Saving face on Facebook: privacy concerns, social benefits, and impression management

Use of online social networks is nearly ubiquitous. Use of these services generally entails substantial personal disclosure and elicits significant privacy concerns. This research uses Social Exchange Theory and the impression management literature to examine how privacy concerns can be counterbalanced by the perceived social benefits afforded by a social network’s ability to support impression management. We frame social network use as an attempt to engage in impression management, and we highlight the importance of a social network’s impression management capabilities in predicting social benefits from, and use of, a social network. We test our model with a sample of 244 Facebook users, finding strong support for the proposed relationships. Our theory has important implications for researchers and practitioners interested in privacy issues within social networks.