Final Comm Research Proposal

Running Head: Facebook and Uncertainty

The Relationship between Uncertainty and Facebook

Mena Shenouda & Christopher Watson

Queens University of Charlotte

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Facebook and Uncertainty

Introduction

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world. Starting out as a site

for students at Harvard University, it is now the number one choice of communication across all

age groups, cultures, and even businesses. We want to bring the focus back to the college

students for our research. College students enjoy using Facebook for many reasons such as

maintaining relationships, passing time, and checking in on friends and family from home. One

interesting use of Facebook that is rarely mentioned is for uncertainty reduction. Most people

thing that uncertainty online deals with personal and intimate relationships, but this is not true.

College students are using Facebook to reduce uncertainty about their peers, future roommates,

and even people that are seen often around campus. This study aims to look into the relationship

between Facebook and uncertainty among college students in the beginning stages of

interpersonal relationships (i.e. friendships). The uncertainty reduction theory lays the perfect

framework for this study. “Uncertainty reduction theory posits that the major goal in relation

ship development is to increase the level of partner certainty” (Pauley & Emmers-Sommer, 2007,

p.413). After reviewing the literature and the background of the theory, we conducted our

research on this topic of our choice. The results of this study show the specific strategies students

are using Facebook to reduce uncertainty towards others.

Literature Review

Social networking sites, such as Facebook, are the new and fast way for individuals to

communicate. It is a form of computer-mediated mediation (CMC), which is communication that

occurs through technology. Research has shown that “CMC is often preferred over face to face

communication because it is easy, fast and highly effective in many situations” (Stern & Taylor,

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2007, p. 9). “Since its takeoff, Facebook book has become a prime vehicle for communication

among college students” (Palmieri, Prestano, Gandley, Overton & Zhang, 2012, p. 48). In a

study conducted by Anderson, Fagan, Woodnutt, and Chamorro-Premuzic, it states, “Facebook

elicits higher levels of general information sharing than the ‘real’ (physical) world, as well as

greater information disclosures, that is, more communication of personal or sensitive

information” (Anderson, Fagan, Woodnutt & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2012, p. 28). Studies have

shown that uncertainty plays a big role in the use of CMC’s social networking sites. Uncertainty

is when a person is not completely confident or sure of someone. Curiosity stems from

uncertainty, which is part of the foundation of social network usage. Stern and Taylor (2007)

explored the uses of social networking on Facebook among college students. Using Charles

Berger’s Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT), the results of their study showed that “students

on FB [Facebook] definitely attempt to reduce uncertainty with strangers through direct

messaging on FB and through indirect means such as observing others’ profiles on FB” (Stern &

Taylor, 2007, p.17). Uncertainty reduction is defined as “an increased knowledge of what kind of

person another is that provides an improved forecast of how future interaction will turn out”

(Griffin, 2009, p. 126).

“Individuals apply similar uncertainty reduction strategies in face to face interactions as

they do in computer mediated communication” (Palmieri, Prestano, Gandley, Overton & Zhang,

2012, p. 49). Knowing that social networks are utilized for uncertainty reduction based off Stern

and Taylor’s finding, we also noted that users “engage in passive… or interactive strategies to

reduce uncertainty (Pauley & Emmers-Sommer, 2007, p.413). Passive strategies consist of users

lurking and browsing; not actively communicating with individuals on a social site. For example,

some Facebook profiles include statuses, friends, photos, notes, and groups. There are some

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people who simply review others’ profiles to find out what type of person he/she is rather than

sending a message or friend request. Interactive strategies are the complete opposite of passive

strategies; it is when users directly engage in speaking with each other by sending messages,

commenting on statuses, or posting on profile walls.

