The Pennsylvania State University

The Graduate School

College of Communications

SENIOR CITIZENS’ INTERACTIONS ON FACEBOOK:�

THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING AFFORDANCES ON

PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING

A Dissertation in

Mass Communications

by

Eun Hwa Jung

© 2016 Eun Hwa Jung

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements

for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

August 2016

The dissertation of Eun Hwa Jung was reviewed and approved* by the following:

S. Shyam Sundar Distinguished Professor of Communications Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee

Mary Beth Oliver Distinguished Professor of Communications

Fuyuan Shen Associate Professor of Communications

Mary Beth Rosson Professor of Information Sciences and Technology

Ford Risley Professor of Communications Associate Dean for Undergraduate and Graduate Education

*Signatures are on file in the Graduate School

iii

ABSTRACT

As social networking sites have become popular among senior citizens, this study

explored how senior citizens’ activities on Facebook influence their psychological and health

outcomes such as well-being. Guided by the MAIN model, uses and gratifications approach and

self-determination theory, this study examined the role played by three classes of affordances

(i.e., modality, agency, and interactivity) in defining gratifications derived by senior citizens on

Facebook and the relationship among psychological feelings, enjoyment, and well-being. A

content analysis of Facebook profiles and an online survey were conducted with senior citizens

aged 60 years or older who have used Facebook for at least one year (N = 202). Results showed

that profile customization is a key activity for obtaining agency-based gratification (i.e., agency-

enhancement), and back and forth conversation on comment thread plays an important role in

attaining interactivity-based gratification (i.e., interaction). In addition, posting photos promotes a

feeling of competence for senior citizens, which is associated with subjective well-being. The

agency affordance of profile customization is positively related to feeling of autonomy and

reciprocal contingent messages through the comment function elicit a feeling of relatedness,

which in turn makes encounters more enjoyable on Facebook. The findings of this study advance

knowledge about theoretical mechanisms underlying social and psychological effects of social

networking site use on well-being among senior citizens, and provides interface design

recommendations that specifically address the needs of senior citizens.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. vi

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... viii

Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1

Chapter 2 Literature Review ................................................................................................... 4

Affordances of Social Networking Sites .......................................................................... 4Technology Uses and Gratifications ................................................................................ 5What Technological Affordances Gratify Senior Citizens’ Uses of Facebook? ............. 8

Modality affordance ................................................................................................. 11Agency affordance ................................................................................................... 13Interactivity affordance ............................................................................................ 15

Psychological Effects of Technological Affordance Use ................................................ 17

Chapter 3 Methods .................................................................................................................. 27

Participant Recruitment .................................................................................................... 27Procedure ......................................................................................................................... 28Content Analysis .............................................................................................................. 29

Coding scheme ......................................................................................................... 29Survey Administration ..................................................................................................... 31Measures .......................................................................................................................... 32

Facebook activity ..................................................................................................... 32Affordance-based gratifications ............................................................................... 33Psychological feelings: Self-determination .............................................................. 34Perceived enjoyment ................................................................................................ 35Subjective well-being ............................................................................................... 35Control variables ...................................................................................................... 35

Data Analysis ................................................................................................................... 36

Chapter 4 Results .................................................................................................................... 39

Profile of the Sample ........................................................................................................ 39Descriptive Statistics ........................................................................................................ 40

General media usage ................................................................................................ 40Facebook usage ........................................................................................................ 41Affordance-based gratifications, psychological feelings, enjoyment, well-being,

and control variables ........................................................................................ 42The Use of Facebook Features and Technological Affordance-based Gratifications ..... 43The Relationship among Facebook Activities, Psychological Feelings, Enjoyment,

and Subjective Well-being ....................................................................................... 48

v

Preliminary analysis ................................................................................................. 48Measurement model ................................................................................................. 49Testing the hypothesized model ............................................................................... 52

The Mediating Role of Psychological Feelings in the Relationship between Affordance-based Gratifications and Perceived Enjoyment .................................... 55Model testing ............................................................................................................ 56

Additional Analysis .......................................................................................................... 59Summary of Findings ....................................................................................................... 59

Chapter 5 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 64

The Emergence of Agency and Interactivity Gratifications on Facebook ....................... 64Facebook Affordances and Their Effects on Psychological Feelings, Perceived

Enjoyment, and Subjective Well-being .................................................................... 66Importance of imbuing competence for subjective well-being ................................ 66Greater message contingency enhances feeling of relatedness ................................ 68Profile customization elicits feeling of autonomy ................................................... 69

The Mediating Role of Psychological Feelings between Affordance-based Gratifications and Perceived Enjoyment .................................................................. 70

Theoretical Implications .................................................................................................. 73Practical Implications ....................................................................................................... 76Limitation and Further Research ...................................................................................... 78Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 81

References ................................................................................................................................ 83

Appendix A Coding Scheme .................................................................................................. 101

Appendix B Survey Measures ................................................................................................ 103

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Theoretical model of motivational technology (Sundar et al., 2012, p. 116) .......... 22

Figure 2. Proposed study model ............................................................................................. 26

Figure 3. Confirmatory Factor Analysis ................................................................................. 50

Figure 4. Initial hypothesized model ...................................................................................... 52

Figure 5. Standard path coefficients for the final model ........................................................ 54

Figure 6. Initial model ............................................................................................................. 57

Figure 7. Standard path coefficients for the final model: Research question ......................... 58

Figure 8. Final model with standardized path coefficients ..................................................... 62

vii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Gratifications from using features of modality, agency, and interactivity ................ 37

Table 2. Affordance-based activities on Facebook ................................................................. 41

Table 3. Frequency of participation in Facebook activities: Survey results ........................... 42

Table 4. Descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) for affordance-based gratifications, psychological feelings, enjoyment, well-being, and control variable ....... 43

Table 5. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Realism (H1a) .................................... 44

Table 6. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Being-there (H1b) .............................. 45

Table 7. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Agency-enhancement (H2) ................ 46

Table 8. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Community-building (H3) ................. 46

Table 9. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Activity (H4) ...................................... 47

Table 10. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Interaction (H5) ............................... 48

Table 11. Zero-order correlations for all measured variables in the hypothesized model ....... 51

Table 12. Zero-order correlations for measured variables: Affordance-based gratifications, psychological feelings, and enjoyment ..................................................... 55

Table 13. Indirect effects of predictors via mediators ............................................................. 59

Table 14. Invariance of structural weight across different gender groups ............................... 59

Table 15. Gender differences in relationships ......................................................................... 60

Table 16. Summary of hypothesis and research question results ............................................ 63

viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It has been one of the toughest academic challenges I have ever faced to complete this

dissertation. Without the invaluable support of my mentors, colleagues, friends, and family, this

dissertation would not have been possible. I am deeply indebted to them for their great help and

continuous encouragement.

First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor and

committee chair, Dr. S. Shyam Sundar. His enthusiasm, vast knowledge, and commitment to the

highest standards always inspired and motivated me. I appreciate his time and guidance, which

enabled me to be productive and produce stimulating work. My earnest thanks also go to my

committee members, Dr. Mary Beth Oliver, Dr. Fuyuan Shen, and Dr. Mary Beth Rosson, who

provided me with insightful comments and constant encouragement. Their sharp questions and

intellectual feedback enhanced my research by making me consider different perspectives.

I am very thankful to my dear colleagues and friends who made my time at Penn State

enjoyable. In particular, I would like to give special thanks to lab group members for their helpful

feedback and friendship. It was always fun and pleasant to work with them in multiple research

projects. Besides, I would like to thank warmhearted friends who I met during my master

program in Florida. Their affection and encouragement helped me go through difficult times. I

also gratefully acknowledge my study participants who made my dissertation possible.

Lastly, but not least, I would like to give most heartfelt thanks to my beloved family for

the generous support they provided me through my entire life. I always appreciate my parents,

Byeong-Sam Jeong and Bu-Deok Kim, for their endless love, patience, and belief in me, and my

older brother, Dong-Hyun Jeong, for always backing me up. All your support means a lot to me.

1

Chapter 1

Introduction

The elderly population in the United States is expected to double by 2050 (from 40

million to 89 million) (Jacobsen, Kent, Lee, & Mather, 2011). This is largely due to the aging of

the baby boomer generation, or those born between 1946 and 1964, who started turning 65 in

2011. As members of this age group retire and live apart from their families, their social networks

have, inherently, decreased (Sigman, 2009). This lack of social ties can negatively affect mental

health and well-being, which can cause depression, sleeping problems, and even suicidal thoughts

(Cacioppo, Hawkley, & Thisted, 2010; Heinrich & Gullone, 2006). The online community has

become a powerful force in improving social interactions and overcoming the detrimental effects

of social isolation; it has become a place to promote communication (Harley, Kurniawan,

Fitzpatrick, & Vetere, 2009).

Communication scholars have demonstrated that computer-mediated communication

(CMC) builds meaningful online relationships that are equal to offline relationships (Bargh &

McKenna, 2004; Walther, 1995). This suggests that people equate social support received from

face-to-face communication with that received from online communities (Turner, Grube, &

Meyers, 2001). Similarly, social media provides an important contemporary communication

channel between people, even for those who are engaged in offline relationships.

While younger generations outnumber older generations in terms of using social

networking sites (SNSs), this gap has been shrinking. As of 2014, Pew research reported that 56%

of online users ages 65 and above have used Facebook, which is a significant increase from the

45% who did so in 2013 (Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden, 2015). Although senior

citizens’ use has increased, there are some limiting factors. For example, most seniors have

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relatively low levels of technological cognitive ability, a lack of interest in technology, and

anxiety about technology usage (Becker, 2004; Fuchsberger, Sellner, Moser, & Tscheligi, 2012).

Other researchers have discovered serious sensory and cognitive impairments in senior citizens

(Ryan, Hummert, & Boich, 1995), which also could create usability problems. Therefore, it is

necessary to develop specific social networking interfaces for effective communication on SNSs

among senior citizens.

Several studies have investigated the use of social networking sites among senior

citizens. For example, Nahm, Resnick, and Mills (2003) explored seniors’ use of SeniorNet, a

popular online community designed for the elderly. They found that greater use of SeniorNet

leads to more perceived social support and psychological well-being of the community. Similarly,

Sundar, Oeldorf-Hirsch, Nussbaum, and Behr (2011) proposed that social networking technology

plays an important role in senior citizens’ lives, potentially helping them to maintain their

collective sense of social well-being. Although such studies have examined the potential benefits

of social media use by seniors, communication scholars have paid little attention to senior

citizens’ actual social network use and their well-being. To fill this gap in the literature, this study

attempts to understand the role of social networking technology in improving senior citizens’

daily social interactions.

Among current social media outlets, this study focuses on Facebook. Facebook is the

most popular; it has 1.39 billion monthly active members and 890 million daily users (CNN

Library, 2015). Rather than examining the overall time spent on Facebook, as previous studies

have done, this study examines uses of specific technological features on Facebook. This

approach is useful because it helps us understand the specific technological features that need to

be improved for enhancing senior citizens’ use of social networking sites, thus providing

implications for design of communication technologies geared toward this segment of the

population.

3

Guided by the MAIN model (Sundar, 2008b), uses and gratifications research (Rubin,

1983) and self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 1985), this study examines the role played by

three classes of affordances (i.e., modality, agency, and interactivity) in defining gratifications

derived by seniors on SNS and the relationship among psychological feelings, enjoyment, and

well-being. In addition to advancing knowledge about theoretical mechanisms underlying social

and psychological effects of social networking site use on psychological well-being among senior

citizens, this study will provide interface design recommendations that specifically address the

needs of senior citizens.

4

Chapter 2

Literature Review

This chapter discusses literature from different domains that pertains to the use of social

networking sites and its psychological effects on older users’ well-being. Specifically, it begins

by reviewing technological affordances of social networking sites, with a focus on Facebook.

Next, it describes theoretical frameworks used in this study to explore the relationship between

Facebook use and psychological and health outcomes (i.e., gratifications, self-determination, and

well-being). Based on the theoretical rationales emerging from prior research, this chapter poses a

research question and proposes 12 hypotheses, as part of a comprehensive study model.

Affordances of Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites enable people to form new, and maintain existing, relationships,

and generally take part in a wide network of social connectivity. As technological tools, SNSs

provide their users with various features or “affordances” (action possibilities) for effective

communication. For example, Junco (2012) lists several Facebook features that enable users to

interact in a social environment: status updating, sharing links, private messaging, commenting,

chatting, and media sharing. LinkedIn offers a number of overlapping and similar features, but

with an emphasis on professional networking: photos upload, profile information, bookmarks, job

searches, and lists of candidates looking for work (Papacharissi, 2009). Twitter, too, enables its

users to communicate in a reciprocal way by using @-mentions, retweets, and hashtages (Black,

Mascaro, Gallagher, & Goggins, 2012). Pempek, Yermolayeva and Calvert (2009) enumerate the

actions provided by SNS features in this way: communicating with friends, looking at or posting

photos, finding out about or planning events, sending and receiving messages, posting to or

5

reading on walls, getting to know people better, finding contact and profile information. In sum,

SNS technology provides individuals with diverse ways to connect with each other.

Given that social network size diminishes over the course of a lifetime, older generations

can find themselves without sufficient social interaction. Loneliness is a major problem facing

senior citizens in society (Cacioppo, Hawkley, & Thisted, 2010). To prevent their social isolation,

SNSs can provide senior citizens with potential tools for improving social interaction. Therefore,

it is necessary to understand how and why senior citizens use social networking sites and the

effects of social networking technology in and on senior citizens’ lives. The current study

employs two theoretical frameworks—Uses and Gratifications and Motivational Technologies

Model—to explain how senior citizens use SNSs based upon on key technological affordances

and their psychological effects. The following sections describe these two frameworks.

Technology Uses and Gratifications

The uses and gratifications (U&G) perspective is concerned with how people select

media depending on their needs or motivations. This perspective emphasizes the role of audience

activity. Prior to its advent, most communication studies focused on the effects of media on

passive audiences. However, by changing the viewpoint from the effects of media themselves to

individuals’ active use of media, uses and gratifications emerged as a notable theoretical

framework in media studies (Rubin & Perse, 1987).

The uses and gratifications perspective comes from functionalist sociology. It explores

the use of different media and is related to differences in expectations and gratifications sought

(McQuail, 2000). Specifically, uses and gratifications perspective suggests research avenues

stressing the role of active audiences in media usage. First, it explains how people satisfy their

needs through media use. Second, it attempts to uncover individuals’ motivations for using

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media. Last, it demonstrates the results (i.e., gratifications) of individuals’ media use. Based on

these assumptions, uses and gratifications has been used to explain how audiences actively use

media and, as a result, satisfy their innate needs.

Uses and gratifications scholars have classified gratifications. Culter and Danowski

(1980), for example, proposed two types of gratifications: content gratification and process

gratification. Content gratifications are obtained when people consume media for its messages; in

other words, when individuals use media to gain knowledge and increase understanding. For

example, a newspaper is usually used to find out information about current events. Process

gratifications, on the other hand, are obtained when people consume media for reasons other than

its content. For example, people often watch television to pass the time, rather than to obtain any

specific information. In accordance with Rubin (1983)’s study, content gratifications represent

“instrumental use,” and process gratifications represent “ritualized use.”

In addition to these gratifications, Stafford, Stafford, and Schkade (2004) suggested

social gratifications for social networking and online interpersonal communication. In particular,

the interaction aspects of online media have been important. People now use the media to

exchange information with each other, and this is especially true online. In line with uses and

gratifications, online media and other interactive media enable us to become active users rather

than passive audiences (Chen, 2011; Sundar & Limperos, 2013). In particular, online media allow

us to generate as well as consume content; the traditional sender-receiver model has been

replaced by a relational model that operates with various transmitters and receivers (Jacobi &

Freyberg-Inan, 2015; Van Dijk, 2000). This active-user paradigm makes uses and gratifications

theory particularly relevant for studies of interactive online media (Chen, 2011; Ko, Cho, &

Roberts, 2005).

Based on these three types of gratifications (i.e., content, process, and social), researchers

have analyzed new media. For example, Papacharissi and Rubin (2000) identified five Internet

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motivations: interpersonal utility, pass time, information seeking, convenience, and

entertainment. Similarly, Leung (2009) identified four gratifications of online user-generated

content: recognition needs, cognitive needs, social needs, and entertainment needs. In the context

of social media, Quan-Haase and Young (2010) identified six gratifications obtained from

Facebook: pastime, affection, fashion, share problems, sociability, and social information. Chen

(2011) found that the frequent online use gratifies a need for connection with other people.

