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1. Introduction
Social media have transformed the nature and scope of social networks, allowing users to express their identities and establish, expand and maintain their social networks (Ellison et al., 2007). Facebook boasts more than 1.2 billion users, with the number of users interacting daily up 22 per cent year-over-year (Albergotti, 2014). While Facebook is the most widely used form of social media, the term includes a variety of platforms, including Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn and others. For the purposes of this study, social media are defined as electronic platforms that allow users to construct a profile within a bounded system to maintain lists of other users with whom they share connections and to view and browse their lists of connections and those of others (Boyd and Ellison, 2008). A social media site, therefore, is the World Wide Web page on which a particular site facilitates the interaction between its various participants.
While humans have formed social ties since the beginning of time, online social networks are fundamentally different in several ways. First, an online social network can be significantly larger; a typical offline social network has approximately 125 connections (Hill and Dunbar, 2003) compared to a median of 300 “friends” for teen-age users of Facebook, the largest social networking site. Second, social media users have fewer cues by which to form impressions of others in their network, so they must use the limited heuristics that are available, resulting in skewed perceptions (Chou and Edge, 2012; MacLeod and Campbell, 1992). Third, and perhaps most importantly, profiles are carefully managed by users to highlight positive attributes and present a more idealized self (Ellison et al., 2006, 2007; Rosenberg and Egbert, 2011; Ames et al., 2006).
Recent research suggests that these specific social networking differences have created an interesting paradox. Despite the popularity of Facebook and the hedonic motives that generally drive participation, its use may actually make people less happy. Facebook users have demonstrated higher levels of envy and lower life satisfaction (Krasnova et al., 2013). They also frequently perceive others as being happier and having better lives (Chou and Edge, 2012). Furthermore, Facebook interaction may increase communication overload and reduce self-esteem (Chen and Lee, 2013). Building on these findings, this study...