The Facebook Paths to Happiness: Effects of the Number of Facebook Friends and Self-Presentation on Subjective Well-Being

“First, unlike past studies that included the number of Facebook friends as part of the index of Facebook use (e.g., Ellison et al. 4 and Valenzuela et al. 5 ), we investigated its independent contribution.”

“Meanwhile, Kim and Lee (43) suggested that honest self-disclosure positively affects the likelihood of receiving social support.”

“Social support on SNSs is important because it is associated with positive effects above and beyond those of offline social support, such as increased subjective wellbeing, reduced stress, and improved physical health (Kim & Lee, 2011; Nabi, Prestin, & So, 2013).”

“A positive association was also found between the number of Facebook friends and subjective well-being (Ellison et al., 2007, 2011; Kim & Lee, 2011; Steinfield, Ellison & Lampe, 2008).”

“However, Kim and Lee demonstrated that the number of Facebook friends has an inverse U-shaped relationship with subjective well-being [50], which emphasizes the importance of devoting sufficient time to the development of connections with real-world friends.”

“The same results have also been echoed by Kim and Lee [54] who established that social support from the online community enhances the well-being of individuals.”

“…2010; Wang, 2013), gender differences (e.g., Fox & Rooney, 2015; Siibak, 2009), cultural differences in impression management (e.g., Chen & Marcus, 2012; Rui & Stefanone, 2013), and consequences of different impression management strategies (e.g., Kim & Lee, 2011; Strano, 2008; Toma, 2013).”

“Much of the extant research examines social competence or self-presentation on Facebook in general (e.g., Chen & Marcus, 2012; Kim & Lee, 2011; Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011).”

“Studies conducted on Facebook, the most popular SNS, with over 1.3 billion monthly users as of March 2014 (Key Facts – Facebook Newsroom), and site of the present research, have confirmed that social network size contributes to well-being (Kim & Lee, 2011).”

“Facebook users are more likely to provide online support to others who are in need of help or support (Kim & Lee, 2011), and the number of Facebook friends in particular is found to play an important role in predicting perceived social support, especially for people who face many stresses in life…”

“Emotions were measured based upon the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) developed by Watson, Clark and Tellegen [26] positive emotions and negative emotions were measured using 13-items.”

“In a sample of college students, Kim and Lee (2011) found that the number of Facebook friends is positively correlated with the subjective perception of well-being and argued that social communication through social media would be beneficial to individuals because of the social support received and…”

“In fact, some of the most recent studies on social networks show that the number of online contacts correlates with a greater subjective feeling of well-being in young people users of the Internet (Kim and Lee, 2011).”

“self-disclosure and online exchanges with others), with the association potentially being causal (Frison and Eggermont, 2016; Frison and Eggermont, 2017; Kim and Lee 2011; Shaw et al., 2015; Verduyn et al., 2015; Verduyn et al., 2017; Wang 2013; Wenninger et al., 2014).”

“While its opposite side- cyber-inclusion, would bring positive emotions, including happiness.(11,27) According to the”

“The present research refers to a negative aspect of SNS use, but other studies assert that the use of social resources through SNSs can improve user well-being [59,60].”

“For example, recent studies have reported that positive self-presentation leads to higher subjective well-being on social networking sites (SNSs) 9 or a greater chance to succeed in online dating on online dating Web sites.”

“The number of contacts on Facebook has, for example, been associated with decreased loneliness (Kim and Lee, 2011; Phu and Gow, 2019).”

“Kim and Lee (2011) found that positive self-presentation had a direct positive effect on subjective well-being, whereas honest self-presentation had an indirect positive effect on subjective well-being via perceived social support.”

“Although the number limit might be different in an SNS context, beyond a certain number additional friends are associated with decreasing subjective well-being [46].”

“In addition to online time and frequency of SNS usage, some studies have focused on the SNS network size (i.e., number of SNS friends) and identified a positive correlation with subjective well-being (Kim & Lee, 2011; for further discussions, see Lönnqvist & Itkonen, 2014).”

“Considering the wide range of physical and psychological benefits associated with social support, such as happiness, life satisfaction, better coping ability, and lower rates of disease, 15,20–22 ,”

“Overall, there is a positive association between the number of people's Facebook friends and subjective well-being (Kim & Lee, 2011).”

“Since it has been reported that college-going users constitues a vast majority of SNS users [25], many studies have investigated the motivations for using SNS winthin the college sector.”

“It is thought that dealing with online social networking can lead to positive outcomes like life satisfaction (Burke et al., 2010; Ellison et al., 2007; Kim & Lee, 2011; Steinfield, Ellison & Lampe, 2008; Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009).”

“For that purpose, influence metrics are pivotal: the likes, comments, shares, and views are markers of popularity, sociability, likeability, approval, and acceptance (Kim & Lee, 2011; Vitak & Ellison, 2013; Vogel et al., 2014).”

“…not always negative, as demonstrated by drops in loneliness and increases in life-satisfaction (Baker & Algorta, 2016; Seabrook et al., 2016) and also not linear, as evident by negative curvilinear associations between the number of Facebook friends and perceived social support (Kim & Lee, 2011).”