Although informative, these gratifications still rely on the psychological-trait paradigm of

gratifications by employing traditional measures designed for older media. Scholars have

criticized such gratifications. For example, Lichtenstein and Rosenfeld (1983) argued that media

characteristics, not just psychological needs, are important in predicting gratifications. This

implies that gratifications do not necessarily come from users’ pre-existing needs, but, rather,

they might be triggered by the medium itself. In line with this argument, Ruggiero (2000)

emphasized the importance of recent technological features (e.g., interactivity, synchronicity,

hypertextuality, and demassification) for future uses and gratifications studies in the new media

environment. The previous measures do not fully capture the potential gratifications associated

with new media; most gratifications in convergent media like the Internet are conceptualized

broadly. However, new media offer specific technological features (Sundar & Bellur, 2011), and,

as a result, medium-specific gratifications should be identified to increase our understanding of

the gratifications resulting from the use of specific features in a medium (Sundar & Limperos,

2013). Several communication scholars have found new gratifications from newer media. For

example, Song, Larose, Eastin, and Lin (2004) found virtual community as a gratification from

the Internet, and Joinson (2008) found photo sharing as a gratification from Facebook. In addition

to Internet use, Wei and Lo (2006) proposed mobility as a new gratification from using cell

phones.

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To address such concerns, Sundar and Limperos (2013) proposed a framework of

affordance-based gratifications. The concept of affordance was developed from a psychological

perspective; it is defined as interface features that provide users with possible actions through

visual cues in the context of digital technologies. According to Sundar’s MAIN model (2008b),

each affordance includes different cues that trigger heuristics, which ultimately affect users’

perceptions. Sundar (2008b) identified four classes of affordances: Modality, Agency,

Interactivity, and Navigability. These affordances signify technological features that provide

action possibilities. For example, the modality affordance of photo sharing invites users to upload

their pictures; the agency affordance of profile customization allows users to tailor their own

information. People can obtain gratification from the technological affordances embedded in

media. Social networking sites provide various affordances (e.g., clicking the Like button,

tagging other users), and it is, therefore, useful to investigate the gratifications that individuals

gain from their use.

What Technological Affordances Gratify Senior Citizens’ Uses of Facebook?

Each social networking site has its own technological affordances that support users’

abilities to connect with each other. For example, Burke, Kraut, and Marlow (2011) mention three

types of social activities through these affordances: directed communication with individual

friends, passive consumption of social news, and broadcasting. They then demonstrate that these

social affordances are all influenced by the individual differences of their users, though they all

ultimately link to positive outcomes related to psychology (e.g., social connectedness) and health

(e.g., well-being). In the specific context of family communication, Burke, Adamic, and

Marciniak (2013) suggest that social networking sites like Facebook facilitate parent-child

communication regardless of the geographical distance. Most recently, Burke and Kraut (2014)

9

investigated the relationship between communication with friends on Facebook and their

relationship closeness. They found that tie strength increases through using directed

communication features (e.g., posts, comments, messages) and consuming broadcasted content

(e.g., status updates, photos).

Prior research has confirmed that social media usage differs depending upon user age;

interpersonal relationships are shaped by the social roles and social structures found within each

age group (Ryan, Hummert, & Boich, 1995). Arjan, Pfeil, and Zaphiris (2008) explored different

ways of communicating with online friends via social networking sites by comparing the profile

pages of senior citizens and teenagers. Teenagers tended to have larger networks of friends of

similar ages, whereas senior citizens tended to have smaller social networks of friends of various

ages. The implication is that users in different age groups use affordances differently to meet their

unique social goals.

Facebook allows user to interact with others through various features such as status

updating, posting on friends’ pages, joining groups, sharing links, private messaging,

commenting, and chatting (Junco, 2012; Smock, Ellison, Lampe, & Wohn, 2011). However,

senior citizens have strong preferences for, and aversions to, the features provided by Facebook.

Research shows that they prefer to use simple interaction tools. For example, they are likely to

use the “Like” button on Facebook when responding to other people’s postings because it enables

them to respond in a convenient way. Mitzner et al. (2010) conducted focus groups about seniors’

technology use and found that they have positive attitudes toward convenient technological

features that can reduce effort. This is no surprise, as senior citizens’ relative physical and

cognitive impairment makes many technological tasks more difficult (Pfeil, Arijan, & Zaphiris,

2009). Therefore, simple interaction tools, such as Like button, would seem preferable for elderly

users.

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Photo viewing, a modality affordance, is senior citizens’ favorite social network activity

(Brandtzæg, Lüders, & Skjetne, 2010; Lehtinen, Näsänen, & Sarvas, 2009; Lewis &

Ariyachandra, 2010). Righi, Sayago, and Blat (2012) conducted in-depth interviews with senior

citizens concerning social network sites’ photos. Most participants told them that sharing photos

is the most useful and enjoyable means of communication on Facebook because it helps them to

keep in visual touch with family members (e.g., children and grandchildren) in distant places. In a

related study, Brandtzæg et al. (2010) found that senior citizens like to view past family and

holiday photos, but they seldom post their own. That is to say, they are more likely to monitor

others’ network activity than to update their own (Evjemo, Svendsen, Rinde, & Johnsen, 2004).

Seniors are reluctant to expose their personal information in general, especially online

(Mitzner et al., 2010). Several studies find that seniors’ major concern about using social

networking sites is privacy (e.g., Brandtzæg et al., 2010; Gibson, Moncur, Forbes, Arnott, Martin,

& Bhachu, 2010; Lehtinen et al., 2009; Lewis & Ariyachandra, 2010; Sayago, Forbes, & Blat,

2012). Why are they sensitive to technological security and reliability? First, many user privacy

and identity protection functions present usability problems for senior citizens (Taylor, 2011).

Second, senior citizens commonly perceive that the relationships developed and maintained

online are more superficial than offline relationships (Lehtinen et al., 2009). Because social

networking content is typically publicly disclosed, senior citizens are not comfortable being

candid with online friends, and this further results in the perception of the medium as trivial or

time-wasting (Gibson et al., 2010).

Social network technology affordances can, arguably, allow individuals to connect with

each other more effectively than traditional communication tools. As people live longer, the

elderly—who are generally not familiar with new media—seem more likely to become isolated

from societies in which technology changes almost daily (Melenhorst, Roger, & Caylor, 2001).

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Therefore, it is important to understand how technological affordances on Facebook motivate

senior citizens to use Facebook to better their social lives.

The following sections discuss how senior citizens use Facebook based upon three key

sets of affordances (i.e., modality, agency, and interactivity) and their respective gratifications.

Modality affordance

A modality affordance is defined as mode of presentation information on technological

interfaces through multiple formats such as text, pictures, audio, and video (Sundar, 2008b).

According to media richness theory, the use of multiple modalities makes the medium

richer, thereby enhancing users’ engagement with content in that medium (Daft & Lengel, 1986).

In order to establish a continuum of media richness, media rankings were created, ranging from

“lean” to “rich” based on the medium’s capacity and based upon the following criteria: immediate

feedback, presence of multiple cues, language variety, and personalization (Gilman & Turner,

2001). Face-to-face communication is considered the richest medium because of its high ability to

convey information. Written messages, in contrast, are considered the least rich, or leanest,

medium. Applying this theory to the online environment, Street and Manning (1997) argue that

multimedia elements enable users to become more involved in and engaged with the computer

programs, thereby enhancing their positive perceptions of and attitudes toward those programs.

Similarly, Ramirez and Burgoon (2004) tested three types of communication modalities -- text

chat, audio-conferencing, and video-conferencing -- to determine which modality best increased

interaction processes. The results found that multimodal presentations— audio- and video-

conferencing—produced higher level of interaction involvement and mutuality than text chat.

Facebook allows for different modalities of information to be shared. Facebook users can

post textual information on their own walls or on their friends’ walls. The text posted on walls is

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usually short. In addition, they can share information through other modalities, such as photos

and videos. Facebook users can create albums of their photos, and they can also post videos from

external link or their own uploads.

MAIN Model (Sundar, 2008b) posits that the use of these modalities could trigger several

specific heuristics. For example, realism (i.e., the degree to which the information resembles the

real world) and being-there (i.e., the degree to which users feel like a part of the world created by

digital media or sensorily immerse themselves in the digital environment) heuristics can be linked

to vividness of presentation modes on Facebook by employing modality features. Sundar and

Limperos (2013) explain that realism and being-there are gratifications that users now expect in a

mediated-communication environment or a virtual environment. As various modalities on

advanced digital interfaces extend the perceptual bandwidth for interaction (Sundar, 2008b), users

expect realness and being-there when using digital media, and they may not be satisfied with their

experience if those modality-based gratifications are not available in a particular device or site. In

recent research on the use of multiple modalities, Yang, Pavelko, and Utt (2015) found that one

of key motivations to use photos on news websites is realistic content and video use on the

websites satisfy the need of realism in connecting with others. Limperos, Buckner, Kaufmann,

and Frisby (2015) also demonstrated that the addition of audio to textual lecture material

facilitates better interaction between students and instructors by triggering the being-there

heuristic.

How does this theoretical insight relate to the seniors’ Facebook use? Several studies

have reached the consensus that senior citizens are most satisfied on social networking sites when

sharing photos (Brandtzæg et al., 2010; Righi et al., 2012). Visual information, in general,

appears to help senior citizens communicate with others, especially with peers who have

physiological difficulties that hinder reading text or listening to audio (Heine & Browning, 2002).

Fuchsberger, Sellner, Moser, and Tscheligi (2012) point out that social presence is a crucial factor

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in intergenerational online interactions. Senior citizens tend to live apart from their families, so

they lack the opportunity to frequently meet and talk with loved ones. Social networking sites can

decrease the social, if not the geographical, distance needed to maintain relationships with

children and grandchildren; sites that employ multimedia especially enhance social presence and

thereby gratify their need for realism and being there. Given this, the following hypotheses are

proposed:

H1a: Senior citizens will obtain greater realism gratification from frequent use of

multimodality features (i.e., photo, video) on Facebook.

H1b: Senior citizens will obtain greater being-there gratification from frequent use of

multimodality features (i.e., photo, video) on Facebook.

Agency affordance

Agency affordances are concerned with the assignment of sourcing, which allows any

entity (e.g., machines, organizations, other users, individuals) to serve as a source of

communication, with users able to assert their own agency as well as recognize the distinct

agency of other entities (Sundar, 2008b). In this study, an agency affordance is conceptualized as

the ability of individuals to serve as an interface agent that generates an action. By this definition,

it can be inferred that the online interface of social networking sites affords agency cues that

generate actions.

According to the Agency Model of Customization proposed by Sundar (2008a),

technological features on the interface can enable individuals to serve as a source of information,

thus increasing their involvement with the interface, projecting their identity onto it, and having

greater control over it. For example, a user perceives himself or herself as a source when

interacting with interface features on social networking sites (Sundar, 2007). In particular, social

14

media offer users the opportunity to customize their profiles, which enables them to control their

own information. Sundar (2008a) also explains that customization enables users to specify their

preferences through the interface, which in turn provides them with a sense of personal agency.

In effect, customization allows users to become a content creator or source of the

information in the digital media environment, which leads users to be more agentic. Studies show

that customization significantly influences a person’s sense of agency (Sundar, Bellur, & Jia,

2012; Sundar, Oh, et al., 2012). For example, Kim and Sundar (2009) found that customization in

the virtual world (i.e., Second Life) gave users a strong sense of identity and control in their

interactions. Sundar and Limperos (2013) posit that such agency enhancement is indeed a

gratification that users have come to expect from newer social media, because these media allow

them to express themselves through their preferences as well as original content generation.

Based on this rationale, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2: Senior citizens will obtain greater agency-enhancement gratification from more

customized items on Facebook profile.��

Additionally, content creation on social networking sites means people are the sources or

gatekeepers of the information, which can induce feelings of “self as a source” (Sundar, Oh, et

al., 2012). In particular, Facebook generally offer two forms of self-expression: story generation

and story sharing. Previous studies found that such types of source interactivity imbue different

levels of sense of community. Stavrositu and Sundar (2012) examined the relationship between

types of blog and psychological empowerment. They found that personal journaling (i.e., self-

created content) gives users a higher sense of psychological empowerment by increasing a sense

of community than filter blogging (i.e., other-created content). Consistent with this finding,

Sundar, Oh, et al. (2012) confirmed that active blogging elicits higher sense of community than

filter blogging. Likewise, users are likely to obtain a gratification of community building from

15

posting their own stories on social networking sites (Sundar & Limperos, 2013). Thus, the

following hypothesis is proposed:

H3: Senior citizens will obtain greater community-building gratification from frequent

posting of personal stories on Facebook.

Interactivity affordance

The concept of interactivity has been extensively employed in communication research

given the importance of two-way communication (DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach, 1989; Lanham,

1993; McMillan, 2000). In particular, the influx of online media has developed the concept of

interactivity as multifaceted (Bucy, 2004; Kiousis, 2002). Steuer (1992) defines interactivity in

terms of user control and identifies different levels of interactivity based on three technological

elements—speed range, and mapping. Similarly, prior research points out the importance of

interactive features on a web site, such as email links (Davis, 1999), digitalized audio and video

(Massey & Levy, 1999), and personalization of the web site (Wu, 2006). At the message level,

Rafaeli (1988) explains that the concept of interactivity is concerned about the degree to which

subsequent messages are related to previous exchanges. In line with his conceptualization, later

scholars have argued that threaded message exchange is an important attribute of interactivity

especially in email message (Bakker & Sadaba, 2008; Schultz, 2000) and online discussion

boards (Beyers, 2004; Ogan, 1993; Wise, Hamman, & Thorson, 2006).

Based on previous studies, the concept of interactivity has been developed through

Sundar’s recent works (e.g., Sundar, 2007; Sundar, 2008b; Sundar & Bellur, 2011; Sundar,

Bellur, Oh, Jia, & Kim, 2014; Sundar, Kalynaraman, & Brown, 2003). According to MAIN

model (Sundar, 2008b), interactivity affordance refers to the interaction between individuals and

computers (or more generally, information technology systems) in the context of human-

16

computer interaction (HCI). Sundar (2007) proposed a model of interactivity effects and

identified interactivity as belonging to three different elements of communication: medium,

source and message. Among these three kinds of interactivity, message interactivity is most

closely related to the various functions on social networking sites, which enable users to interact

with each other and carry on an extended dialogue. The most common functions are comment

posting and instant messaging. These features create visual cues that show the extent to which

users exchange their messages in a system. Comments, for example, are publically,

asynchronously listed under an original post, whereas chat windows offer an isolated place to

communicate in a synchronous way. These message interactivity cues serve to trigger the

interaction heuristic (i.e., the higher the reciprocal action, the better the interaction) and the

activity heuristic (i.e., active medium better than passive medium) both of which allow users to

determine the quality of their communication.

Contingency, or threadedness, in the interaction enables users to reciprocally

communicate with other people. Studies on the effects of message interactivity suggest that the

higher the message interactivity, the more positive the feeling of relatedness and the greater the

communal participation (Sundar et al., 2003). In addition, Greene, Choudhry, Kilabuk, and

Shrank (2011) found that communication via Facebook’s commenting function increases actual

interpersonal and community support. Users who received more comments from Facebook

friends have more emotional and informational support than those who received fewer comments.

A recent survey study about Facebook use among senior citizens found that use of message

interactivity features (e.g., commenting, replying, chatting) on Facebook is important in building

social bonding and bridging (Jung & Sundar, 2016).

Interactivity features on any interface can cue interaction and activity heuristics. When

applied to Facebook, such heuristics are triggered by the status update feature (activity heuristic)

and the comment function (interaction heuristic), according to the MAIN model (Sundar, 2008b).

17

These heuristics have become gratifications since individuals have come to expect them on

interfaces (Sundar & Limperos, 2013). Specifically, users obtain activity gratification by updating

their status on Facebook. As evidenced by previous research (e.g., Deters & Mehl, 2012; Smock

et al., 2011), status updates feature functions as expressive information sharing and fast one-to-

many communication tool, which allows users feel that they are actively interacting with others

on Facebook. Given that some forms of status updates in other SNSs like Google+ (i.e., share

text) and Twitter (i.e., mention) serve as the main feature, status update feature seems to make

users get actively involved in interaction on the interface (Java, Song, Finin, & Tseng, 2007).

