Module II 500 Word Blog

I read the article written by John Raacke, Ph.D. and Jennifer Bonds-Raacke, Ph.D. entitled "MySpace and Facebook: Applying the Uses and Gratifications Theory to Exploring Friend-Networking Sites." It explores the functions of social networking sites for both male and female college students. Why people use them, who uses them, and what gratifications are met for their users. The Raackes found that most college students use these sites to make new friends and catch up with old ones. They found very little variation in the amount of or reason for use between males and females along with different ethnic groups. Also, they found that women engage in online communication mostly to maintain contact with family, friends, and coworkers, while men use it for pursuing sexual interests and romance. In another article, I read that men are less likely than women to mention their significant others in their profiles on social networking sites; I think these two statistics are related.
Young people are more comfortable than older people with using social networking sites. MySpace and Facebook have millions of users, most of whom are young college students. More people register for these sites every day, and the reasons why were included in the Raackes’ study. People take advantage of the free networking opportunities to advertise businesses as well as their own personal profiles. The social well-being of more frequent visitors of the sites proved to be impacted greatly by what they read on them, mostly things posted by their friends and acquaintances. A majority of college students surveyed receive gratification as a result of keeping in touch with old friends and current friends, while only a small percentage of students feel gratification from academic purposes and dating purposes.
The Raackes also surveyed the students who did not use social networking sites. Some of the main reasons they listed of their non-use were that they have no desire, are busy, don’t have time, and think it’s stupid. Smaller percentages of those people say they don’t want to keep in touch, are loners, don’t want to conform, aren’t cool, don’t have any friends, feel intimidated, and finally that they think other people wouldn’t be interested in their profiles.