Most people admit to using social networks to learn more about individuals they are

interested in. “Interested in” can range from acquaintances to friendships and to potential

romantic partners. Palmieri, Prestano, Gandley, Overton, and Zhang (2012) state that,

“individuals…use social networking sites, enhanced computer-mediated environments, to build

and develop interpersonal relationships through their self-disclosure” (Palmieri, Prestano,

Gandley, Overton & Zhang, 2012, p. 49). Anderson et al. (2012) make a more similar but more

general statement; “general Internet use has been found to meet both users’ interpersonal needs

as well as their need to build and maintain relationships in virtual communities” (Anderson,

Fagan, Woodnutt & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2012, p. 26). Our study will focus on the development

of interpersonal relationships (i.e. friendships) that are made via social networking sites. Pratt,

Wiseman, Cody, and Wendt believe that “CMC should be considered interpersonal when users

have time to exchange information and share values that provide a foundation for making

impressions,” which is the primary use of social networking sites, such as Facebook (Pratt,

Wiseman, Cody & Wendt, 1999, p. 49). Additionally, Stern and Taylor state, “These social

networks can influence how students interact on FB and can have a profound influence on

interpersonal relationship” (Stern & Taylor, 2007, p.18).

Sheldon (2008) studied the uses of Facebook among college students. The results found

that one of the main reasons college students use Facebook is for the “virtual community,” which

includes meeting new friends and finding companionship (Sheldon, 2008, p. 45). The curiosity

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that comes with being uncertain motivates people to use social networks to reduce their

uncertainty towards others. Social networking sites are people’s preferred choice of

communication in modern society because, as stated earlier, it is the new, fast, and easy way for

them to communicate.

CMC also serves as a purpose for information gathering about others (Ramirez Jr., 2009).

For example, gathering information about a potential roommate or classmate before attending a

new university. A “high level of uncertainty causes increases in information seeking behavior”

(Pratt, Wiseman, Cody & Wendt, 1999, p. 50). With social networks being such a prevalent form

of communication, it has become the easiest way to gather social information. Palmieri et al.

(2012) state that “because, individuals are able to receive great amount of information

unobtrusively, information gathering is less effortful and consequently less stressful thus

exhibiting reduced levels of uncertainty” (Palmieri, Prestano, Gandley, Overton & Zhang, 2012,

p. 51). Result from Stern and Taylor’s study (2007) showed that a common use of Facebook is to

check people out (to find out more about them), which is also reducing one’s uncertainty toward

another person. “According to uncertainty reduction theory, information seeking eases fears or

anxieties of initial interactions with individuals in social environments, where interactions often

experience lack of predictability and uncertainty about a new relational partner” (Palmieri,

Prestano, Gandley, Overton & Zhang, 2012, p. 49). In turn, individuals use social networking

sites to obtain more information about other people that they have met face to face and are

interested in forming a deeper relationship with (Urista, Quingwen, & Day, 2009). A subject

stated, “I start relationships by initiating it with MySpace. I’ll send them a message along the

lines of’ I met you the other day….’” (Urista et al., 2009, p. 224).

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In a study conducted by Urista, Quingwen, and Day many participants stated that the

transparency of social networking sites allows them to gain information of others quickly (Urista

et al., 2009). “One reason for this may be because going to a person’s profile is quicker and more

efficient than actually talking to the person face to face or finding information about the person

from others” (Urista et al., 2009, p. 226). Pauley & Emmers-Sommer (2007) refer to this

information gathering as a “personalized background check that can be performed before

interactions with the target ever begin” (Pauley & Emmers-Sommer, 2007, p. 414). Stern and

Taylor also note, “On FB, students’ social networks were more transparent and interlinked,

therefore reducing uncertainty” (Stern & Taylor, 2007, p. 18). In addition to that, Anderson et al.

found that “a greater proportion of Facebook usage time was spent on passive rather than active

engagement” (Anderson, Fagan, Woodnutt & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2012, p. 26). The amount of

uncertainty reduced depends on what the users have on their profile for others to see. “Low self-

disclosure on Facebook produces low perceived uncertainty reduction, moderate self-disclosure

leads to moderate perceived uncertainty reduction and high self-disclosure generates high

perceived uncertainty reduction” (Palmieri, Prestano, Gandley, Overton & Zhang, 2012, p. 51).

“As uncertainty level decline, information seeking behavior decreases” (Pratt, Wiseman, Cody &

Wendt, 1999, p. 50).