This leads us to the next hypothesis:

H4: Senior citizens will obtain greater activity gratification from frequent use of status

updates on Facebook.��

In addition, Facebook friends can make comments to the original posts, and users who

receive the comments can reply to the poster. In this way, visible comments and replies are

displayed on the interface, which creates threaded message exchanges in a user’ Facebook

timeline (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Sundar, 2015). As explained above, such exchanges of contingent

messages are effective in imbuing feelings of interaction or being supported by others, so users

can fulfill their gratification for interaction when receiving comments from other users and

replying to the comments on Facebook. Therefore:

H5: Senior citizens will obtain greater interaction gratification from more comments

received and replies to the comments on Facebook.

Psychological Effects of Technological Affordance Use

Many scholars have examined the relationship between SNS use and psychological well-

being, but previous studies have showed discrepant findings suggesting that SNS use is both

18

positively and negatively associated with users’ psychological well-being and mental health. For

example, Valkenburg, Peter, and Schouten (2006) found that adolescents’ frequency of using

such sites (e.g., Friendster, MySpace) positively influences their well-being, mediated by the tone

of the reactions to the profiles and social self-esteem. Burke, Marlow, and Lento (2010) also

suggested that Facebook activities (i.e., direct communication, content consumption) are

important for increasing perceived social support and psychological well-being. In particular,

senior citizens’ SNS use is related to low levels of social isolation and loneliness as senior

citizens have greater proportion of actual friends in their online social networks (Chang, Choi,

Bazarova, & Löckenhoff, 2015). On the contrary, there is reason to believe that SNS use can also

lead to psychological distress. Chen and Lee (2013) found that frequent interaction on Facebook

was associated with psychological distress because it led to communication overload among

college students. Similarly, recent studies found that children and adolescents’ frequent use of

SNS is negatively associated with poor mental health and higher psychological distress

(Sampasa-Kanyinga & Lewis, 2015) and poor school experience caused by poor sleep habits

(Vernon, Barber, & Modecki, 2015).

These mixed findings suggest that SNS use may enhance or reduce users’ well-being

depending on individual’s characteristics, SNS usage patterns, and perception of interaction on

SNS. Thus, it is necessary to examine factors that impact these different outcomes. Given that the

underlying premise with the current study is that SNSs can serve as a venue for improving well-

being among older users, this study specifically pursues psychological determinants for a positive

relationship between SNS use and well-being.

According to self-determination theory, individuals attain psychological well-being when

they are intrinsically motivated to achieve their goals by satisfying basic, innate psychological

needs (Deci & Ryan, 2000). This theory explains two different motivations: intrinsic motivation

is the inherent motivation derived from doing a certain task, and extrinsic motivation is the

19

motivation of doing a certain task because of the external reasons (e.g., rewards or others’

pressure). Of these motivations, intrinsic motivation is more likely to lead to better satisfaction

with the task because it encourages an individual to complete the task for its own sake (Williams,

Grow, Freedman, Ryan, & Deci, 1996; Zhao, Lu, Wang, & Huang, 2011). In particular, perceived

fun or enjoyment has been considered a key intrinsic motivation in the online environment. For

example, Davis, Bagozzi, and Warshaw (1992) found that perceived fun increases intention to

use. In addition, Igbaria, Schiffman and Wieckowski (1994) discovered that perceived fun and

perceived usefulness have similar effects on system usage. Moreover, perceived fun has a greater

impact on user satisfaction than perceived usefulness. Therefore, technological designs that elicit

intrinsic motivation (e.g., fun and enjoyment) are more likely to lead to technology usage, which

subsequently leads to greater well-being.

To enhance intrinsic motivation, self-determination theory posits competence, autonomy,

and relatedness as crucial psychological needs. Competence is defined as a feeling of

achievement toward the goal and ability to master challenges (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Autonomy

refers to a sense of volition and ability to choice, and it involves the free will of self-expression

(i.e., self-regulating or self-organizing) (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Relatedness pertains to the

perceived connectedness with others, which motivates individuals to be integrated into their

community by interacting each other (Ryan, 1995).

Previous studies applied these three psychological needs in the context of media use. For

example, teachers utilize e-learning technology based on their self-determination (i.e.,

competence, autonomy, and relatedness) and intrinsic motivation (i.e., enjoyment) (Sørebø,

Halvari, Gulli, & Kristiansen, 2009). Subsequently, intrinsic motivation leads to satisfaction and

intention to continue using e-learning technology. These findings indicate that feeling of

competence, autonomy and relatedness are likely to be key psychological variables that predict

sustained use of media. Consistent with these findings, but in a different context, Ryan, Rigby

20

and Przybylski (2006) examined how playing games influences psychological well-being through

competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Results showed that each psychological need leads to

intrinsic motivation of playing the game (i.e., enjoyment), which in turn impacts future game play

and psychological well-being. By applying self-determination theory, this study theoretically

explains the effects of user satisfaction with playing computer games on their well- being from a

psychological perspective. Thus, self-determination theory is worthwhile in explaining the

psychological effect of technology use on positive health outcomes.

Considering that most internet-based technologies provide interactive features that enable

users to manage online resources, the intentionality aspect has become important in using

interactive media. For example, using customization features changes the locus of control from

the medium to the user (Sundar, 2008b), and feedback generated by the system imbues a sense of

interconnected interaction (Sundar, 2007). Therefore, online interface features can shape

individuals’ self-determination by letting them to input, customize, and interact with web sites.

In line with this, the Motivational Technologies Model, proposed by Sundar, Bellur and

Jia (2012, Figure 1), argues that technological affordances serve to enhance self-determination

that builds intrinsic motivation among users. Specifically, affordances related to customization,

navigability and interactivity can serve to enhance users’ feelings of autonomy, competence, and

relatedness respectively, which can positively contribute to intrinsic motivation that leads to

engagement with online health content and related behavior.

First, the navigability affordance allows users to explore information spaces in the media,

which can make them feel confident to seek what they want to find. For example, by using

sitemaps and search functions, users can get a sense of control over the media content. Such a

feeling of competence can be achieved through using navigational features. That is, individuals

who become adept at using the navigational features on the interface feel mastery over the

interface and the tool in general. Thus, well-designed navigational features enhance users’ ability

21

to manage their interaction with the technology, thus providing a feeling of competence among

users.

Second, motivational technology model suggests that interactivity builds relatedness

(Sundar et al., 2012). Previous studies have demonstrated that social interaction leads to feelings

of connectedness with others. According to Rafaeli (1988), higher levels of threadedness in

messages exchanged in an interaction imbues higher feelings of connectedness with one’s

interaction partner. Thus, interactivity features themselves, as well as interaction cues on interface

(i.e., contingency of messages exchanged with others), can increase feelings of relatedness. In

particular, it would be most relevant to examine the relatedness experiences on online social

networks, given the emphasis on sharing behaviors in social media.

Lastly, the agency model proposed by Sundar (2008a) explains that customization elicits

a sense of personal agency by allowing users to tailor the information based on their individual

needs and characteristics. Consequently, the sense of agency (i.e., the degree to which an

individual feels like he or she is an agent or actor in the interaction) through customization

enhances the feeling of autonomy (Sundar et al., 2012). Based on this line of reasoning, the

motivational technology model (Sundar et al., 2012) posits that customization builds autonomy.

This is also explained by self-determination theory, in that the opportunities to make choices lead

to a greater feeling of autonomy, which induces greater intrinsic motivation (e.g., enjoyment)

(Deci & Ryan, 1985). For example, freedom to make choices in a computer game can enhance

one’s feelings of autonomy, which leads to a better gaming experience (Ryan et al., 2006), and

the provision of options relevant to target users’ interests are known to elicit feelings of autonomy

(Katz & Assor, 2007).

22

Based on three distinct technological affordances (i.e., navigability, interactivity, and

customization), the theoretical model of motivational technology provides a useful framework for

examining the relationship between the use of specific technological features in media and user

self-determination for psychological well-being. In particular, considering that most activities on

social networking sites (e.g., self presentation, posting, and responding to others) are volitionally

controlled by users themselves, self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2002), combined with

the model of motivational technology (Sundar et al., 2012), can explain users’ psychological

processes in the context of using these sites.

This model is developed by replacing the navigability affordance with modality because

previous studies found that modality features are important for senior citizens’ interactions in

SNS (e.g., Brandtzæg et al., 2010; Righi et al., 2012). Additionally, given the constraints of the

planned content-analytical approach, assessing user’s navigability within Facebook would not be

possible in this study. Therefore, by replacing navigability with modality, this study extends the

model of motivational technology to examine whether modality features imbue a sense of self-

determination. In fact, competence is attained when expressing one’s capacities (Ryan & Deci,

Figure 1. Theoretical model of motivational technology (Sundar et al., 2012, p. 116)

23

2002), which implies that the ability to switch between textual and visual modality features (like

photo sharing) can make users to feel competent by giving them opportunities to show their

ability to flexibly use modalities of communication on social networking sites.

At the core of self-determination is intrinsic motivation, which is often captured by the

degree to which individuals enjoy the experience. In the media effects literature, studies on

entertainment have argued that users are drawn to media content mainly because of their pleasure

and enjoyment (Vorderer, Klimmt, & Ritterfeld, 2004). Recently, Tamborini and colleagues

(2010, 2011) defined media enjoyment as an intrinsic motivation grounded in self-determination

theory. Findings from their studies suggest that feeling of competence, autonomy, and relatedness

are positively associated with the enjoyment of playing video games. In the specific context of

SNS use, Reinecke, Vorderer, and Knop (2014) showed Facebook is also functioning to increase

enjoyment as an entertaining social networking site, and gratifications obtained from Facebook

use have connections with user self-determination (i.e., feelings of competence, autonomy, and

relatedness). Therefore, it is reasonable to pose an empirical question about how gratifications

derived from Facebook use are related to enjoyment through user self- determination.

Based on the model of motivational technology, after replacing navigability with

modality, the following research question and hypotheses examine how self-determination can

serve as the mechanism of Facebook use and intrinsic motivation (i.e., enjoyment).

RQ1: Will gratifications from modality, agency, and interactivity affordances positively

influence perceived enjoyment via psychological mechanisms of competence,

relatedness, and autonomy?

H6: The number of modality features (i.e., photo, video) used will be positively

associated with feelings of competence.��

H7: The number of comments and replies will be positively associated with feelings of

relatedness.��

24

H8: The number of status updates will be positively associated with feelings of

relatedness.��

H9: The number of items customized on Facebook profile will be positively associated

with feelings of autonomy.��

H10: The number of personal stories posted on Facebook will be positively associated

with feelings of autonomy.��

Self-determination theory further argues that the three psychological feelings of

competence, autonomy and relatedness enhance intrinsic motivation (i.e., enjoyment), which

consequently improves well-being. Ryan and Deci (2000) demonstrate that individuals

intrinsically motivated for engaging in a behavior are more likely to experience positive

outcomes, such as general well-being, from the behavior than those extrinsically motivated (i.e.,

controlled by external events). In particular, using social networking sites is pursued because it is

inherently interesting, fun, or enjoyable; the usage of social networking sites itself is its own

reward. Therefore, greater enjoyment from using social networking sites can achieve subjective

well-being. Prior studies also confirmed the positive relationship between enjoyment and well-

being in various contexts; for example, games (Ryan et al., 2006), academic setting (Burton,

Lydon, D'Alessandro, & Koestner, 2006), and working environment (Deci et al., 2001).

In the context of social networking sites, Hart, Ridley, Taher, Sas, and Di (2008)

researched positive experiences in Facebook usage (i.e., fun, enjoyment, excitement) and

concluded that the intensity of positive experiences varied depending on Facebook features used.

Features that elicited the most positive experiences included browsing photos, frequently

checking profiles and joining new groups. Given that enjoyable experiences most often derive

from pleasure obtained from interaction with others (Jordan, 2002), positive experiences

involving fun and enjoyment are ultimately the most important motivating factors for users

25

communicating via social networking sites. However, previous studies have not comprehensively

explained how uses of technological features in media psychologically induce the feeling of

enjoyment. To fill the gap in its theoretical knowledge, the model of Motivational Technology

(Sundar et al., 2012) is applied to this study, which explains that psychological feelings for

competence, autonomy, and relatedness derived from using certain SNS features enhance

perceived enjoyment of the web site. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed.

H11: Higher levels of self-determination (i.e., feelings of competence, autonomy, and

relatedness) will be positively associated with greater levels of enjoyment on Facebook.

The primary purpose of senior citizens using social networking sites is supporting and

maintaining their subjective well-being by reinforcing otherwise difficult or unattainable

connections with friends and family members (Nahm et al., 2003). Subjective well-being is

conceptualized as the extent to which an individual is satisfied with one’s life (Diener, Emmons,

Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). Recent studies found that social networking sites have emerged as a

promising venue for improving well-being. For example, Choudhury (2013) suggests that the use

of social media increases users’ well-being, especially for mental health, by providing socially

shared multimedia tools. Nabi, Prestin, and So (2013) also found interactions with a greater

number of Facebook friends reduced users’ stress level and increased psychological well-being.

Theoretically, self-determination theory posits that well-being is achieved by intrinsic motivation

such as perceived enjoyment (Ryan & Deci, 2000) derived from using media (Tamborini,

Bowman, Eden, Grizzard, & Organ, 2010). Thus, the following hypothesis proposes a

relationship between enjoyment on Facebook and subjective well-being.

H12: Levels of enjoyment on Facebook will be positively associated with subjective

well-being.

26

Taken together, this study examines how specific activities on Facebook influence

psychological and health outcomes among senior citizens. The complete study model is shown in

Figure 2.�

Figure 2. Proposed study model

27

Chapter 3

Methods

To test the hypotheses and research question, a content analysis of Facebook profiles and

an online survey were conducted. Most prior research on social networking sites take the form of

a survey due to the complexity of direct observation of users’ activities (Wilson, Gosling, &

Graham, 2012). Unfortunately, survey data can be biased by participants’ personality traits

because certain people (e.g., narcissists) tend to overestimate their online social activities

(Decters & Mehl, 2012). Thus, direct observational data through content analysis would help

supplement the survey data. In addition, a combined method of content analysis and survey can

improve the study’s ecological validity.

Participant Recruitment

Individuals older than 60 were recruited for participation. In addition to being over 60,

participants were required to have a Facebook account, which they have used for at least one

year. To recruit, a researcher contacted 174 retirement centers in the United States and asked for

volunteers, which involved two recruitment methods: email invitation and in-person visit.

Recruitment for participation mostly occurred via email and a researcher visited seven senior

centers located near State College in Pennsylvania to improve response rates. As a result, twenty-

seven senior centers in total agreed to participate in the study. The administrators of the senior

centers sent the recruitment message to their members via email, followed by two reminders. The

message included a link to the survey. All participants were entered in a random drawing to win a

$50 Visa gift card as incentive.

28

Procedure

After the recruitment process was completed, participants received an email with a link to

the Qualtrics survey. When participants logged into the site, they were first asked to consent. If

they agreed to participate in this study, they then filled out an online survey questionnaire.

At the end of the online questionnaire, they were asked to add a researcher (i.e., me) as

their Facebook friend so their profiles could be analyzed. For those who agreed to add me as their

friend, they received a website link (https://www.facebook.com/about/basics/) that includes

instructions on how to update their privacy settings so they can keep information private from me.

After that, I sent instructions about how to add me as follows:

First, sign in to your existing Facebook account. Second, go to the following webpage:

https://www.facebook.com/"Researcher’s Facebook ID", or search "Researcher's Email" within

Facebook. Third, add "a researcher" as a friend by clicking the “add friend” icon. In doing so,

participants allow a researcher to access their Facebook page including their profile information

(i.e., About) and timeline. After that, a researcher will collect information about what kinds of

features on Facebook that participants have used during one year prior to study entry, with the

help of a coding protocol. The information collected from your Facebook profile will be used to

describe the frequency of using particular features on Facebook (e.g., number of photos shared,

number of Like buttons, etc.), not about your personal content. Any written results will discuss

findings aggregated over several individuals and will not include information that will identify

any study participant. Once this study is over, the researcher's Facebook account (research

profile) will be removed to protect your privacy.

