A face(book) in the crowd: social Searching vs. social browsing

ABSTRACT

Large numbers of college students have become avid Facebook users in a short period of time. In this paper, we explore whether these students are using Facebook to find new people in their offline communities or to learn more about people they initially meet offline. Our data suggest that users are largely employing Facebook to learn more about people they meet offline, and are less likely to use the site to initiate new connections.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces

General Terms:
Human Factors

Keywords:
online communities, online interactions, social networks