Suhtlusportaalide kasutajaeelistuste muutumine Orkuti ja Facebooki näitel

Date

2010

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Tartu Ülikool

Abstract

Description

Changes in the User Preferences. The Case of Social Networking Sites Orkut and Facebook. This bachelor’s thesis focused on analyzing individuals’ reasons for becoming users of social networking sites (SNS-s) and motives that influenced them to give up the active use of the SNS Orkut in favour of Facebook. Research data was gathered by interviewing 12 young Estonians aged 20-22. The information gained from these interviews enabled to draw quite solid conclusions applying to the given research sample. Firstly, it became clear that similarly to previous research, mainly friends who already had created themselves profiles on a SNS and with whom the interviewees wished to communicate and thereby preserve social connections, were the most important sources of motivation for becoming users of a SNS. This can also be explained by the fact that through various activities on SNS-s users get an opportunity to satisfy their need to belong while gaining social acceptance. Estimably, the time spent browsing social networks online can be measured in hours per week which, considering modern conditions and the characteristics of SNS-s, is quite anticipated. The time dedicated to activities on SNS-s varies among respondents for the reason that these online environments provide a number of activities to engage in and not everyone’s user practices are alike. However, most of the activities of young people who participated in this study are connected with Facebook’s News Feed. Two main aspects were observed while analyzing interviewees’ reasons for giving up the active use of Orkut in favour of Facebook. One of these focused on the respondents’ motives for creating user accounts in Facebook and the other looked at reasons why they retained this membership. The main influences that drove the interviewees towards becoming Facebook users, again, came from friends who had already registered user accounts in the SNS. Contacts from abroad play an important role here for they were the significant others with whom many respondents wished to preserve connections but had no alternatives to Facebook for fulfilling that wish. There were many reasons why interviewees started to prefer Facebook to Orkut, among which the highest importance lies on the fact that they simply outgrew the latter. Facebook turned out to be more credible and reliable as a SNS, reflecting life outside the online environment more accurately and providing users with new and diverse information quickly thanks to its user interface. In addition, there were no motives for continuing the active use of Orkut because Facebook met users’ expectations on a higher level and, at the same time, all of the important connections were there. The author proposed that one area of future research on processes connected with SNS-s should be about internet marketing. Considering the fact that Facebook offers excellent conditions for advertising products or services and promoting events and causes and noting that by the completion of the thesis about a sixth of Estonians had user profiles on Facebook, its potential as a marketing environment should be looked into in depth and the knowledge gained used for the good of society, e.g. to attract more citizens to participate in public discussions. Also, since Facebook is the environment with the largest amount of Estonians and Estonian organisations ever recorded as users of a SNS, further research is needed to map and understand the online practices of these newly emerged Facebook users.

Keywords

bakalaureusetööd, infoühiskond, internet, sotsiaalsed suhted, võrgusuhtlus, sotsiaalsed võrgustikud, Eesti

Citation