29

Content Analysis

This study employed a content analysis of Facebook features used by individual

participants for one year upon their agreement to allow researchers access to their Facebook

pages. The period of content created by Facebook users, which we coded, is different depending

on each participant’ date of filling out an online survey. For example, if a participant responds to

the online questionnaire on February11, 2015, we coded the number of Facebook features used by

participants from February 11, 2014 to February 10, 2015. In this way, coders captured the data

and coded the categories related to three key technological affordances (i.e., modality, agency,

and interactivity) on participants’ Facebook profiles and timelines for one year backward from

when they completed the online questionnaire. A coding scheme adapted from Zhao, Grasmuck,

and Martin (2008) was used (see Appendix A). Drawing upon this coding scheme, the content of

participants’ Facebook profiles was numerically recorded by two trained graduate students to

make sure the results from the coding are reliable. Prior to coding, the coding categories were

discussed with graduate students in a research meeting to ensure that coding procedures and

measures are appropriate, and coders were trained before the data coding process.

Coding scheme

A content analysis was conducted to directly observe users’ Facebook activities for one

year by counting the content presented on their Facebook pages. In particular, this study focuses

on their activities based on modality, agency, and interactivity. Each technological affordance

links to specific activities on Facebook. There were three units of analysis for coding Facebook

features used. Specifically, the unit of analysis for modality features (i.e., the number of posting

photo and video) was a participant’s Facebook timeline. In terms of agency features, profile

30

customization was used and its unit of analysis was a participant’s Facebook profile. Another

agency feature on Facebook was posting personal stories and its unit of analysis was a

participant’s Facebook timeline. Lastly, the unit of analysis for the first interactivity feature,

comments and replies, was an individual post on a participant’s timeline. The number of status

updates was also used for interactivity feature and its unit of analysis was a participant’s timeline.

The following are specific categories for each technological affordance, which was coded.

Modality is concerned with multimedia use on Facebook. To examine participants’ use of

modality features, each participant’s timeline was coded for the number of posts that contain 1)

text only, 2) photo, 3) video, 4) text and photo, 5) photo and video, 6) text and video, and 7) text,

photo, and video. In addition, the number of modality features used by the profile owner and the

number posted by the owner’s friends were coded in separate categories.

Agency was coded for two Facebook activities: profile customization and personal stories

posted by a profile owner on Facebook. In terms of profile customization, items contained in

Facebook’s profile section were coded by 0 (missing) or 1 (not missing). The items were: profile

cover picture, work, professional skills, education, places lived, hometown, mobile phone

number, other phone numbers, address, neighborhood, other account, email, birthday, gender,

interested in, language, religion, political view, screen name, website, Facebook account name,

relationship, family, about you (i.e., narrative self-description), other names, favorite quotes, life

event, album, Likes, i.e., sports, movies, TV shows, music, books sports team, sports athletes,

inspirational people, restaurants, clothing, apps and games, other likes, events, groups, fitness,

reviews, Foursquare, Instagram, Pinterest, Airbnb, Filckr, Sound Cloud, Shazam, and notes.

Another activity relating to agency affordance is user posting. Stavrositu and Sundar

(2012) suggested several types of posting: posting personal story, social issues, political issues,

scientific issues, and content using links from outside sources. Of them, posting personal stories

is closely related to agency-based activity in that personal stories serve as expressing themselves.

31

Therefore, the number of personal stories posted by a profile owner was coded as the second

agency affordance.

Interactivity refers to how frequently participants exchange content or information with

their Facebook friends. This category for coding includes number of posts written by a

participant, number of comments received, and number of replies to other’s posts on a

participant’s timeline on Facebook.

Additional information was collected from participants’ Facebook profiles to provide a

general understanding of their Facebook use: number of Facebook friends and total number of

posts in the past year. In addition to the direct observational data from participants’ Facebook

profiles by using content analysis, this study collected self-reported data on perceived use of

specific tools and features on Facebook, following Yang and Brown (2013), who proposed 18

items to measure how often individuals use technological features on Facebook (e.g.,

commenting on others’ status, uploading new photos, using the “Like” button).

Survey Administration

The questionnaire included measures relating to psychological variables and control

variables: affordance-based gratifications, self-determination (competence, autonomy, and

relatedness), enjoyment, engagement, psychological well-being, Facebook use, power use,

frequency of offline relationship, and demographic information (age, gender, ethnicity, marital

status, number of children/grandchildren, education levels, and geographic location). Participants

generally completed the questionnaire online in 30 to 40 minutes.

32

Measures

Content analysis and online survey were used to measure Facebook activities and self-

reported assessment of psychological feelings, enjoyment, well-being, and control variables.

These measures are described in detail below.�

Facebook activity

For the content analysis, the following Facebook activities were coded: photo and video

posts, items customized on Facebook profile, personal stories, comments and replies, and status

updates. Two graduate students coded participants’ timelines on Facebook using 20% (N= 41) of

the sample, which produced strong inter-coder reliability with the average of Krippendorff’s

alpha = .90: Number of total photos = .91; Number of total videos = .94; Number of photo posted

by a profile owner = .92; Number of video posted by a profile owner = .86; Number of items

customized on Facebook profile = .95; Number of personal stories = .81; Number of comments

and replies = .91; Number of user status updates = .87. All these count data used log

transformations to normalize the count data because they were all highly skewed.

Number of photos/videos was calculated in two ways. First, the total number of photos

and the total number of videos posted on each profile owner’s Facebook timeline for one year

were calculated for testing Hypothesis 1. Second, the hypothesized model (H6 through H12) used

the number of photos and the number of videos that were specifically posted by the participating

profile owner over the past year.

Profile customization is the number of items customized on a Facebook profile.

Number of personal stories is the amount of personal stories posted by a profile owner on

the Facebook timeline.

33

Number of comments and replies is the total number of comments received from a profile

owner’s Facebook friends and an owner’s replies friends’ posts on his or her timeline.

Number of status updates is the total number of posts published by a profile owner (i.e.,

participants).

Affordance-based gratifications

Affordance-based gratifications were measured based on a modification of the scale

proposed by Sundar and Limperos (2013). Responses to six affordance-based gratifications were

gathered on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Participants were asked about

three key affordances: modality (i.e., realism and being-there), agency (i.e., agency- enhancement

and community-building), and interactivity (i.e., interaction and activity). The following are the

measures for each affordance-based gratification. Each begins with the prompt: “I use Facebook

because ...”

• Realism: “I know the content that appears on my Facebook page is real and not made

up”; “Communicating via Facebook is like communicating face-to-face”; “The

experience on Facebook is very much like real life”; “Facebook lets me to see it for

myself”. �

• Being-there: “Facebook helps me immerse myself in places that I cannot physically

experience”; “Facebook creates the experience of being present in distant environments”;

“I feel like I am able to experience things without actually being there”. �

• Agency-enhancement: “I have my say on Facebook”; “I can assert my identity on

Facebook”; “I can send my thoughts to many on Facebook”; “I can have the power to

broadcast to my Facebook friends”. �

34

• Community-building: “I can expand my social network on Facebook”; “I can be part of a

community on Facebook”; “I can build social connections on Facebook”.

• Interaction: “I expect to interact with Facebook”; “I can perform a number of tasks on

Facebook”; “I can specify my needs and preferences on an ongoing basis”

• Activity: “I feel active when I use Facebook”; “It is not a passive medium”; “I get to do a lot

of things on Facebook”.

All the scales showed acceptable levels of reliability (realism, α = .80; being there, α = 91;

agency, α = 88; community building, α = .89; interaction, α = .78; activity, α = 87).

Psychological feelings: Self-determination

Self-determination (competence, autonomy, and relatedness) was measured through

modified versions of scales used by Ryan et al. (2006) and Neys, Jansz, and Tan (2014). All items

were rated on a 7-point scales from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

• Feeling of competence: “I feel competent on Facebook”; “I feel very capable when using

Facebook”; “I feel effective when using Facebook” �

• Feeling of autonomy: “I feel like I am free to decide for myself how to do things on

Facebook”; “I generally feel free to express my ideas and opinions on Facebook”; “I feel

like I can pretty much be myself on Facebook”; “I experience a lot of freedom on

Facebook”. �

• Feeling of relatedness: “I find the relationships I form on Facebook fulfilling”; “I find the

relationships I form on Facebook important”; “I don’t feel close to other Facebook users”

(reversed). �

35

The scales were quite reliabile, with Cronbach’s alphas of .93 (competence), .85

(autonomy), and .81 (relatedness).�

Perceived enjoyment

Enjoyment on Facebook used three items modified from Lee, Xiong, and Hu (2012): “I

find Facebook to be enjoyable”; “The actual process of using Facebook is pleasant”; “I have fun

using Facebook”. These three items were rated on a 7-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7

(strongly agree). The scale produced strong reliability, a Cronbach’s alpha of .94.�

Subjective well-being

Subjective well-being was measured by using five items from the Satisfaction with Life

Scale (SWLS) on a 7-point Likert scale (Pavot & Diener, 1993). The five-item measure was:

“The conditions of my life are excellent”; “In most ways my life is close to my ideal”; “So far I

have gotten all of the important things I want in life”; “If I could live my life again from the start,

I would change almost nothing”; and “I am satisfied with my life” (Pavot & Diener, 1993, p.

168). This scale was reliable (α = .88).��

Control variables

Overall Facebook use employed questions adapted from previous research (e.g., Ellison,

Steinfeld, & Lampe, 2007; Sundar, et al., 2011), including how frequently participants log on to

Facebook, time spent on Facebook, and number of Facebook friends.

36

Power use measured participants’ perceptions of their own abilities to manage

technologies. Questions were adapted from Sundar and Marathe (2010) on a 7-point Likert scale.

Twelve items were listed in total, including: “I make good use of most of the features available to

me in any technological device”; “I think most technological gadgets are complicated to use”; and

“I have to have the latest available versions and upgrades of the technological devices that I use”

(Sundar & Marathe, 2010, p. 309). Cronbach’s alpha for the power usage scale was .87, which is

reliable.

Frequency of offline relationships, defined as the degree of how frequently an individual

contact with one’s family members, friends, and acquaintances, was measured by the following

items: “On average, how often do you communicate with 1) family members, 2) friends, and 3)

acquaintances in offline situations?” These three items were rated on a seven-point scale from 1

(never) to 7 (daily).

Demographic information asked questions of age, gender, ethnicity, marital status,

number of children and grandchildren, education level, household income, and geographic

location.

Data Analysis

Hierarchical regression analyses and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to

test the hypotheses and the research question. Specifically, six hierarchical regression analyses

were performed with several covariates (demographic variables, total number of posts for the past

year, frequency of Facebook visits, power usage) to test H1 through H5. Table 1 describes the

predicted gratifications from using technological features on Facebook.�

37

The research question about the mediating role of self-determination between affordance-

based gratifications and enjoyment, was addressed by using 5,000 bootstrap samples and a bias-

corrected confidence interval of 95%. Significant mediating effects of feeling of competence,

autonomy, and relatedness on the relationships between gratifications (realism, being-there,

interaction, activity, agency-enhancement, and community-building) and enjoyment were

assessed separately.

In order to test the hypothesized model (H6 through H12), this study performed SEM by

using AMOS 18.0. The method is a powerful tool for analysis and extends the general linear

model (GLM) of multiple regression (Garson, 1998). In addition, SEM provides features not

available in multiple regression, including nonlinearities, measurement error, correlated

independents, and modeling of interactions. Before running the main analysis, tests for normality

and outliers were performed. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and model fit test were

conducted for the hypothesized model. Previous studies have suggested several indicators with

which to assess the overall fit of a research model (e.g., Chen & Lee, 2013; Rauniar, Rawski,

Yang, & Johnson, 2014): chi-square (χ2), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA),

the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR), and comparative fit index (CFI). The chi-

square test, however, is too sensitive to sample size. Therefore, the other indices (i.e., RMSEA,

SRMR, CFI) were used to test goodness of fit for this study.

Table 1. Gratifications from using features of modality, agency, and interactivity

Modality Agency Interactivity

Features on Facebook

Photo sharing

Video sharing

Profile customization

Posting personal stories

Comment function

Status updates

Gratifications Realism, Being-there

Agency-enhancement

Community building Interaction Activity

38

The following criteria were used to assess the overall fit: RMSEA < .08, SRMR < .08,

and CFI > .90 (Hu & Bentler, 1999). Modification indices were evaluated, and the model was

then modified based on theoretical rationale.

39

Chapter 4

Results

This chapter discusses the characteristics of study participants, descriptive statistics for

measured items, and results from testing hypotheses and a research question. In order to test H1

through H6, the relationship between the use of Facebook features and affordance-based

gratifications was examined. Next, the hypothesized model for H6 through H12 was tested to

investigate the psychological mechanisms behind the Facebook features that have significant

relationships with psychological feelings (i.e., self-determination), perceived enjoyment and

subjective well-being. Finally, RQ1 explored the mediating role of psychological feelings in the

relationship between affordance-based gratifications and perceived enjoyment.

Profile of the Sample

Of the 419 senior citizens who agreed to participate in the study, 297 older adults

completed the online questionnaire, but 75 participants refused to add the researcher as their

friend on Facebook. Therefore, the sample for the content analysis consisted of Facebook pages

of 222 participants. However, 20 responses were excluded from the final data because those were

identified as outliers on observed variables in the content analysis. Therefore, the final number of

participants is 202.

Female participants (79.7%, N = 161) outnumbered male participants (20.3%, N = 41).

The range of age is from 60 to 86 years (M = 69.37, SD= 5.88). The majority of participants were

Caucasians (94.6%, N = 191). In terms of marital status, more than half of the participants were

married (70.3%, N = 142), followed by divorced (14.9%, N = 30), widowed (10.4%, N = 21),

40

separated (5%, N = 5), and single (2%, N = 4). On average, they had 2.37 children (SD = 1.56)

and 3.41 grandchildren (SD = 3.81). Ninety-eight participants (48%) had a master’s degree or

higher, followed by college graduates (19.8%, N = 40), those who at least attended college or had

a technical school degree (16.3%, N = 33), individuals who attended a professional school (9.9%,

N= 20), and high school graduates (5.4%, N= 11). While the majority of the sample was from

Pennsylvania (47%, N = 95), participants were also from several other states in the US: Georgia

(13.9%, N = 28), Florida (7.4%, N = 15), Illinois (6.9%, N = 14), Virginia (6.9%, N = 14), others

(Arizona, California, Connecticut, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New

Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia) (18%, N=

36). Only 79.2% of participants answered household income question (i.e., $1000,000-$149,999,

22.8%, N= 46; $90,000-$99,999, 12.9%, N= 26).

Descriptive Statistics

General media usage

The questionnaire included questions about how often participants communicate with

other people via various media on a 7-point scale (1 = never, 7 = all of the time): face-to-face (M

= 5.36, SD = 1.35), landline telephone (M = 3.7, SD = 1.87), cellphone (M = 2.22, SD = 1.85),

smartphone (M = 4.12, SD= 2.32), email (M = 5.64, SD = 1.04), and Internet messaging (M = 3.2,

SD = 1.8). Furthermore, participants spent an average of 114.95 minutes (SD= 153.56) on the

Internet per day.

41

Facebook usage

Participants reported their general usage of Facebook through an online survey. On

average, participants reported they visited Facebook four times per day (median = 3, SD = 7.71)

and spent 46.83 minutes per day (median = 3, SD = 68.82) on Facebook. In addition, participants’

activities on Facebook were recorded by content analysis. A researcher coded all the Facebook

posts on each participant’s timeline that were made a year before the person filled out the

questionnaire. Overall, participants had an average of 222 friends (median =147, SD = 305) and

99.41 posts during the year (median = 83.5, SD = 69.56). Table 2 shows the numbers of

affordance-based activities (modality, agency, and interactivity) on Facebook coded through

content analysis.�

Participants were also asked to rate how often they use Facebook for various Facebook

activities. Eighteen items were administered on a 7-point scale (1 = never, 7 = frequently). The

results are shown in Table 3.�

�

�

�

Table 2. Affordance-based activities on Facebook

Facebook Activity Mean Median SD

Modality

Total number of photos on timeline 57.1 44 48.71Total number of videos on timeline 2.09 1 2.44Number of photos posted by a profile owner 40.82 28 42.77Number of videos posted by a profile owner 1.35 1 1.98

Agency Number of items customized by a profile owner 18.39 18 6.09Number of personal stories posted by a profile owner

38.03 25 42.69

Interactivity

Number of comments received from Facebook friends

125.92

69 145.7

Number of replies to friends’ posts 32.1 20.5 36.88Number of status updates by a profile owner 50.61 37.5 47.63

42

Affordance-based gratifications, psychological feelings, enjoyment, well-being, and control variables

Participants were asked to rate their agreement with statements for affordance-based

gratifications, psychological feelings, enjoyment, and well-being on a 7-point scale (1 = strongly

disagree, 7= strongly agree). In terms of control variables, power usage was measured on a 7-

point scale, and the frequency of offline relationships was measured by asking them to rate how

often they communicated with 1) family members, 2) friends and 3) acquaintances in offline

situations on a 7-point scale (1 = never, 7= daily). Participants’ responses to three items were

calculated as a sum to create an index of offline relationship. Table 4 provides descriptive

statistics for these variables.

