earticle

영어

This study aims to investigate the usage patterns of users in Social Network Services (SNS) where is an upsurge. Specifically, the paper considers the reason why young people more and more prefer online (or mobile) SNS activities rather than offline face-to-face social relationship. Furthermore, the drivers which affect SNS usages are considered from users’ personal characteristics and social influences. User’s personal characteristics include their personalities (extraversion and introversion), narcissism, and life satisfaction. Social influences involve subjective norm, visibility, and image. Affected by personal and social factors in SNS, users intend to show positive self-presentation, which refers to a behavior to selectively expose his/her goodness to others. As one of the most influential drivers affecting SNS usage, the positive self-representation has an effect on the level of SNS usage. Thus, this paper suggests the hypothesized research model focusing on positive self-representation in the relationship among personal characteristics, social influence, and user’s behavior in SNS. Empirical data analysis with 100 questionnaires suggests that all hypotheses were adopted except for the effect of visibility among social influence factors on positive self-representation.