The uncertainty reduction theory will be the theoretical framework for our study.

Proposed by Charles Berger, “uncertainty reduction theory argues that the primary goal of

individuals in initial interactions is to reduce uncertainty and increase the ability to predict

behavior of others” (Dawkins, 2010, p. 136). There has not been much research on reducing

uncertainty towards others via social networking sites under this theoretical framework. “Defined

by Berger and Calabrese, uncertainty reduction is a primary motivating factor for

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communication” (Dawkins, 2010, p. 136). With social networks being the main channel in which

college students chose to communicate in modern society, it is interesting that many scholars

have not dived into research on this topic. Byron and Baldridge (2007) state that, “According to

this theory, people are uncomfortable with uncertainty, partly because they want to predict

others’ behavior, and therefore are motivated to reduce uncertainty by seeking information about

others” (Byron & Baldridge, 2007, p. 138). As stated earlier, information seeking is one of the

primary uses of social networking sites, but the uncertainty reduction has three conditions prior

to the information seeking process: (1) the potential of the other person to reward or punish, (2)

when the other person’s behavior is contrary to expectations, and (3) when a person expects

future interactions with another (Dawkins, 2010). Our study will focus only on the third

condition of the theory. College students tend to reduce uncertainty on social sites because they

are looking forward to future interactions with the other individual. “URT is able to shed light on

how unacquainted students might utilize FB to make friends, increase their social circle, and

reduce uncertainty about others” (Stern & Taylor, 2007, p. 18). This theoretical framework will

lay the foreground for our study.

After reviewing the literature on our topic, we propose two hypotheses and one research

question:

Hypotheses 1: The use of interactive strategies on Facebook reduces college student’s uncertainty towards others.

Independent Variable: use of interactive strategies on Facebook

Constitutive Definition: Interactive strategies occur when the observer and the other person engage in face-to-face or direct communication with one another.

Operational Definition: sending messages to people, commenting on statuses, posting on profile walls. Based off of the literature’s definition of interactive strategies, we constructed questions and statements on a Likert Scale to measure

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these strategies. An example statement on the questionnaire is “After meeting someone in person, I message him/her on Facebook.”

Dependent Variable: uncertainty towards others

Operational Definition: increased certainty towards another after use of interactive strategies on Facebook. We modified questions from the literature to fit our specific study. For example the question, “ I feel confident in my ability to predict how a person will behave” was modified to “I feel confident in my ability to predict how a person will behave after becoming friends on Facebook.” This specific question measures uncertainty.

Hypotheses 2: The use of passive strategies on Facebook decreases uncertainty towards others amongst college students.

Independent Variable: use of passive strategies on social networking sites

Constitutive Definition: Passive strategies involve unobtrusive observationsof another person doing something under normal circumstances and/or when inhibitions may be lowered.

Operational Definition: lurking and browsing profiles, pictures, and old posts by others without actually communicating with them. Based off of the literature’s definition of passive strategies, we constructed questions that are used in the questionnaire that uses passive strategies to reduce uncertainty towards others. For example, “ I feel better about someone after reading their Facebook profile and posts.” This statement is in the form of a Likert Scale, which was used to measure uncertainty in the literature..

Dependent Variable: uncertainty towards others

Operational Definition: increased certainty towards another after use of passive strategies on social networking sites. As stated earlier, we modified questions from the literature to measure uncertainty.

RQ: Do men rely on Facebook to reduce uncertainty more than women?

Using Berger’s Uncertainty Reduction Theory, we seek to interpret and analyze findings that

support our hypotheses and research question.

Methodology

A non-probability convenient sample of 51 undergraduate students, 33 females and 18

males, at Queens University of Charlotte was surveyed. The survey consists of 18

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statements/questions. The survey measures participants’ uncertainty, passive strategy usage, and

interactive strategy usage on Facebook during the beginning stages of a friendship. There are six

statements/questions for each question type. The uncertainty questions are basic questions that

question the uses of Facebook to reduce uncertainty. When analyzing the results, the uncertainty

section was be paired with both the passive usage questions and the interactive usage questions

to determine if participants are using these strategies to support our hypothesis.