Table 3. Frequency of participation in Facebook activities: Survey results

Facebook Activity Mean SD Posting on other people’s walls 3.97 1.41 Checking out people’s walls without leaving a message 4.14 1.6 Sending private messages 4.25 1.57 Facebook chatting with others 3.33 1.81 Commenting on others’ photos 5.33 1.41 Commenting on others’ statuses 4.66 1.74 Uploading new photos 3.82 1.72 Checking out people’s photos without leaving comments 4.69 1.45 Updating your status 3.38 1.51 Using the “Like” button 5.84 1.38 Checking out the news feed 4.92 2.01 Joining a group 2.99 1.63 Posting a link (e.g., news article) 3.64 1.85 Replying to others’ comments on your profile photo, new photos, fan status, “what’s on your mind” status, group status, notes, and links 4.35 1.65

Checking out people’s notes, links, and various status without leaving comments 4.34 1.48

Playing games on Facebook 2.08 1.98 Searching for new friends 2.62 1.58 Creating events 1.66 1.24 Posting videos 1.91 1.36 Viewing videos 4.18 1.64

43

The Use of Facebook Features and Technological Affordance-based Gratifications

In order to test H1 through H5, a series of hierarchical regression analyses was performed

to examine whether Facebook features that individuals used would predict affordance-based

gratifications. Hierarchical regression allows the researcher to specify the order in which blocks

of predictors are inserted into the model based on theoretical rationale. In this study, the blocks

were inserted in the following order: demographic variables (age, gender, marital status, number

of children, number of grandchildren, education), power usage, number of Facebook friends, total

number of posts, and frequency of Facebook visits.

Hypothesis 1 stated that senior citizens will obtain greater realism (H1a) and being-there

(H1b) gratifications from frequent use of modality features (i.e., posting photos and videos) on

Facebook. Two hierarchical regressions were conducted to examine whether the number of

photos and videos predicted realism gratification and being-there gratification, separately. The

Table 4. Descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) for affordance-based gratifications, psychological feelings, enjoyment, well-being, and control variable

Variables Mean SD Affordance-based gratifications Realism 3.75 1.29 Being-there 4.24 1.51 Agency-enhancement 4.45 1.37 Community building 4.94 1.36 Interaction 4.29 1.20 Activity 3.89 1.39 Psychological feelings Competence 4.57 1.27 Autonomy 4.76 1.18 Relatedness 4.42 1.14 Enjoyment 5.47 1.07 Well-being 5.31 1.11 Control variables Power usage 4.31 1.00 Offline relationship 15.13 3.80

44

level of education and number of Facebook friends significantly predicted realism gratification (β

= -.15, p < .05; β = .17, p < .05 respectively). However, after controlling for demographics, power

usage, and Facebook usage-related variables, the numbers of photos (β = .14, p = .23) and videos

(β = -.08, p = .28) were not significantly associated with realism gratification (Table 5).

Another hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the numbers of photos (β = .07, p =

.56) and videos (β = .02, p = .84) did not have a significant association with being-there

gratification (Table 6). Only education level was significantly and negatively associated with

being-there gratification (β = .15, p < .05). Therefore, Hypothesis 1 was not supported.��

Table 5. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Realism (H1a)

Predictor variables Regression 1 Regression 2 Regression 3 Age .083 .141 .124 Gender (0, female; 1, male) .040 .011 .027 Marital status (1, married; 0, single, widowed, divorced, separated) -.096 -.102 -.112

Number of children .080 .099 .115 Number of grandchildren -.079 -.118 -.126 Education -.167* -.157* -.150* Power usage .039 .036 Number of Facebook friends .178* .173* Total number of posts .006 -.077 Facebook visits .112 .119 Number of photos .143 Number of videos -.084 R2 .047 .097 .107 R2 change .047 .05 .01

*p < .05; **p < .01;***p < .001

45

*p < .05; **p < .01;***p < .001

Hypothesis 2 predicted that senior citizens would obtain greater agency-enhancement

gratification from more items customized on Facebook profile customization. As shown in Table

7, power usage and Facebook usage-related variables had significant positive associations with

agency-enhancement gratifications (β = .14, p < .05 for power usage; β = .17, p < .05 for number

of Facebook friends; β = .18, p < .05 for total number of posts; β = .17, p < .05 for Facebook

visits). Even after controlling for demographics and Facebook usage-related variables, the

number of items customized on Facebook profile is significantly and positively associated with

agency-enhancement gratification (β = .24, p < .01). Thus, Hypothesis 2 was supported.�

Table 6. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Being-there (H1b)

Predictor variables Regression 1 Regression 2 Regression 3 Age .090 .117 .110 Gender (0, female; 1, male) .076 .074 .082 Marital status (1, married; 0, single, widowed, divorced, separated) -.116 -.122 -.128

Number of children .023 .030 .026 Number of grandchildren .006 -.002 .005 Education -.156* -.155* -.148* Power usage -.005 -.009 Number of Facebook friends .070 .076 Total number of posts .097 .034 Facebook visits .005 .005 Number of photos .071 Number of videos .016 R2 .053 .072 .074 R2 change .053 .019 .002

46

Hypothesis 3 proposed that senior citizens would obtain greater community-building

gratification from frequent posting of personal stories on Facebook. The number of Facebook

visits per day was significant and was positively associated with community building gratification

(β = .20, p < .01). However, the number of personal stories posted on respondents’ Facebook

timeline was not a significant predictor of community-building gratification (β = .03, p = .67),

and therefore, Hypothesis 3 was not supported (Table 8).�

Table 7. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Agency-enhancement (H2)

Predictor variables Regression 1 Regression 2 Regression 3 Age -.050 .077 .067 Gender (0, female; 1, male) .032 .001 -.032 Marital status (1, married; 0, single, widowed, divorced, separated) -.115 -.120 -.129

Number of children .034 .072 .047 Number of grandchildren -.005 -.099 -.073 Education -.115 -.115 -.086 Power usage .143* .121 Number of Facebook friends .167* .127 Total number of posts .176* .083 Facebook visits .166*` .152* Profile customization .237** R2 .027 .173 .212 R2 change .027 .146 .039

*p < .05; **p < .01;***p < .001

Table 8. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Community-building (H3)

Predictor variables Regression 1 Regression 2 Regression 3 Age -.143 -.031 -.031 Gender (0, female; 1, male) .023 .003 .004 Marital status (1, married; 0, single, widowed, divorced, separated) -.046 -.054 -.055

Number of children .119 .150 .152 Number of grandchildren -.073 -.162 -.162 Education -.144 -.137 -.133 Power usage .106 .104 Number of Facebook friends .126 .126 Total number of posts .160 .140 Facebook visits .199 .198** Personal stories .030 R2 .052 .173 .174 R2 change .052 .121 .001

47

Hypothesis 4 stated that senior citizens would obtain greater activity gratification from

frequent use of status updates on Facebook. Several covariates were significantly associated with

activity gratification: number of children (β = .18, p < .05), education level (β = -.17, p < .05), but

the number of status updates posted by a respondent was not significantly associated with activity

gratification (β = .15, p = .13), as shown in Table 9. Thus, Hypothesis 4 was not supported.�

Finally, Hypothesis 5 posited that senior citizens would obtain greater interaction

gratification from more comments received and replies to the comments on a Facebook timeline.

As displayed in Table 10, the final model of the hierarchical regression analysis showed that the

number of both comments received from Facebook friends and replies respondents made was a

significant positive predictor for interaction gratification (β = .21, p < .05). This indicated that the

greater the number of comments and replies, the higher the interaction gratification, which

supports H5. In addition, marital status (β = -.16, p < .05) and education level (β = -.20, p < .01)

were significantly and negatively associated with interaction gratification, whereas power usage

*p < .05; **p < .01;***p < .001

Table 9. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Activity (H4)

Predictor variables Regression 1 Regression 2 Regression 3 Age .052 .138 .138 Gender (0, female; 1, male) -.030 -.047 -.037 Marital status (1, married; 0, single, widowed, divorced, separated) -.084 -.090 -.097

Number of children .162 .187* .189* Number of grandchildren -.089 -.146 -.140 Education -.197** -.196** -.174* Power usage .079 .066 Number of Facebook friends .124 .124 Total number of posts .155* .054 Facebook visits .096 .092 Status updates .147 R2 .07 .146 .156 R2 change .07 .077 .01

*p < .05; **p < .01;***p < .001

48

(β = .14, p < .05) and number of Facebook visits (β = .19, p < .01) positively predicted interaction

gratification.

The Relationship among Facebook Activities, Psychological Feelings, Enjoyment, and Subjective Well-being

The hypothesized model, which included H6 through H12, was examined using SEM

analysis. Before testing the hypothesized model, preliminary analysis of distribution and

assumptions, as well as confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement portion of the model

were conducted.

Preliminary analysis

First, issues of normality and outliers were evaluated. In order to test for univariate

normality, Kline’s (2011) guidelines were employed: skewness < .80 and kurtosis < 2.50), all

variables met these requirements. Multivariate outliers were also examined based on calculations

Table 10. Predictors of affordance-based gratification: Interaction (H5)

Predictor variables Regression 1 Regression 2 Regression 3 Age -.048 .077 .089 Gender (0, female; 1, male) .011 -.006 .005 Marital status (1, married; 0, single, widowed, divorced, separated) -.152* -.160* -.162*

Number of children .014 .048 .056 Number of grandchildren .042 -.061 -.051 Education -.231** -.224** -.196** Power usage .124 .115 Number of Facebook friends .104 .080 Total number of posts .193** .064 Facebook visits .224** .213** Number of comments and replies .205* R2 .081 .225 .243 R2 change .081 .144 .018

*p < .05; **p < .01;***p < .001

49

of the Mahalanobis distance statistic, and 16 cases were removed from the original data set,

which resulted in the final sample of 202 senior citizens. Moreover, multivariate normality was

tested by using Mardia’s coefficient, which should be lower than p (p+2), where p is the number

of observed variables (Bollen, 1989). The Mardia’s coefficient for the hypothesized model was

74.89. Given that the hypothesized model had 26 observed variables, the Mardia’s coefficient did

not indicate problems of non-normality. Lastly, there did not appear to be any illogical solutions

(as all variances were positive and no standardized loadings were greater than 1).�

Measurement model

A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed using AMOS 18.0 with a maximum

likelihood estimation method on all items except for independent variables (i.e., count data). In

other words, feelings of competence, relatedness, autonomy, enjoyment, and subjective well-

being were entered into AMOS as latent variables and their respective items mapped as observed

variables (the three items for feeling of competence, three for feeling of relatedness, four for

feeling of autonomy, three for enjoyment, five for subjective well-being). All latent variables

were co-varied. The initial model fit was poor based on the following fit indices: χ2 = 335.531, df

= 125, p < .001, SRMR = .0754, CFI = .925, RMSEA = .092 (90% CI: .08-.103). Modification

indices suggested that a pair of error terms from subjective wellbeing were covaried because two

items in subjective wellbeing (i.e., “The conditions of my life are excellent” and “In most ways

my life is close to my ideal.”) seem to have similar wording or content. Co-varying these two

error terms resulted in an acceptable model fit: χ2 = 277.257, df = 124, p < .001, SRMR = .0741,

CFI = .946, RMSEA = .078 (90% CI: .066-.091), as shown in Figure 3.

50

In addition, zero-order correlation was conducted to examine the relationships among the

variables in the proposed research model. Overall, correlations are in the hypothesized directions

at a statistically significant level, as shown in Table 11.�

Figure 3. Confirmatory Factor Analysis

51

Table 11. Zero-order correlations for all measured variables in the hypothesized model

1 (P)

2 (V)

3 (CR)

4 (SU)

5 (PC)

6 (PS)

7 (C)

8 (A)

9 (R)

10 (E)

11 (WB)

12 (PU)

13 (OR)

1. Photos (P) 1.00 2. Videos (V) .40*** 1.00 3. Comments/replies (CR) .75*** .38*** 1.00 4. Status updates (SU) .84*** .37*** .84*** 1.00 5. Profile customization (PC) .42*** .20** .51*** .46*** 1.00 6. Personal stories (PS) .80*** .31*** .83*** .94*** .45*** 1.00 7. Competence (C) .37*** .12 .43*** .41*** .32*** .36*** 1.00

8. Autonomy (A) .24** .12 .32*** .29*** .37*** .23** .61*** 1.00

9. Relatedness (R) .31*** .01 .36*** .34*** .27*** .30*** .51*** .52*** 1.00

10. Enjoyment (E) .44*** .17* .40*** .43*** .24** .39*** .54*** .52*** .59*** 1.00

11. Well-being (WB) .08 .04 .003 .02 -.08 .03 .20** .11 .12 .08 1.00

12. Power usage (PU) .07 .06 .11 .13 .15* .11 .40*** .24*** .13 .09 .24** 1.00

13. Offline relationship (OR) .08 .01 .06 .05 .09 .01 .11 .08 .02 .10 .20** .02 1.00

Reliability (Cronbach’s α) - - - - - - .93 .85 .81 .94 .88 .87 -

*p < .05; **p < .01;***p < .001

52

Testing the hypothesized model

SEM was performed to examine the hypothesized model with a maximum likelihood

estimation method (ML). In addition to independent variables, mediating variables, and

dependent variables, two control variables (i.e., power usage and offline relationship) that are

likely to be related to psychological feelings (i.e., competence, relatedness, and autonomy) and

subjective wellbeing, separately. The initial model (shown in Figure 4) had poor fit: χ2 =

659.712, df = 278, p < .001, SRMR = .14, CFI = .91, RMSEA = .08 (90% CI: .075-.091).

To improve overall model fit, the initially hypothesized model was modified based on

theoretical and statistical rationales (i.e., modification indices). In order to establish a

parsimonious model with a better fit, non-significant pathways were removed from the initial

model one by one (Kline, 2011). First, non-significant pathways between Facebook activities and

Figure 4. Initial hypothesized model

53

psychological feelings were removed from the initial model: Video à Compete (β = -.03, p = .7);

Status_update à Relate (β = .11, p = .41); Personal_story à Auto (β = .08, p = .28); PowerUse

à Relate (β = .08, p = .23). In addition to those non-significant pathways, a pathway between

enjoyment and well-being (β = .05, p = .52) was removed. Instead, a new pathway from feeling of

competence to well-being was added to the initial model based on zero-order correlation results

and the modification indices (MI). After eliminating all non-significant pathways, only significant

pathways were retained in the revised model. However, the overall fit for the revised model was

borderline: χ2 = 567.94, df = 222, p < .001, SRMR = .15, CFI = .89, RMSEA = .08 (90% CI:

.079-.097).

An examination of the modification indices (MI) revealed that there were strong

correlated error terms among feeling of competence, relatedness, and autonomy. After covarying

three pairs of error terms (e25<->e27: MI = 35.26; e26<->e27: MI = 28.78; e25 <-> e26: MI =

29.79), the overall model fit was greatly improved: χ2 = 476.44, df = 219, p < .001, SRMR = .1,

CFI = .92, RMSEA = .07 (90% CI: .067-.086). Furthermore, MIs showed that a pair of two items

from well-being (e15<- >e16: MI = 34.62) and a pair of two items from autonomy (e9<->e11: MI

= 18.15) needed to be covaried because each pair of two items had similar wording of the items.

Therefore, the finalized model achieved an even better fit: χ2 = 394.62, df = 217, p < .001, SRMR

= .09, CFI = .94, RMSEA = .06 (90% CI: .054-.074). This was a significant improvement from

the previous model (Δ χ2 = 173.32, df = 5, p < .001). Figure 5 represents the final model with

standardized path coefficients.

