Gratifications of Facebook: A Literature Review

This study reviews the articles related to gratifications of Facebook use. An analysis of 20 gratifications studies states that mostly target audience of these studies is youth, especially students. The analysis concludes that these studies relied on the literature to develop the gratifications scale. Some of the gratifications factors identified are same and some of them differ. It was observed that there is an overlap among some gratifications factors due to similarities and differences in the operationalization of the gratification factors. Study highlights the need of the development of a gratifications scale exclusively for Facebook. It also emphasizes on a large scale study in Indian context.


Introduction
Facebook has dominated the social networking world with its growing popularity and rapid growth in terms of its users. Since its inception it has been growing around developed as well as developing countries. It was started as a small application for university students to connect and interact with each other and now it has turned in to the largest and most popular social networking site in the world.
Social networking media has given the internet a new participatory direction by creating the space for user-generated content. Its multifunctional use increases the interpersonal connectivity and hence helps in relationship maintenance (Wellman et. Al., 2001). Social networking sites such as Facebook provide an inexpensive and easy medium to develop and maintain such interpersonal relationships (Donath & Boyd, 2004). These sites confer recognition and popularity (Urista, Dong & Day, 2009) and provide entertainment (Park, Kee& Valenzuela, 2009). One could claim that social networking sites likefacebook have created a new platform altogether for media users to communicate, many to many. Although recent in origin, social media in general and facebook in particular have engendered good amount of research output (Sheldon, 2008;Urista, Dong & Day, 2009;Cha, 2010).
The logical question arises is why Facebook is so popular? Why people get attracted towards it? What are the reasons behind their Facebook use? Such questions were raised in the context of other media too such as TV, Newspaper etc. Researchers did adopt Uses and gratifications approach to study such questions in the context of other media. Same approach can be used to understand why people use Facebook. Researchers have already started using it. This article reviews some of the gratification studies conducted in the context of Facebook and tries to understand how researchers have studied the gratifications of Facebook and what are their findings?

Uses and Gratification Theory
As a sub-tradition of media effects research, Uses and Gratification (U&G) is one of the most studied and applied theories in the field (McQuail, 1994). Broadly speaking, the theory relates psychological needs to media use (or use of a specific medium) and posits that title, RQs/Hypotheses, method used to identify gratifications, gratifications identified, reliability of gratifications factors, and gratifications items contributing to the particular gratifications factor. This summary table was analyzed to respond to the research questions of the present study.

Purpose of the Study
Most of these studies were conducted to understand and identify the gratifications of Facebook use. The list of such identified gratifications factors is available in table No 1. The studies also attempted to investigate the Facebook use practices of the users. Some of the studies investigated the factors that influence the motives of Facebook use. They also tried to relate gratifications sought and the other constructs. For examplea study (Sarah, 2009) explored the relationship between gratifications and time spent on Facebook. This study found significant evidence of the relationship between these two constructs. Another study by Park, Kee and Valenzuela (2009) explored relationship of demographics and social trust with motivations. A study also investigated the difference between the male and females Facebook users in terms of their motivations of Facebook use (Sheldon, 2008).

Target Audience of the Studies
Mostly the students were the target audience of these studies. Some of these studies were conducted with the niche audience such as students of a particular university or a group of young adults (Urista, Dong and Day, 2009).

Methods Used to Study Gratifications
Several studies conducted to determine gratifications obtained from facebook have relied heavily on the previous literature (Strait, 2008;Clark, Lee & Boyer, 2007). A trend was evident that most of the studies adapted the gratifications scale from previous literature. The gratification scales used were mostly based on studies conducted on the Internet (Flaherty, Pearce, & Rubin, 1998;Papacharissi& Rubin, 2000;Flanagin& Metzger, 2001). However, some studies adopted the gratifications scales used in traditional media such as television (Barker, 2008). Still other researchers (Foregger, 2009)

Operationalizing Gratifications
Users maintain their relationships on facebook through activities such as sending messages to friends, posting on friends wall, staying in touch with friends, getting in touch with new people and contacting people who are hard to reach (Sheldon, 2008). Users get entertainment from facebook as they feel it quite enjoyable and exciting (Barker, 2008). They find it funny (Park, Kee, & Valenzuela, 2009). They see other people's pictures and read other people's profiles (Sheldon, 2008). People use facebook just to pass their leisure time. They go online on facebook when they get bored. Some do it as a routine thing or habit (Barker, 2008;Sheldon, 2008;Sheldon &Gevorgyan, 2008). They use facebook just to go away from whatever they are doing right now and got bored with or if they have nothing better to do at that time (Barker, 2008). Convenience is another reason why people use facebook. Facebook is a convenient medium to get the information (Strait, 2008), to get the entertainment (Haridakis& Hanson, 2009) and to communicate with friends and family members (Clark, Lee, & Boyer, 2007). The purpose of social interaction includes getting peer support from The gratification of self-expression explains that people use facebook because they can express their opinions freely. They can participate and give their inputs in discussions. They also like to answer to people's questions (Hanson et. al., 2010). In her study Sheldon (2008) identified the gratifications of Virtual Community and Companionship. She described the gratification of Virtual community as to make new friends, develop romantic relationship and find more interesting people. She described the gratification of companionship as to get away from loneliness. But in her another study (Sheldon &Honeycut, 2009)

Facebook Gratifications Research in the Indian Context
Our literature search on facebook-related U&G research shows that studies have been conducted in several parts of the world but there is a scarcity of such studies in Indian context. We could locate only two Indian studies that explored the gratifications Indian Facebook users seek from accessing Facebook.Provided that India is a socially, culturally and geographically different from the world and also diverse within, and that media consumption behaviors differ, it is possible that the gratifications Indian users derive from facebook may be different. But due to unavailability of sufficient evidence in Indian context it is not possible to infer conclusions about the difference between gratifications sought by Indian users and users other than Indians. Following are two Indian study's authors could locate. Another study on facebook use amongst Indian teenagers found that school-going boys and girls use facebook to remain in touch with their friends and family and for socializing. Status symbol was the least preferred reason (Maniar&Deesawala, 2011). One of the limitations of these two studies was the nature of the sample. Gadekar et al's study was limited to the students of a particular educational institute. Maniar and Disawala's study was also limited to a small group. There is a strong need to conduct a large scale study to understand what gratifications Indian users seek from using Facebook.

Discussion
Most of the studies focused on identifying the gratifications of Facebook. Some of them tried to explore the relationship between gratifications and other constructs. One of them investigated the difference between male and female users. Target audience of these studies was youth, especially students, as they form the major chunk of Facebook use in the world.