The general uncertainty statements on our Likert scale questionnaire were derived from

the scale used in Palmieri, Prestano, Gandley, Overton, and Zhang ‘s “The Facebook

Phenomenon: Online Self-Disclosure and Uncertainty Reduction” study. The Likert scale asked

participants to rate eighteen questions and statements in relation to uncertainty, passive strategy

usage and interactive strategy usage on Facebook (1 = strongly disagree/never, 5 = strongly

agree/all of the time). An example statement on their survey was, “I feel confident in my ability

to predict how he/she will behave.” We altered this statement to pertain specifically to our study.

The statement on our survey stated, “I feel confident in my ability to predict how a person will

behave after becoming friends on Facebook.” The researchers created the passive and interactive

usage statements/questions after thoroughly reviewing the definitions of each provided by the

literature.

The survey was conducted face to face with the researchers. First, participants were given

a consent form to ensure they know exactly what they are getting involved in. The consent form

also informed participants that their responses would be anonymous and confidential. Once the

consent form was been signed, the survey was distributed to participants. The survey took

participants no longer than 15 minutes to complete. Once the survey was complete, we collected

and analyzed all the data from the participants.

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Pilot Study

We conducted a small pilot study before distributing our survey to the entire sample. We

gave the survey to five participants, three female and two male. This was a face-to-face survey to

ensure that participants had no problems responding and rating the statements/questions on the

survey. Our pilot study went smoothly; after completion of the survey, none of our participants

had any issues or difficulties responding and rating to the questions/statements. This gave us the

green light to continue with the distribution of our survey to our sample.

Results

The purpose our study was to find out the relationships between uncertainty and

Facebook among college students during the beginning stages of friendships. The data collected

from our survey aimed to measure uncertainty, passive strategy usage and interactive strategy

usage on Facebook.

H1 predicted that there is a positive correlation between the use of interactive strategies

on Facebook and uncertainty reduction towards others among college students. This hypothesis

was not supported by our findings, indicating that college students are not using interactive

strategies to reduce uncertainty towards others in the beginning stages of friendships with 75% of

participants’ answers not supporting this hypothesis.

H2 stated, “the use of passive strategies on Facebook decreases uncertainty towards

others amongst college students.” This hypothesis was supported by our findings. Out of the 12

total questions that measured passive usage on Facebook, 50% of participant’s answers

supported this hypothesis, while 42% did not support. One statement on the questionnaire failed

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to support or not support the hypothesis, which accounts for the other 8% of passive strategy

usage.

We also sought to find out the gender differences amongst these strategies. Our research

question inquired if men rely on Facebook to reduce uncertainty more than women. This

statement address both passive and interactive strategies on Facebook for uncertainty reduction.

Separating our data by gender, we found that women use passive strategies more than men, and

they both use interactive strategies equally.

The research question had to be analyzed in a different way from the hypothesis to find a

concrete answer. When analyzed the same way as the hypothesis 1 and 2, it came out that

women use both strategies more than men. This was done by taking a total of all the statements

that supported a positive correlation between using Facebook to reduce uncertainty towards

others. Females had 5 out of 18 statements that supported the statement while males only had 4

out of 18. From this, it was concluded that 28% of women use Facebook to reduce uncertainty

while only 22% of men do.

Taking a closer look at the specific passive and interactive strategy statements on the

questionnaire, it showed that some discrepancy in the general findings of uncertainty reduction

usage on Facebook between the genders. In the passive usage category, 33% of females’

responses supported using these strategies, 50% did not support, and 17% were inconclusive. On

the male side, 17% of responses supported using passive strategies, 33% did not support, and

50% of responses were inconclusive. From this it can be concluded that women use passive

strategies more than men.

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This is interesting because if the results were analyzed this way for the hypotheses, our

second hypothesis would not be supported. Looking at the results of only the passive strategy

section, 50% of participants response support the hypothesis, 83% of the responses do not

support, while 67% of responses are inconclusive. This raises some question in the analysis of

our study, which will be addressed in the recommendations section of our paper.