54

In addition, the indirect effect of Facebook activities on enjoyment and well-being was

examined by performing a bootstrap analysis with 5,000 resamples and a bias-corrected

confidence interval of 95%. The indirect effect of the number of photos on enjoyment through

greater feeling of competence was significant (β = .07, 95% BCa CI of .015, .142). In terms of

interactivity affordance, the indirect effect of the number of comments and replies on enjoyment

through greater feeling of relatedness was significant (β = .10, 95% BCa CI of .04, .181). As for

agency affordance, the indirect effect of the number of items customized on profile through

greater feeling of autonomy was significant (β = .05, 95% BCa CI of .005, .109). Finally, the

indirect effect of the number of photos on well-being was found through greater feeling of

competence, which was significant (β = .05, 95% BCa CI of .015, .108). Therefore, results from

Figure 5. Standard path coefficients for the final model

55

the final model support H6 (only IV of “number of photos”), H7, H9, and H11, but failed to

support H8, H10, and H12.

The Mediating Role of Psychological Feelings in the Relationship between Affordance-based Gratifications and Perceived Enjoyment

A research question asks whether gratifications from modality, agency, and interactivity

affordances have positive associations with perceived enjoyment through psychological feelings

of competence, relatedness, and autonomy. To test this research question, another SEM was

tested. Prior to SEM analysis, zero-order correlations and CFA were conducted. As shown in

Table 12, all measured variables were significantly and positively correlated.

In addition, CFA was performed on all items from affordance-based gratifications (i.e.,

realism, being-there, interaction, activity, agency-enhancement, and community building),

psychological feelings (i.e., competence, relatedness, and autonomy), and perceived enjoyment.

All variables in a research question were entered into SEM as latent variables and their items as

Table 12. Zero-order correlations for measured variables: Affordance-based gratifications, psychological feelings, and enjoyment

1 (RS)

2 (B)

3 (I)

4 (AT)

5 (AE)

6 (CB)

7 (C)

8 (A)

9 (R)

10 (E)

1. Realism (RS) 1.00 2. Being-there (B) .52*** 1.00 3. Interaction (I) .44*** .45*** 1.00 4. Activity (AT) .58*** .54*** .71*** 1.00 5. Agency enhancement (AE) .41*** .43*** .67*** .59*** 1.00

6. Community building (CB) .47*** .38*** .62*** .58*** .57*** 1.00

7. Competence (C) .38*** .35*** .52*** .47*** .51*** .42*** 1.00 8. Autonomy (A) .40*** .39*** .55*** .57*** .63*** .43*** .61*** 1.00 9. Relatedness (R) .57*** .45*** .49*** .61*** .47*** .48*** .51*** .52*** 1.00 10. Enjoyment (E) .43*** .39*** .53*** .56*** .47*** .48*** .54*** .52*** .59*** 1.00

*p < .05; **p < .01;***p < .001

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observed variables were linked to their corresponding latent variables (four for realism, three for

being-there, five for interaction, three for activity, four for agency-enhancement, four for

community building, three for feeling of competence, three for feeling of relatedness, four for

feeling of autonomy, and three for enjoyment). The overall model showed a good fit: χ2 =

886.913, df = 450, p < .001, SRMR = .07, CFI = .92, RMSEA = .07 (90% CI: .063-.076).

Model testing

To answer the research question (i.e., Will gratifications from modality, agency, and

interactivity affordances positively influence perceived enjoyment via psychological mechanisms

of competence, relatedness, and autonomy), the following model (shown in Figure 6) was

examined using AMOS 18.0 with a maximum likelihood estimation method. The initial model fit

was poor: χ2 = 926.539, df = 459, p < .001, SRMR = .08, CFI = .91, RMSEA = .07 (90% CI:

.065-.0878).

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The initial model was modified by eliminating non-significant pathways, which helped

produce a parsimonious model. In total, 12 non-significant pathways were removed iteratively:

Realism à Competence (β = .13, p = .16); Realism à Autonomy (β = .03, p = .73); Being-there

à Competence (β = -.01, p = .88); Being-there à Relatedness (β = .06, p = .47); Being-there à

Autonomy (β = -.05, p = .49); Interaction à Relatedness (β = -.13, p = .46); Interaction à

Autonomy (β = -.02, p = .17); Activity à Competence (β = .12, p = .28); Agency-enhancement

à Competence (β = .27, p = .81); Agency-enhancement à Relatedness (β = .004, p = .97);

Community building à Competence (β = .02, p = .81); Community building à Autonomy (β = -

.12, p = .12). Eliminating these non-significant pathways greatly improved model fit: χ2 =

749.975, df = 382, p < .001, SRMR = .07, CFI = .92, RMSEA = .07 (90% CI: .062-.077). Thus,

Figure 6. Initial model

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the finalized model was significantly improved (Δ χ2= 136.938, df = 77, p < .001). Figure 7 shows

standard path coefficients for all significant pathways.

Furthermore, the test for indirect effect through bootstrap analysis found significant

mediations of psychological feelings. Except the indirect effect of community-building on

enjoyment via feeling of relatedness (β = .06, 95% BCa CI of -.002, .139), the indirect effects of

realism, interaction, activity, agency-enhancement upon enjoyment via psychological feelings

were statistically significant as shown in Table 13.

Figure 7. Standard path coefficients for the final model: Research question

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In summary, the final model suggests significant mediating roles of psychological

feelings (i.e., competence, relatedness, and autonomy) in the relationship between affordance-

based gratifications and perceived enjoyment: interaction gratification à feeling of competence

à perceived enjoyment; realism, activity, community building gratifications à feeling of

relatedness à perceived enjoyment; activity and agency gratifications à feeling of autonomy à

perceived enjoyment. All significant paths in the final model were positive.

Additional Analysis

A multiple-group analysis was employed to test for invariance of the SEM model

between males and females. Constraining seven regression weights to be equal resulted in a

significant increase in χ2 from an unconstrained model. The result indicated that the model is not

invariant between males and females, Δ χ2 (7) = 15.93, p < .05 (see Table 14).

Table 15 shows the difference between the path coefficients of males and females in the

structural model. Of them, one path coefficient was significantly different between males and

Table 13. Indirect effects of predictors via mediators

Enjoyment

95% BCa CI LB UB

Realism via feeling of relatedness .09** .030 .179 Interaction via feeling of competence .09* .015 .238 Activity via feeling of relatedness/autonomy .22*** .113 .36 Agency-enhancement via feeling of autonomy .16** .06 .164 Community-building via feeling of relatedness .05+ -.008 .129

+p < .10; *p < .05; **p < .01;***p < .001

Table 14. Invariance of structural weight across different gender groups

χ2 df Model

Compared Δ χ2 Δ df p

1. Unconstrained 650.13 392 2. Regression Constrained 666.06 399 2 and 1 15.93 7 .03

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females, with a z score of 1.99, above the critical threshold of 1.96 for significance at the .05

level. Specifically, males who feel more competent on Facebook have significantly more positive

association with perceived enjoyment on Facebook (β = .48) than females who have a feeling of

competence on Facebook (β = .19). The results suggest that gender can function as a moderator in

the effect of Facebook use on psychological feelings and well-being.

Summary of Findings

First, the relationships between Facebook activities and affordance-based gratifications

were examined through hierarchical regressions with several covariates (i.e., demographics,

power usage, and overall Facebook use). None of the measures of modality use (i.e., photo and

video) had significant associations with the realism gratification. Similarly, the number of photos

and videos did not predict being-there gratification, and therefore, H1a and H1b were rejected. In

terms of agency-related Facebook activities (i.e., profile customization and posting personal

stories), the number of items customized on Facebook profile was significantly and positively

associated with agency-enhancement gratification, supporting H2. However, the number of

personal stories on respondents’ Facebook timeline was not associated with community-building

Table 15. Gender differences in relationships

Path coefficient (β)

Males (n=41 )

Females (n=161)

Number of photos à Feeling of competence .27* .28*** Number of comments and replies à Feeling of relatedness .20 .27*** Number of items customized on profile à Feeling of autonomy .16 .27*** Feeling of competence à Perceived enjoyment .48* .19* Feeling of relatedness à Perceived enjoyment .27 .37*** Feeling of autonomy à Perceived enjoyment -.01 .27** Feeling of competence à Well-being -.27 .33***

*p < .05; **p < .01;***p < .001

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gratification. When it comes to interactivity-related Facebook activities, the number of status

updates on respondents’ Facebook timeline was not significantly associated with the activity

gratification, while the number of comments and replies had a significant and positive association

with interaction gratification. Therefore, H4 was rejected, but H5 was supported.

In the second part of analysis, SEM was employed to test a hypothesized model that

included H6 through H12. Three Facebook activities corresponding to modality, agency, and

interactivity affordances were significantly and positively associated with psychological feelings.

In terms of modality affordance, the relationship between the number of videos and feelings of

competence was not statistically significant, but the number of photos was significantly and

positively related to feeling of competence. Therefore, H6 was partially supported. As for the

interactivity-related features, the number of comments and replies was significantly associated

with greater feeling of relatedness, while the number of status updates was not. Thus, H7 was

supported, but H8 was rejected. Regarding agency affordance on Facebook, the analysis showed

that the number of items customized on a Facebook profile was significantly related to greater

feeling of autonomy. Therefore, H9 was supported. However, the relationship between number of

personal stories posted on Facebook timeline and feelings of autonomy was not significant.

Consistent with Hypothesis 11, all psychological feelings (i.e., competence, relatedness,

and autonomy) were significantly and positively associated with perceived enjoyment. However,

perceived enjoyment did not have a significant association with subjective well-being, thus

Hypothesis 12 was not supported. Instead, the relationship between feeling of competence and

subjective well-being was found as a significant path in the final model. Figure 8 shows the

standardized estimates for the significant paths in the final model.

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Lastly, the research question about the relationship among affordance-based

gratifications, psychological feelings, and perceived enjoyment was examined through another

SEM analysis. The results revealed that feeling of competence were significantly predicted by

greater interaction gratification. Feeling of relatedness was significantly and positively associated

with realism, activity, and community-building gratifications. Feeling of autonomy had

significant and positive associations with activity and agency-enhancement gratifications. In

addition to the relationship between Facebook activities and psychological feelings, all three

psychological feelings (competence, relatedness, and autonomy) were significantly and positively

related to perceived enjoyment. These results appear to be moderated by gender, although this

conclusion cannot be definitive given the considerably smaller size of the male sample in the

study.

In summary, Table 16 shows the results for all the hypotheses and the research question.

Figure 8. Final model with standardized path coefficients

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Table 16. Summary of hypothesis and research question results

Effects of Facebook Activities on Affordance-based Gratifications

H1a Number of photos à Realism Number of videos à Realism Not supported

H1b Number of photos à Being-there Number of videos à Being-there Not supported

H2 Number of items customized on profile à Agency-enhancement Supported H3 Number of personal stories à Community-building Not supported H4 Number of status updates à Activity Not supported H5 Number of comments and replies à Interaction Supported Model Testing Facebook Activities à Psychological Feelings à Perceived Enjoyment à Subjective Well-being

H6 Number of photos à Feeling of competence Number of videos à Feeling of competence Partially supported

H7 Number of comments and replies à Feeling of relatedness Supported H8 Number of status updates à Feeling of relatedness Not supported H9 Number of items customized on profile à Feeling of autonomy Supported H10 Number of personal stories à Feeling of autonomy Not supported

H11 Feeling of competence à Perceived enjoyment Feeling of relatedness à Perceived enjoyment Feeling of autonomy à Perceived enjoyment

Supported

H12 Perceived enjoyment à Subjective well-being Not supported Additional finding: Feeling of competence à Subjective well-being NA Model Testing Affordance-based Gratifications à Psychological Feelings à Perceived Enjoyment

RQ1

Realism à Feeling of relatedness Interaction à Feeling of competence Activity à Feeling of relatedness Activity à Feeling of autonomy Agency-enhancement à Feeling of autonomy Community-building à Feeling of relatedness Feeling of competence à Perceived enjoyment Feeling of relatedness à Perceived enjoyment Feeling of autonomy à Perceived enjoyment

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Chapter 5

Discussion

As social networking sites have become popular among senior citizens, this study

explored how older users’ actual uses of Facebook features are related to their psychological

feelings and subjective well-being. Individuals’ self-reported data including affordance-based

gratifications, psychological feelings, enjoyment, and well-being were collected through an

online questionnaire, and a content analysis of participants’ actual uses of Facebook features was

conducted.

The Emergence of Agency and Interactivity Gratifications on Facebook

Data show that profile customization is a key activity for obtaining agency-based

gratification (i.e., agency-enhancement), and back and forth conversation on comment thread

plays an important role in attaining interactivity-based gratification (i.e., interaction).

The number of items customized on one’s Facebook profile was positively associated

with the agency-enhancement gratification reported by the profile owner. Given that the

customization feature allows a user to control his or her personal profile (Sundar, 2007), profile

customization can be seen as a key affordance on Facebook for senior citizens to exert and

enhance their agency. Schulz and Heckhausen (1996) demonstrated that control is an important

motivation for using technologies. And, according to life span theory of control (Heckhausen &

Schulz, 1995), senior citizens tend to control their external environment as an agent in life-span

development. It is little wonder then that Facebook features like profile customization are

associated with perceived agency among older adults. This is consistent with the finding in Nie

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and Sundar (2013) that college students’ sense of agency is positively related to the number of

items customized on the profile space. Thus, the ability for older adults to shape their profile on

social networking sites appears to be an important predictor of the degree to which they feel

agentic in this environment.

In addition, hierarchical regression analysis showed that the number of comments and

replies was positively related to interaction gratification. As comments arouse attention and lead

to replies to them, the contingency of messages exchanged on the comments section serves as an

interaction cue (Rafaeli, 1988; Sundar et al., 2003), which triggers interaction gratification. This

result also supports the claim of Smock et al (2011) that direct communication features such as

commenting, private messaging, and chatting satisfy social interaction needs since these features

promote more one-to-one communication with friends on Facebook. A national survey of senior

citizens by Jung and Sundar (2016) also highlighted the importance of message interactivity

related features (e.g., chatting) in building social capital (i.e., social bonding and social bridging),

implying that contingent exchange of messages is a critical factor that improves social interaction

on SNS among senior citizens. Consistent with these previous findings, the results from this study

show that SNS features supporting back-and-forth interaction between users, like the Comment

function, serve to gratify users’ need for interaction. It appears as though users have come to

expect message exchanges on the SNS interface. This finding supports the theoretical framework

of Uses and Gratifications 2.0 (Sundar & Limperos, 2013), which posits that specific

technological features of new media stimulate more nuanced gratifications that were not evident

during the use of traditional media. Furthermore, the findings extend Uses and Gratifications 2.0

to the context of SNSs by identifying the significant relationships between use of specific features

and affordance-based gratifications in Facebook.

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Facebook Affordances and Their Effects on Psychological Feelings, Perceived Enjoyment, and Subjective Well-being

This study focuses on use of specific Facebook features as opposed to overall use of

Facebook and uncovers positive relationships among Facebook features corresponding to three

technology affordances (i.e., modality, agency, and interactivity), psychological feelings,

perceived enjoyment, and well-being. As a modality-based feature, posting photos plays an

important role in enhancing feelings of competence, which is positively related to subjective well-

being. In addition, profile customization increases feelings of autonomy, and contingent

interaction through the comment function on Facebook is positively associated with feelings of

relatedness. In turn, each of these three psychological feelings is positively associated with

enjoyment on Facebook.�

Importance of imbuing competence for subjective well-being

The association between the number of photos that a profile owner posted and their

feelings of competence and, in turn, perceived enjoyment on Facebook, supports many empirical

studies based on self-determination theory, which have found that feelings of competence are

associated with positive psychological outcomes, including intrinsic motivation and general well-

being (e.g., Reis, Sheldon, Gable, Roscoe, & Ryan, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000).

The feeling of competence is quite critical for senior citizens when they use new media.

As Gibson and his colleagues (2010) found, senior citizens are usually reluctant to use new

technologies, but once they learn how to use a particular new technology, they become confident.

In the context of the current study, it appears that Facebook usage, especially posting photos,

promotes a feeling of competence for senior citizens, which is associated with subjective well-

being. This finding is consistent with previous studies suggesting that photo sharing is an

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important motivator for older users to use social networking sites (e.g., Brandtzæg, et al., 2010;

Lehtinen et al., 2009; Lewis & Ariyachandra, 2010) because photo sharing provides users with a

vivid communication environment.

