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1. Introduction
The development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has opened doors to social and economic opportunities. Socially connecting with others on social networking sites (SNSs) is now an important part of one's life with self-disclosure becoming an international phenomenon. Self-disclosure has been defined as revealing personal information to others to which individuals already have no access to Wheeless and Grotz (1976). Although self-disclosure is an old phenomenon, online disclosure of the information is different due to the disinhibition effect and the speed at which information can be shared publicly (Mubarak and Rahamathulla, 2016). The online self-disclosure is the voluntary disclosure of information to others on online platforms (Pujazon-Zazik and Park, 2010).
A burgeoning body of research has been carried out to ascertain the determinants of self-disclosure (Walsh et al., 2020). The use of SNSs to disclose information is associated with capital-enhancing activities (Aharony, 2016; Tzortzaki et al., 2016). According to Hallam and Zanella (2017), self-disclosure is considered an integral part of enhancing social capital by the creation and maintenance of connections between users. As evidenced in the literature, these sites provide platforms and tools for building relationships (Cheung et al., 2015). Users experience feeling pleasant and having a sense of enjoyment by forming connections (Chennamaneni and Taneja, 2015). As per Grieve et al. (2013), individuals get relief from feelings of loneliness by being connected to others. On the other hand, other factors such as entertainment, self-presentation, attention-seeking and popularity are also important determinants of self-disclosure behavior, as reported by Abramova et al. (2017). Therefore, there is a positive outcome to self-disclosure that stems from building relationships and deriving social capital on these SNSs.
Despite the benefits, there are adverse consequences of sharing information on SNSs (Rauhala et al., 2019) due to easy access to information and privacy violations. SNSs are designed for easy information upload. This information contains photos, names and addresses which can make individuals easy targets for abuse (Steijn, 2014). As per Dhir et al. (2021), maladaptive information-seeking results in compulsive abusive behavior such as social media stalking. Moreover, according to Salo et al. (2018), such behavior is the manifestation of voyeuristic motives. This shows that cybercriminals can use SNSs platforms to collect more and more...