In the interactive section, 100% of women do not use interactive strategies to reduce

uncertainty and 67% of men do not use these strategies. The other 33% of men are inconclusive,

meaning neither agree nor disagree to using interactive strategies for uncertainty reduction. From

our findings, it can be concluded that neither gender is superior to the other in interactive

strategy usage. [The frequency distribution of each question on our survey is in the Appendix

section of this paper].

Discussion

This study has proved some statements from the literature stand true while others do not.

College students are spending more time online than each generation before. There are many

reasons for that, and this study shows one of them – to reduce uncertainty towards others.

However, there is little research on uses of Facebook to reduce uncertainty. Reviewing the

limited amount of research on the subject, it supported that college students are using Facebook

over face-to-face communication because it is easy, fast, and convenient. It also advocated

Facebook being used to build interpersonal relationships with friends and strangers, and to

convey impressions of oneself.

The literature then added emphasis to the types of strategies used on Facebook – passive,

active, and interactive. Our study only focused on the two extremes – passive and interactive.

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Therefore, before conducting this study, we predicted that college students use passive and

interactive strategies on Facebook to reduce uncertainty towards others during the beginning

stages of friendships. Our study showed that college students are only using passive strategies for

uncertainty reduction in the beginning stages of friendships, and they are not using interactive

strategies at all.

We also wondered if men would rely on both strategies for uncertainty reduction more than

women. We concluded this because we know that women are more social beings than men are,

so it would only make sense that men go about the more convenient way of uncertainty reduction

than face to face encounters. Also, based off literature about Facebook usage under the uses and

gratifications theory, women use Facebook more than men for relational maintenance. We

assumed the vice versa of this statement for uncertainty reduction, however, our study showed

that women use passive strategies more than men, and that neither gender is superior to the other

using interactive strategies; neither gender really uses this style for uncertainty reduction.

Conclusion

Uncertainty reduction is a key driver behind college students’ use of Facebook. This

study only focused on two major strategies used online for uncertainty reduction but there are

more. It’s not surprising that college student’s are engaging in more passive than interactive

strategies on Facebook. As stated in the literature review, “a greater proportion of Facebook

usage time was spent on passive rather than active engagement” (Anderson, Fagan, Woodnutt &

Chamorro-Premuzic, 2012, p. 26). In that particular study, active strategies had the same

definition as the interactive strategies in our study. Some other conclusions can also be made

from the finding of our study.

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First, college students are not using Facebook over face-to-face communication for

uncertainty reduction. In the literature, it stated, “Facebook elicits higher levels of general

information sharing than the ‘real’ (physical) world, as well as greater information disclosures,

that is, more communication of personal or sensitive information” (Anderson, Fagan, Woodnutt

& Chamorro-Premuzic, 2012, p. 28). In Stern and Taylor’s case, it stated “research has shown

that CMC is often preferred over face-to-face communication because it is easy, fast, and highly

effective in many situations.” From our study, these statements were not supported. In the

questionnaire, participants were asked to rate the statement, “I learn more about people from

their Facebook profile than in real life encounters with them,” on a Likert scale of strongly

disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, and strongly agree. Out of the 51 participants, 19 strongly

disagreed and 18 disagreed, which is over half of our sample. Being that all the participants did

not disagree with this statement (9 were neutral, 5 agreed, and 0 strongly agreed), it does say that

Facebook is a source for uncertainty reduction, but it is not superior to face-to-face

communication. Another conclusion that be made from our study, which was stated earlier, is

that college student’s are using passive strategies over interactive strategies.

College students are using passive strategies to reduce uncertainty with people that they

already know in person. Certain questions on the questionnaire asked specific questions that

were aimed to see if participants were using these strategies with people they already had met or

with complete strangers. Participants supported all questions that were referring to having met

someone before using a passive strategy on Facebook, while those questions that measured using

passive strategies with strangers were not supported. For example, the statement “when I want to

get to know someone I see often around campus, I check out his or her Facebook page” was

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supported while the question referring to a stranger, “how often do you send friend request to

people based off of their profile picture” was not supported.