Interestingly, our SEM analysis suggested that feeling of competence is related to greater

subjective well-being, without mediation by perceived enjoyment, as was originally expected.

This result is consistent with previous findings that competence is a key precursor of subjective

well-being. For example, Pinquart and Sorensen (2000) revealed that personal competence is

necessary for maintaining well-being. Supporting this argument, the activity theory of aging

proposes that older adults tend to stay active and competent to compensate for lost roles or

activities for greater subjective well-being (Lemon, Bengston, & Peterson, 1972). In the digital

era, e-competence or digital competence (i.e., one’s ability to use technology) is needed to

improve senior citizens’ well-being (Selwyn, 2004), considering that a major concern for senior

citizens is reduced competence or losing one’s independence in later life (Skarborn & Nicki,

1996; Whitbourne, 1985). Therefore, the feeling of competence is likely to be the most important

predictor of subjective well-being for senior citizens who use social networking sites.

Another notable finding is that the number of photos had a significant indirect effect on

subjective well-being through feelings of competence. Self-presentation on Facebook is known to

enhance users’ subjective well-being (e.g., Kim & Lee, 2011). This finding adds to the literature

by implying that self-presentation through posting photos is more likely to boost users’ subjective

well-being than other self-presentation features on Facebook (e.g., posting messages, profile

construction, etc.).

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Greater message contingency enhances feeling of relatedness

As predicted, the number of comments and replies was positively associated with feeling

of relatedness. This indicates that reciprocal contingent messages through the comment function

elicit a feeling of relatedness, which in turn makes encounters more enjoyable on Facebook. This

finding is consistent with the Motivational Technologies Model (Sundar et al., 2012), which

posits that message-interactivity features imbue feelings of relatedness through interface cues

displaying message threadedness in interactions between users. Similarly, Papacharissi and

Mendelson (2008) suggested that one-on-one messages build supportive relationships by

invoking norms of reciprocity. In particular, back-and-forth message interaction on Facebook

timeline may be important to senior citizens because they tend to exchange messages or

comments with people whom they have known. Consistent with socioemotional selectivity theory

suggesting that senior citizens value communicating with existing ties (Chang et al., 2015), the

presence of interactivity cues on their Facebook timelines seems to be effective in making them

feel that they are connected to their current social networks.

Most previous studies have found that Facebook mainly functions as an online interaction

tool, giving rise to feelings of relatedness or connectedness (e.g., Abellera, Ouano, Conway,

Camilotes, & Doctor, 2013; Downie, Mageau, & Koestner, 2008), but they did not identify which

specific features of Facebook are related to their feeling of relatedness. Therefore, investigating

specific interactivity feature like comment function is worthwhile in trying to understand what

makes users feel related with other people on Facebook. Given the positive relationship between

use of comment function and feeling of relatedness, it is reasonable to expect that exchanging

comments and replies is a crucial Facebook activity for increased feeling of relatedness.

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Profile customization elicits feeling of autonomy

The agency affordance of profile customization, i.e., the number of items customized on

participants’ Facebook profile, is positively related to feeling of autonomy, which in turn

increases perceived enjoyment of Facebook. Profile customization has been a key predictor of

enhancing agency in various contexts, such as virtual worlds (Kim & Sundar, 2009), web portals

(Sundar & Marathe, 2010; Marathe & Sundar, 2011; Kang & Sundar, 2013), and personal blogs

(Sundar, Oh et al., 2012), all supporting the agency model of customization (Sundar, 2008a).

Given that a feeling of autonomy is enhanced through making choices according to self-

determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), it is important to provide older users with

customization features that allow them to tailor their personal information.

Assuming that senior citizens are non-power users who typically lack expertise and

interest in new technology, this finding may seem to go against Sundar and Marathe’s (2010)

finding that non-power users had lower preference for customization compared to personalization

(system tailoring). However, our data suggest that an optimal level of customization on SNS can

be a powerful source for eliciting feelings of autonomy, consistent with the Motivational

Technology Model (Sundar et al., 2012). This result is also consistent with the finding of the

current study about the positive association between use of profile customization and agency-

enhancement gratification. As the proliferation of customization features on interactive media has

expanded user expectation for control over the interface (Sundar & Limperos, 2013), the profile

customization feature on SNSs appears to be a promising tool for older adults to assert their

agency.

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The Mediating Role of Psychological Feelings between Affordance-based Gratifications and Perceived Enjoyment

This study showed that each affordance-based gratification has pathways to perceived

enjoyment through different psychological feelings.

In terms of mediating role of feeling of competence on the relationship between

affordance-based gratification and perceived enjoyment on Facebook, only interaction

gratification is related to greater feeling of competence. This suggests that interaction

gratification obtained through interactivity features on Facebook can enhance feelings of

competence. Feeling of competence is fundamentally determined by how much individuals

achieve desired goals or outcomes (Deci, Vallerand, Pelletier, & Ryan, 1991). Given that a major

function of Facebook is connecting with other people, senior citizens satisfied with interactions

on Facebook can feel competent in using Facebook. Furthermore, as Facebook gives users social

networking power, senior citizens may feel competent by keeping their interaction environment

under control (Zejda, 2010).

As for autonomy, two gratifications were positively associated with perceived enjoyment

through feeling of autonomy: activity gratification and agency-enhancement gratification. In

contrast to face-to-face communication, it is a fact that asynchronous features of computer-

mediated communication facilitate feelings of control within the online social networking

environment (Walther, 2011). In the same vein, Facebook provides its users with a variety of

ways to interact with their friends (Junco, 2012; Smock et al., 2011), which allows users to obtain

activity gratification. Given that profile owners lead actions on Facebook and control over their

own timeline or news feed, it is possible that senior citizens who feel active on Facebook are

more likely to have freedom to express their ideas and opinions on Facebook than passive users.

In other words, an older user seeking to do a lot of things on Facebook can feel more like a

gatekeeper or an owner of Facebook than those who are not active on Facebook. Therefore,

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activity gratification obtained from using Facebook can amplify older users’ feeling of autonomy

on Facebook.

In addition, senior citizens feel autonomous when they obtain agency-enhancement

gratification, which refers to the idea that users can enhance their agency by serving as a source

of information on Facebook. Obviously, users who feel free to say anything on Facebook can feel

that they are individual agents who broadcast information on Facebook. Being an active agent is

particularly important for senior citizens in that they tend to have a strong motivation to control

their environment, according to life span theory of control (Heckhausen & Schulz, 1995). This

theory can also apply to the online social networking environment. In other words, as senior

citizens consider the online space as another social environment, technology features that they use

for controlling the online social networking environment can fulfill their gratifications related to

agency enhancement. While activity gratification is obtained from the sheer quantity of using

Facebook (i.e., the more activities in which a user has participated, the greater the activity

gratification obtained), agency-enhancement gratification is more about the quality of Facebook

use, especially in terms of asserting one’s individual’s identity within Facebook (i.e., the greater

the ability to serve as an agent on Facebook, the greater the agency-enhancement gratification

obtained), which can enhance feelings of autonomy. Thus, agency-enhancement gratification

obtained from using Facebook is likely to be essential for increasing feelings of autonomy among

older users.

Lastly, the gratifications of realism and activity were positively associated with perceived

enjoyment through feelings of relatedness. Considering that realism gratification is derived from

users’ vivid communication experience (like face-to-face communication), this result implies that

senior citizens who are gratified with realism on Facebook are more likely to feel connected with

other people on Facebook, because Facebook provides rich multimodality (i.e., pictures and

audio-visual features), which can make users feel close to their friends on Facebook. Another

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possible explanation is that senior citizens may have similar interaction pattern on Facebook with

offline relationship given that they tend to connect with individuals whom they already know

offline, such as close friends or family members, rather than new relationships (Chang, et al.,

2015). In other words, interacting with actual friends and family members on Facebook seem

very much like real life and can thereby facilitate older users’ feeling of relatedness.

In addition to the realism gratification, senior citizens who obtained activity gratification

from Facebook had greater feeling of relatedness. Undoubtedly, senior citizens who feel active on

Facebook can reach out to people more often, which makes them feel more connected with others

on Facebook and subsequently helps them enjoy using Facebook. In fact, senior citizens tend to

be less active in interaction with people online compared to younger generation (Chang et al.,

2015; Chung, Park, Wang, Fulk, & McLaughlin, 2010). However, if senior citizens obtain

gratification from participating in various activities, they will have more opportunities to connect

with people on Facebook, which leads to greater feeling of relatedness.

The last gratification that had a positive association with feeling of relatedness is

community-building gratification (i.e., individuals use Facebook because of being part of a

community on Facebook). Many scholars have found that community building is closely related

to feeling of relatedness (e.g., Sheldon, Abad, & Hinsch, 2011; Smock et al., 2011; Valenzuela,

Park, & Kee, 2009). In particular, a key factor predicting Facebook use is related to social

gratifications, such as the need to belong (Nadikarni & Hofmann, 2012) and building social

capital (Ellison et al., 2007), which increase its users’ sense of connectedness and closeness with

others. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that individuals who are satisfied with community

building on Facebook should have greater feeling of relatedness.

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Theoretical Implications

The findings from this study provide important theoretical implications about

psychological mechanisms underlying the relationship among the use of Facebook features,

affordance-based gratifications, psychological feelings, intrinsic motivation (i.e., perceived

enjoyment), and subjective well-being.

First, the findings enhance the literature regarding the uses and gratification approach

from a technological perspective. The current study attempts to discover how older users obtain

gratifications from using technological features on Facebook by applying the theoretical

framework of uses and gratifications 2.0 proposed by Sundar and Limperos (2013). While

traditional uses and gratification theory depends on individuals’ psychological needs to use

media, the new perspective of uses and gratification offers useful knowledge about how the use of

specific features on social networking sites provides users with gratifications. Given the concept

of affordance-based gratification, this study extends new gratifications derived from using

Facebook features. Specifically, the results show significant relationships, such that the use of

profile customization is important to greater agency enhancement, and the comment function

improves interaction gratification. With regard to profile customization, it seems there is a strong

relationship between profile customization and agency enhancement, consistent with the Agency

Model of Customization (Sundar, 2008a) explaining that users gain a sense of agency or identity

in the online interaction. In addition, the visual presentation of message contingency derived from

the comment function is effective in motivating senior citizens to use Facebook for obtaining

greater interaction. Along the same lines, Jung and Sundar (2016) revealed that the message-

based interactivity feature (e.g., Facebook chatting) plays a vital role in greater Facebook use

among senior citizens. Therefore, the findings provide insight into which technological features

help increase senior citizens’ particular gratifications derived from the use of social networking

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sites. Furthermore, this study contributes to existing literatures on uses and gratifications to better

understand the potential effects of new SNS affordances among senior citizens. By doing so, it

helps build a theoretical link between affordances and gratification obtained from social

networking technology.

Second, the hypothesized model presents the psychological mechanism underlying the

relationship among Facebook activities, psychological feelings, perceived enjoyment and

subjective well-being. Theoretically, the findings support the Motivational Technology Model

proposed by Sundar et al. (2012) by revealing significant pathways between the use of certain

features on Facebook and subjective well-being. Most interestingly, modality affordance emerged

as the important determinant of subjective well-being among senior citizens. Specifically, feeling

of competence obtained from posting photos on users’ timeline were related to greater subjective

well-being. This result suggests that feeling of competence elicited through using Facebook is a

key psychological feeling to improve subjective well-being. In particular, this study specified the

modality feature of photo sharing enhances feeling of competence. Given these findings, modality

features that imbue feeling of competence are the most important to foster senior citizens’

subjective well-being via SNS. Furthermore, this finding acts as an extension of the Motivational

Technology Model by showing that feeling of competence derived from a modality-based feature

(i.e., posting photos) is a critical predictor of subjective well-being, given that the original model

only includes three technology affordances (i.e., navigability, agency, and interactivity).

In addition, senior citizens had increased feeling of autonomy by customizing their

profiles on Facebook often, and having reciprocal conversation through the comment function on

Facebook was positively associated with feeling of relatedness. Consistent with the Model of

Interactivity Effects proposed by Sundar (2007), these findings confirm that source interactivity

and message interactivity have effects on user perception through the mediation of customization

and contingency in message exchange respectively. Specifically, this study provides evidence that

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Facebook profile serves as an important function of customization, and commenting on Facebook

timeline is a key feature that creates message threadedness. Moreover, given that interactivity

features have been studied mostly among younger adults (e.g., Sundar et al., 2003; Sundar et al.,

2012; Sundar, Bellur, Oh, Jia, & Kim, 2014), this study suggests that interactivity features on

SNS interfaces are applicable to senior citizens for improving their perception and attitude

towards using a social networking site. These results also identify the relationship of the

technological features of source and message interactivity to psychological feelings that increase

perceived enjoyment on Facebook.

Third, a research question uncovered the mediating role of psychological feelings in the

relationship between affordance-based gratifications and perceived enjoyment on Facebook. The

results found different pathways from gratifications to perceived enjoyment through

psychological feelings. Such empirical evidence for the relationship among affordance-based

gratifications, psychological feelings, and perceived enjoyment is theoretically helpful to explain

how senior citizens gain positive psychological feelings from certain affordance-based

gratifications via Facebook.

Lastly, this study contributes to methodological advances in investigating SNS use as it

directly observes senior citizens’ use of social networking sites. Although it was challenging to

get approval from senior citizens for “friending” them on Facebook, the direct observation

through content analysis on participants’ Facebook profiles is useful to provide more accurate

behavioral information of Facebook users than self-reported data from an online survey.

Considering that senior citizens tend to have less ability to memorize events around them than

younger adults, this direct observation is a more reliable measure of their Facebook behaviors. It

is also noteworthy that such observational data provide specific counts of using each Facebook

feature, not just reporting abstract scale of usage of Facebook features, and help identify

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relationships between actual use of Facebook features and subjective measures such as

psychological feelings and well-being outcomes.

Therefore, this study provides comprehensive knowledge of senior citizens’ SNS use and

offers important theoretical and methodological implications for studying the effects of new

media technology on older adults.

Practical Implications

There are also noteworthy practical implications to developing SNS interfaces to provide

senior citizens with better experience on social networking sites. Given the findings that three

technology affordances (i.e., modality, agency, and interactivity) enhance older users’

psychological feelings and subjective well-being by using Facebook, SNS designers should be

aware of specific SNS features related to their positive psychology and health.

First, a key factor in subjective well-being is posting photos. Considering that social

presence is an important factor that enhances senior citizens’ engagement in SNS activity

(Fuchsberger et al., 2012), the activity of posting photos on Facebook is more likely to let them

feel connected to their Facebook friends, especially family members (e.g., children and

grandchildren) than only exchanging text messages on social networking sites. Hence,

multimedia elements are necessary for better communication on social networking sites to

provide senior citizens with vivid presentation of their messages. In addition to photo sharing

feature, Facebook could also introduce more multimodality features that support older users’

interaction. This study found that video sharing feature was not significantly related with positive

feeling of competence. However, considering that our participants did not post videos much on

Facebook, if they utilize richer multimodality features on Facebook like video sharing more

frequently, it would likely enhance feeling of competence that leads to psychological well-being.

77

In order to encourage senior citizens to use a variety of multimodality features, SNS designers

need to make the interface easy for older users to access those features and educate senior citizens

about how to use new multimodality features on SNS that may elicit feelings of competence.

Second, customization is necessary to allow older users to demonstrate their identity on

social networking sites. Previous studies suggest that non-power users like older adults have

negative attitudes toward customization features (e.g., Sundar & Marathe, 2010). In addition,

because senior citizens tend to be concerned about invasion of privacy on social networking sites,

the customizable interfaces were not expected to mesh well with senior citizens’ SNS usage (e.g.,

Brandtzæg et al., 2010; Gibson et al., 2010). However, the findings of this study show that

customization plays a critical role in increasing feelings of autonomy and perceived enjoyment.

This finding suggests that profile customization provided by Facebook seems to be manageable

for older users, rather than other complex customization features. For example, Sundar et al.

(2012) proposed two types of customization features as interactive tools for self-expression:

cosmetic customization (i.e., tailoring the look of the interface) and functional customization (i.e.,

modifying the functional features). Given that Facebook profile customization is considered as a

presentation-driven customization feature, SNS designers can consider having more such

cosmetic customization features in order to enhance the user experience of older users. This study

also suggests that promoting customization features on SNSs will increase the chances of senior

citizens’ adoption of SNSs by increasing seniors’ feelings of autonomy and enjoyment.

