites, relatively few studies have systematically analyzed the reason why people keep on posting on social network site in a long run. To answer the research question, in this study, we plan to combine data from two different projects. First, from November 2015 to April 2016, we collected both survey and Facebook activity data from 50 newly wedded couples and about 3,300 guests attending their wedding banquets in Taiwan. And the second, in 2015-2016, a nationally representative sample of 1,866 senior students from 58 university departments in Taiwan completed an online survey and authorized the use of their Facebook records. From the survey data cover individuals’ basic attributes, including their age, gender, education and living area, while the Facebook data include wall posts, status updates, events, and photos. We restrict our analysis to users who has been on Facebook before 2013 and keep on posting every year. We plan to use a multilevel analysis to examine how the number of posts on an individual’s wall varies by ego and alters’ previous action as well as ego’s network postions (Level 1, N=4,381 x 5 years) and individual attributes (Level 2, N=4,381). The findings are expected to help us have more understanding about why people keep on sharing in online communities.