With our first hypothesis not being supported, we concluded that college students are not

using interactive strategies to reduce uncertainty toward others. Going back to the statement from

Stern and Taylor’s case study, “students on FB [Facebook] definitely attempted to reduce

uncertainty with strangers through direct messaging on FB and through indirect means such as

observing others’ profiles on FB,” our results do not back this statement. Statements on the

questionnaire that asked about students using interactive strategies to reduce uncertainty with

strangers were not supported. Not only with strangers, but also with people students already

know. All questions measuring interactive strategies were not supported from our sample.

We concluded that college students are not using Facebook to reduce uncertainty with

strangers. Our questionnaire asked question pertaining to using Facebook with strangers and

none of our participants agreed with these statements. The participants responded to the question,

“how often do you send a message to people you do not know on Facebook,” 29 of them rating

they never do this and 19 rating they rarely do this. Never is equivalent to strongly disagree on

our Likert scale questionnaire and rarely is equivalent to disagree. This also leads to the next

conclusion that our findings show; college students are not using Facebook for virtual

communities. Virtual communities can go hand in hand with strangers. According to the

literature, “one of the main reasons college students use Facebook is for the ‘virtual community,’

which includes meeting new friends and finding companionship” (Sheldon, 2008, p. 45). Based

off our findings, college students are not interested in making new friends on Facebook. College

students are using Facebook to maintain relationships that they have in reality.

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Lastly, are college students using Facebook to form deeper relationships with people they

already know? Of course, the answer is yes. As Urista, Quingwen, and Day stated, “individuals

use social networking sites to obtain more information about other people that they have met

face to face and are interested in forming deeper relationships with” (Urista, Quingwen, & Day,

2009). All of our findings and conclusions lead to that statement. Our overall impression from

our results is that college students only look to reduce uncertainty with people they already

know, using Facebook to find out more about individuals that are already a part of their lives.

This says that interpersonal relationships are important to college students in that not only are

they being maintained in reality but also in cyberspace. The statement by Pratt et.al (1999) says

“CMC should be considered interpersonal when users have time to exchange information and

share values that provide a foundation for making impressions.” Facebook is a form of CMC and

this statement touches on the concept of CMC and uncertainty because uncertainty deals with

people wanting to predict other’s behavior, which is being able to make an impression about a

person.

Curiosity and uncertainty are hand in hand as stated in the literature. College students are

curious to know about their colleagues because they know that there will be future interaction s

between them. They are not concerned with strangers because they do not plan to have future

interactions with them. Our study only gives a shallow preview of how Facebook is used for

uncertainty reduction. The recommendations section will offer some ideas for further research of

the topic.

Limitations

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As any research study goes, our study had its limitations. The limitations were not

necessarily a setback, but we believe that they could have a significant effect on our data and

findings. Most of these limitations could not have been avoided; however, there are a few things

that we could have done, as researchers, which would decrease the impact that these limitations

had on our study.

The first limitation is the size of our sample. In our study, we had a sample size of only

51 people. This small amount of people is not nearly enough to fairly represent the rest of the

population of college students. Also, since the research was conducted at a small private liberal

arts university, the findings cannot be generalized to all college students. However, this is a

common issue among researchers. Getting a larger sample would be time consuming and could

be costly, depending on the topic being researched. We only had a limited amount of time and

were only required to survey a specific amount of people for this study.

Another issue we had within the sample size was the female to male ratio. Queens

University of Charlotte is known to have significantly more females than males. This definitely

reflected on our research, as we surveyed 33 females and only 18 males. We believe that the

results of our study could have changed, or at least been fairer, if the number of males who filled

out the survey was closer to the number of females who filled it out.

We also dealt with participants giving socially acceptable responses to our survey. As our

description implies, many people who filled out our survey may have felt self-conscious while

reading the statements and questions on the survey. This became evident when people would say

things like “Now I feel like I’m a Facebook stalker” after completing our survey. These people

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most likely did not answer our respond honestly to the survey, as they felt they should give us

socially acceptable answers.