Lastly, the SNS activity of commenting and replying seems essential for senior citizens to

obtain the interaction gratification. Therefore, SNS tools embedded in high levels of message

interactivity, like the comment function, are necessary to enhance their interactions on social

networking sites. In addition to the action of interactivity, explicit message interactivity cues

(e.g., message contingency) are also crucial for eliciting a feeling of relatedness or perceived

social support. In other words, greater reciprocal visual presentation on users’ SNS profiles can

78

help them better perceive the richness of interactions with their SNS friends. Thus, social

networking sites could implement features that encourage users to exchange messages on the

interface.

Taken together, this study provides empirical evidence that three technology affordances

on Facebook (i.e., modality, agency, and interactivity) have positive associations with

psychological feelings necessary for improving well-being. Given that other social networking

media have similar features to Facebook (e.g., photo sharing, profile customization,

commenting), the theoretical model in the current study can be applied to other social media

outlets, especially those that target senior citizens. Therefore, the findings from this study offer

critical practical implications for SNS developers to design specific SNS features that foster

positive feelings and well-being for elderly people.

In addition, the findings of this study suggest possible use of SNS as a tool to improve

senior citizens’ well-being. In particular, identifying specific affordances of SNS positively

related to psychological feelings and well-being in this study provides valuable implications for

effectively implementing interventions that address the needs of older SNS users. Thus, health

practitioners or administrators in retirement communities should consider SNS interventions for

senior citizens to promote their health and well-being in general.

Limitation and Further Research

Despite significant implications, it has to be noted that the current study has several

limitations.

First, a majority of participants were Caucasians and female. This particular characteristic

of the sample may have resulted in systematic biases in both online activities and responses to

questionnaire measures. Thus, it needs to be replicated with more diverse samples. Furthermore,

79

additional studies are necessary to examine the theoretical model with other age groups. It will be

helpful to understand diverse SNS use behaviors by comparing different age groups. In particular,

it would be interesting to see how older users are different from and similar to college-age users

who are relatively active users of social networking sites.

Second, in the procedure of collecting behavioral data, participants were asked to add a

researcher as their friend on Facebook, which led to removing participants who did not friend the

researcher but filled out the online questionnaire. Additionally, although this study preceded

collecting data from participants’ Facebook profiles upon their agreements, it may constitute a

violation of privacy. To mitigate these concerns, future studies would do well to employ an

application programming interface (API) method that allows researchers to access a full dataset

of user interactions on social networking sites using a certain application. This API method is

particularly useful to collect anonymized data by using randomly generated unique ID to replace

users’ real names (Choi & Jeong, 2013). It is also helpful to detect how users behave on their

friends’ Facebook timelines, not limiting to interactions on their own Facebook timelines.

Therefore, such an advanced tool for collecting SNS data is expected to fulfill more complex

social network analysis.

Third, the use of cross-sectional survey data cannot assure the validation of the causal

relationships in the hypothesized model, as it does not confirm the direction of effects between

the variables. Although the findings support theoretical rationale linking the use of Facebook

features to psychological feelings and well-being, the next step would be to employ a pre- and

post-intervention study design to conduct a more rigorous investigation of causal relationships. In

addition, relatively high correlations between variables were found, especially among behavioral

variables themselves (e.g., posting photos, comments, status update, etc.). This indicates some

common variance in using features on Facebook. Moreover, this study collected behavioral data

on Facebook over the past year at the time of survey data collection. However, it would be

80

beneficial to explore trends over an extended period of time in order to draw firm conclusions

about SNS use and well-being outcomes.

Lastly, the investigation should be extended to various types of social networking sites

(e.g., Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, etc.) and their diverse SNS features in order to explore broader

SNS use. For example, this study could not examine navigability-based features on Facebook

(e.g., menu tabs, suggested mutual friends windows, and a “poke” utility), given the limitations of

the content analysis method. Given that motivational technology model posits that navigability

affordance builds feeling of competence by allowing users to find their way around the site

(Sundar et al., 2012), navigability-based features can be another key affordance that enhances

feeling of competence. There are also other unique features; hashtags in Twitter are navigational

aids on the interface that help find similar topics (Otsuka, Wallace, & Chiu, 2014) and pinning in

Pinterest is a modality feature that enables users to collect images that they are interested in

(Baggett & Gibbs, 2014). By employing these different SNS features corresponding to four types

of technology affordances it will be interesting to see if use of the different features has similar

effects on psychological feelings and health outcomes as compared to Facebook features in this

study.

Beyond investigating the use of SNS features, a textual analysis of SNS user posts and

comments can provide specific information about what kinds of messages are exchanged by older

users. For example, comments can be categorized by topics (e.g., informational and emotional)

and valence (e.g., positive and negative). One of notable findings from previous research,

Walther, DeAndrea, Kim and Anthony (2010) suggested that comment valence impacts user

perception toward the content delivered by social media; positive comments lead to more positive

viewer evaluations of the content on YouTube. In this way, different types of comments on SNSs

may result in different feelings about the use of SNSs. Therefore, qualitative aspects of content on

SNS would be necessary for the further analysis.

81

Conclusion

Even though social networking sites have become an integral part of our daily lives,

research investigating seniors’ use of social networking sites has not received much attention

from communication scholars. To fill this gap in the literature, this study investigated how use of

Facebook provides senior citizens with gratifications, and discovered key activities on Facebook

that are associated with their well-being. Specifically, this study takes into consideration

affordance-based Facebook features (i.e., modality, agency, and interactivity) in order to explore

what kinds of technological affordances on SNS help enhance senior citizens’ positive

psychological and health outcomes.

The results show the significant positive psychological and health outcomes from three

types of Facebook affordances (i.e., modality, agency, and interactivity). More importantly, the

current research discovered theoretical mechanisms by which technology features on social

networking sites can be used to improve well-being, by applying the uses and gratifications 2.0

framework and the motivational technology model. This extends the current understanding of

how specific media features stimulate changes in user psychology and health behavior in the

context of social networking sites. Furthermore, this study has advanced comprehensive

knowledge of senior citizens’ SNS use and contributed to implications maintaining their

psychological well-being using SNS technology.

Given the detrimental effects of seniors’ social isolation in an aging society, this study

can draw attention from researchers and practitioners, as it shows that social networking sites can

be promising venues for senior citizens to enhance positive psychological feelings and well-

being. In particular, identifying appropriate SNS affordances for senior citizens provides useful

insights for improving SNS designs to promote older users’ interaction with other people.

Therefore, this study sheds light on new directions for understanding senior citizens’ use of

82

modern communication technologies and the underlying psychological processes related to health

and well-being.

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Appendix A

Coding Scheme

Basic Information • Number of Facebook friends • Number of posts in the past year (1 year)

v Modality Affordance

Variable Value Posts by a profile owner/ his or her Facebook friends • Text only # of posts on timeline • Photo only # of posts on timeline • Video only # of posts on timeline • Text+Photo # of posts on timeline • Text+Video # of posts on timeline v Agency Affordance • Profile Customization

Variable Value Picture: Profile cover picture 0-Missing, 1-Not missing Work 0-Missing, 1-Not missing Professional skills 0-Missing, 1-Not missing Education 0-Missing, 1-Not missing Places Lived: Residence information 0-Missing, 1- Not missing Hometown: Hometown name 0-Missing, 1-Not missing Contact Information • Mobile phone number 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Other phone numbers 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Address 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Neighborhood 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Other account 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Email 0-Missing, 1- Not missing Basic Information • Birthday 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Gender 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Interested In 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Language 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Religious Views 0-Missing, 1-Not missing • Political Views 0-Missing, 1-Not missing • Screen name 0-Missing, 1-Not missing • Website 0-Missing, 1-Not missing

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• Facebook account name 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Relationship 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Family 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • About You 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Other names 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Favorite Quotations 0-Missing, 1- Not missing Life event 0-Missing, 1- Not missing Album 0-Missing, 1- Not missing Likes • Sports: Favorite sports 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Movies: Favorite movies 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • TV Shows: Favorite TV shows 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Music: Favorite music 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Books: Favorite books 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Sports Teams: Favorite sports teams 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Sports Athletes: Favorite sports athletes 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Inspirational people 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Restaurants 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Clothing 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Apps and games 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Other Likes 0-Missing, 1- Not missing Events 0-Missing, 1- Not missing Groups: Groups the respondent has joined 0-Missing, 1- Not missing Fitness 0-Missing, 1- Not missing Reviews 0-Missing, 1- Not missing Social media use • Foursquare 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Instagram 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Pinterest 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Airbnb 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Filckr 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Sound Cloud 0-Missing, 1- Not missing • Shazam 0-Missing, 1- Not missing Notes 0-Missing, 1- Not missing

• Type of posting (Posts in a respondent’s Timeline)

Variable Value Posting personal story # of posts a respondent uploaded Posting other issues (not about personal story) # of posts a respondent uploaded v Interactivity Affordance

Variable Value Number of comments received # of comments received Number of replies to other’s comments on a respondent’s post # of replies

Appendix B

Survey Measures

[Affordance-based gratifications] Please rate your agreement with the following statements below, on a scale of 1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree: I use Facebook because …

Realism:

1) I know the content that appears on my Facebook page is real and not made up. 2) Communicating via Facebook is like communicating face-to-face. 3) The experience on Facebook is very much like real life. 4) Facebook lets me to see things for myself.

Being-there:

1) Facebook helps me immerse myself in places that I cannot physically experience. 2) Facebook creates the experience of being present in distant environments. 3) I feel like I am able to experience things without actually being there.

Agency-enhancement:

1) I can have my say on Facebook. 2) I can assert my identity on Facebook. 3) I can send my thoughts to many on Facebook. 4) I can have the power to broadcast to my Facebook friends.

Community-building:

1) I can expand my social network on Facebook. 2) I can be part of a community on Facebook. 3) I can build social connections on Facebook.

Interaction:

1) I expect to interact with others on Facebook. 2) I can perform a number of tasks on Facebook. 3) I can specify my needs and preferences on an ongoing basis.

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Activity:

1) I feel active when I use Facebook. 2) It is not a passive medium. 3) I get to do a lot of things on Facebook.

[Self-determination] Please rate your agreement with the following statements below, on a scale of 1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree:

Feeling of competence:

1) I feel competent on Facebook. 2) I feel very capable when using Facebook. 3) I feel like I am effective when using Facebook.

Feeling of autonomy:

1) I feel like I am free to decide for myself how to do things on Facebook. 2) I generally feel free to express my ideas and opinions on Facebook. 3) I feel like I can pretty much be myself on Facebook. 4) I experience a lot of freedom on Facebook.

Feeling of relatedness:

1) I find the relationships I form on Facebook fulfilling. 2) I find the relationships I form on Facebook important. 3) I don’t feel close to other Facebook users. (Reversed)

[Perceived enjoyment on Facebook] Please rate your agreement with the following statements below, on a scale of 1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree:

1) I find Facebook to be enjoyable. 2) The actual process of using Facebook is pleasant. 3) I have fun using Facebook.

[Subjective well-being: Satisfaction with Life Scale] Please rate your agreement with the following statements below, on a scale of 1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree:

1) The conditions of my life are excellent. 2) In most ways my life is close to my ideal. 3) So far I have gotten all of the important things I want in life. 4) If I could live my life again from the start, I would change almost nothing. 5) I am satisfied with my life.

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[General Media Use] Please choose the appropriate response for each item. On average, how often do you communicate ____________? (1= Never, 7= All of the Time)

1) face-to-face 2) via landline telephone 3) via cell phone (old phone, not smart phone) 4) via smart phone (e.g., Android phone, iphone) 5) via email 6) via instant messaging (e.g., Skype, Google chat, etc.)

[Offline Relationship] Please choose the appropriate response for each item. On average, how often do you communicate with _________ in offline situation? (1= Never, 7= Daily)

1) Family members 2) Friends 3) Acquaintances

[Facebook Use] Please answer the following questions about your Facebook use:

1) How many times do you visit Facebook per day, on average? ____________ 2) How many minutes do you spend on Facebook per day, on average? ____________ 3) About how many total friends do you have on Facebook? _________________

[Power Use] Please indicate your attitude towards the following statements about technological device/information technology (e.g., email, Internet, cellphone, car navigation system, etc.) use on a 7-point scale, from 1 as “Strongly disagree” to 7 as “Strongly agree”:

1) I think most of the technological gadgets are complicated to use. 2) I make good use of most of the features available in any technological device. 3) I have to have the latest available upgrades of the technological devices that I use. 4) Use of information technology has almost replaced my use of paper. 5) I love exploring all the features that any technological gadget has to offer. 6) I often find myself using many technological devices simultaneously. 7) I prefer to ask friends how to use any new technological gadget instead of trying to figure it

out myself. 8) Using any technological device comes easy to me. 9) I feel like information technology is a part of my daily life. 10) Using information technology gives me greater control over my work environment. 11) I would feel lost without information technology.

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[Demographic]

Please provide some background information about yourself.

1. What’s your age? ________

2. Please indicate your gender. 1) Male 2) Female 3) Other (Please specify) ______

3. What is your marital status?

1) Single, Never married 2) Married 3) Widowed 4) Divorced 5) Separated

4. Please indicate how many children and grandchildren you have.

1) Children ______ 2) Grandchildren _________

5. In which U.S. state do you live in? _____

6. What ethnic group do you belong to?

1) African American (non-Hispanic) 2) Asian 3) Caucasian (non-Hispanic) 4) Hispanic 5) Pacific Islander 6) Other ______

7. What is the highest level of education that you have completed?

1) Some high school or less 2) High school graduate 3) Some college or technical school degree 4) College graduate 5) Some graduate or professional school 6) Masters, M.D., or doctorate

8. What was your approximate annual household income the year before retirement?

1) Under $10,000 2) $10,000–$19,999 3) $20,000–$29,999 4) $30,000–$39,999 5) $40,000–$49,999 6) $50,000–$59,999 7) $60,000–$69,999 8) $70,000–$79,999

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9) $80,000–$89,999 10) $90,000–$9,999 11) $100,000–$149,999 12) More than $150,000 13) I do not wish to say.

VITA

Eun Hwa Jung

EDUCATION Ph.D. in Mass Communications, Pennsylvania State University, 2016 M.A. in Mass Communication, University of Florida, 2010 M.A. in Communication, Kookmin University (Seoul, South Korea), 2008 B.A. in Communication, Kookmin University (Seoul, South Korea), 2006 SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PROCEEDINGS Jung, E. H. & Sundar, S. S. (2016). Senior citizens on Facebook: How do they interact and why?

Computers in Human Behavior, 61, 27-35. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.02.080

Jung, E. H., Waddell, T. F., & Sundar, S. S. (2016). Feminizing robots: User responses to gender cues on robot body and screen. Proceedings of CHI’16 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’16).

Jung, E. H., Walsh-Childers, K., & Kim, H-S. (2016). Factors influencing the perceived credibility of diet-nutrition information web sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, 37-47. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.11.044

Go, E., Ryu, K., Jung, E. H. & Shim, H. (2016). Why do we use different types of websites and assign them different levels of credibility? Structural relations among users' motives, types of websites, information credibility, and trust in the press. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 231-239. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.046

Sundar, S. S., Waddell, T. F., & Jung, E. H. (2016). The Hollywood robot syndrome: Media effects on robot attitudes and adoption of robots. Proceedings of 2016 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI’16).

Jung, E. H. & Walden, J. (2015). Extending the television brand: An examination of why consumers use broadcast network websites. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 59(1), 94-111. doi:10.1080/08838151.2014.998229

Walden, J., Jung, E. H., Sundar, S. S., & Johnson, A. (2015). Mental models of robots among senior citizens: Interaction expectations and implications for design. Interaction Studies, 16(1), 68-88. doi:10.1075/is.16.1.04wal

Ha, J., Aikat, D., & Jung, E. H. (2015). Theories and messages in South Korean antismoking advertising. Health Communication, 30(10), 1022 - 1031. doi:10.1080/10410236.2014.915075

TEACHING EXPERIENCES Instructor of Record, College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University • Research & Analytics (COMM 428D, Online Course), Spring 2016 • Research Methods in Advertising and Public Relations (COMM 420), 4 semesters –

Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015