The effects of anticipated future interaction and self disclosure on facebook

Self disclosure online has been the subject of numerous research studies, however, few studies have investigated anticipated future interaction and self disclosure on the social networking websites. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of anticipated future interaction and self disclosure upon among individuals who have, or do not, have: 1) a Facebook account, 2) Facebook friends met face-to face and 3) Facebook friends never met face-to-face. Undergraduate and graduate students (N=468) at a large southwestern university were given a 75 question survey investigating: characteristics of Facebook friendships, anticipated future interaction, Facebook network perceptions, and consequences of Facebook usage. Additionally, Chelune�s (1976) Self Disclosure Situation Survey, Wheeless and Grotz�s (1976) Revised Self Disclosure Scale, and Parks and Floyd�s (1996) Online Relationship Development Measure were used to operationalize willingness to self disclosure face-to-face, self disclosure (depth and honesty/accuracy) and self disclosure (breadth), respectively. Statistical analysis revealed the following results: 1) individuals who have Facebook friends met face-to-face have a greater anticipation of future interaction that individuals who do not have Facebook friends met face-to-face 2) individuals who have Facebook friends never met face-to-face possess greater trust in the Facebook network than individuals who do not have Facebook friends never met face-to-face and 3) the perception of privacy on Facebook is slightly greater as an individual�s: a) number of Facebook friends never met face-to-face increases and b) number of Facebook friends met face-to-face decreases. The study concludes with a discussion of implications, limitations and future research.