There was one precaution that we took that would help people give us more honest

answers, although it was mandatory, anyway. Before completing our survey, participants were

required to read and sign our consent form that was stapled on the front of the survey. This

consent form stated that any information about the individual that we obtained for the purpose of

our study would remain anonymous and confidential. It could be that people just signed the

consent form without reading it thoroughly or they still just felt uncomfortable responding to the

survey honestly.

This leads to the third limitation, which is the way the research on this topic was

conducted. Being that students felt that they had to give socially acceptable answers, we felt that

our results were not as accurate as they could be. With that said, we believe that there are better

ways for researchers to go about finding how college students use Facebook to reduce

uncertainty. This will be addressed in the recommendations section.

Our last limitation was one that we did not know of until after we completed our study.

This is the one limitation that we had that we could have avoided. This limitation was in the

survey questions. The way that some of the statements and questions on the survey were worded

might have made participants feel more uncomfortable than expected. For example, one of our

questions was “How often do you send a message to people you do not know on Facebook?” We

think that the way this question is worded could lead to participants giving less honest answers,

because they want to make their answers look socially acceptable or they just do not want to

appear to be Facebook stalkers. We could have asked the same question, but worded it a little

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differently, to make it appear more casual. We could have asked “How often do you send a

message to people you would like to know on Facebook?” This creates less of an uncomfortable

feeling for participants and it also would allow the to give a more honest answer.

Recommendations

With all of the limitations in our studies, we have a few recommendations for

future researchers. We advise other researchers to conduct an experiment in the study. We

believe that the addition of an experiment to our study would have given us more accurate and

less socially acceptable results. For example, we could have placed ten strangers in a room for

five minutes and then given them a survey about their attitudes towards each other. For the

second part of the experiment, we would allow these strangers to become friends on Facebook,

use the passive and interactive strategies, and then complete the same survey. Although this

creates an artificial atmosphere, we believe that the responses on the survey will be more

concrete and accurate opposed to participants feeling uncomfortable rating their own Facebook

use.

As addressed under the limitations, we would recommend future researchers to use a

larger sample size. Our sample size of 51 college students is not nearly enough to predict the

behaviors of the college student population. A larger sample size could also potentially change

our findings, as the numbers in the data collected will be different. Also, a more even female to

male ratio should complicate a larger sample size. Since our research question asked if men rely

on Facebook more than women to reduce uncertainty towards others, the female to male ratio

plays a big factor in determining the answer to that research question. If we had more male

participants, our findings might have turned out differently. Our study showed that men do not

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rely on Facebook more than women to reduce uncertainty. However, a larger sample size could

provide researchers with different results.

Another idea that we recommend is the options in the Likert scale survey given to

participants. There were some questions that participants should either agree or disagree with.

However, some participants selected the neutral option. By selecting the neutral option, this does

not give a clear answer as to weather the usage of passive or interactive strategies are occurring.

An option that could be added might be, “agree somewhat,” which would eliminate the option of

being neutral. This would make participants give a more concrete answer that would support or

not support the hypothesis, rather than not choosing and option at all, which, essentially, is what

happens by choosing to be neutral.

Future researchers should look into creating a survey with statements that only measure

passive and interactive strategy usage on Facebook. In our study, we had a general uncertainty

section, but this section was not really needed to research the strategies that college students are

using to reduce uncertainty towards others. The general uncertainty section pushed decisions one

way or the other, but more so towards supporting the hypothesis because those statements only

measured if college students are using Facebook to reduce uncertainty, which we know they are.

Since this has been proven by the literature and our study, researchers should focus mainly on

the strategies being used for uncertainty reduction via Facebook.

We had many factors that affected our research. These factors include the sample size,

socially acceptable answers, the way the research was conducted, the wording of our

statements/questions and the measures on our survey. Although some of these factors could not

have been avoided, we believe that small changes to the survey would have given us better

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results. Future researchers need to ensure the validity of the survey before conducting the

researcher, which we failed to realize after conducting our pilot study. We advise future

researchers to conduct an experiment, check and re-check the validity of the statements on the

survey, and use a bigger sample size to more accurately represent the population.

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Final Comm Research Proposal