“First, compared with offline self-expressive action, online self-expressive action enables individuals to obtain praise and exchange information [35].”

“Based on these previous findings, Verduyn et al. (2017) proposed a path to subjective well-being via social capital/connectedness from active SNS use, and this indirect relationship has been supported by several studies (Frison & Eggermont, 2015; J. Kim & Lee, 2011; Lin et al., 2020).”

“Some studies have indicated a positive relationship between social media and mental health [22,23].”

“The findings confirm previous studies done by other researchers, such as Kim and Lee (2011), Akbulut and Günüç (2012), and DeAndrea, Ellison, LaRose, Steinfield, and Fiore (2012).”

“, friends in the offline world [11,14].”

“Collectively, engaging in social media can bring about improved psychological well-being and life satisfaction (Kim & Lee, 2011; Valenzuela et al., 2009) as well as reduced stress via perceived social support (Marciano et al., 2022; Nabi et al., 2013).”

“Given that social support is a vital source of happiness, and related to improved well-being (Haber et al., 2007), positive feedback, a more specific type of social support, provided by one’s online friends such as likes and comments may also positively contribute to the individual’s happiness and SWB (Kim & Lee, 2011…”

“Some research has focused more specifically on the impact of SNS (Brandtzæg, 2012; Elli-son et al., 2007; Kim and Lee, 2011).”

“…site use and self-esteem, with published results suggesting negative (Hill, 2014; Kalpidou, Costin, & Morris, 2011; Niera & Barber, 2014), positive (Kim & Lee, 2011; Steinfield et al., 2008; Valkenburg et al., 2006), and null relationships (Skues et al., 2012) Existing literature has, to a lesser…”

“Also, an earlier study has shown that social bonding is a source of happiness (J. Kim & Lee, 2011; Sharif et al., 2021).”

“For example, active SNS use is often associated with increased life satisfaction (Kim and Lee, 2011) and decreased negative feelings (Fardouly et al., 2015).”

“Huang (2016) concludes that online self-disclosure has beneficial effects for social support and social well-being; this is supported by other research demonstrating that the effect is particularly strong for accurate self-disclosure (Kim and Lee, 2011).”

“These sites are hailed as technologies for self-presentation, affording the user a plethora of tools to create and maintain online personas.(2,3,4) With increasing diversity in Facebook consumers’ ages and backgrounds, users are likely to ‘befriend’ a variety of people on Facebook (e.”

“There is empirical support for the interpersonal-connection-behaviors framework (Ahn & Shin, 2013; Al-Saggaf & Nielsen, 2014; Clark et al., 2018; Gonzales, 2014; Kietzmann et al., 2011; Kim & Lee, 2010).”

“…selfpresentation strategies were found to be positively related to the maintenance of psychological well-being (Swickert et al., 2002; Kim and Lee, 2011; Ellison et al., 2014; Stieger, 2019), and in order to obtain more social support, people need to keep a balance between the use of…”

“In addition, SNS games can take advantage of SNS platform technology a ff ordances to bring highly socially self-presentation desires (Kim and Lee 2011).”

“This biased scanning helps people maintain a positive self-image and promotes well-being, especially in the face of stress and challenges [56,57].”

“For example, individuals freely disclose depression, stress, and anxiety through online communication and experience subjective well-being (e.g., Huan, 2016; Kim & Lee, 2011; Ko & Kuo, 2009; Lee et al., 2011; Schiffrin et al., 2010).”

“…ties, self-presentation, investigation of other users’ profiles and activation of meta-communication forms (Lee et al., 2013; Bryant et al., 2011; Kim and Lee, 2011; Pempek et al., 2009; Bargh and McKenna, 2004), while enabling both expression of identity at individual level and community…”

“Evidence exists regarding the linkage between social belonging and SWB in both offline and online contexts.(18,19,27,38) Recent evidence is also available on the buffering effects of social belonging in an online context.”

“Furthermore, if teenagers felt a sense of closeness and when people use Facebook for positive self-presentation, it can boost subjective wellbeing in some areas (Kim & Lee, 2011).”

“That is, people’s positive illusions of themselves can increase levels of positive feelings such as subjective well-being (J. Kim & Lee, 2011) and happiness (S. E. Taylor & Brown, 1988).”

“There are also studies that have hypothesized the relationship between Facebook friends and social well-being (Kim & Lee, 2011).”

“…satisfaction theory (Liu et al., 2016), adolescents dissatisfied with their real-world appearance might seek satisfaction in the virtual realm, selectively presenting positive aspects to create a desired image on social networking sites and garner approval (Kim and Lee, 2011; Abbasi et al., 2021).”

“Kim and Lee ( 2011) suggest that honest self-representation increases SWB via increased perceived social support of Facebook friends.”

“While some research emphasizes the positive effect of social support perceived on social platforms such as Facebook (e.g., Kim & Lee, 2011; Nabi et al., 2013; Verduyn et al., 2017), other studies describe SMU to foster stress, depression, and anxiety symptoms, as well as addictive tendencies (e.g.,…”