Liking and commenting on Facebook – what
are the reasons?
Thomas Andersson
Halmstad University, SWEDEN
E-mail: thoand14@hh.se

ABSTRACT: This study began by stating that one of the biggest social networking sites,
Facebook, gets widely used by people for communication and to look for information. By liking
and commenting posts you can communicate what you think and spread content. What is it thenthat drives us to use these tools? What are the reasons to like and comment Facebook posts? To
find out a quantitative study was conducted. A questionnaire survey with four statements thatwas based on earlier studies of Facebook usages was posted on Facebook and 241 Facebook
users responded. The statements were: “I like or comment posts that provide useful
information”, “I like or comment posts that are entertaining”, “I like or comment posts tostrengthen the relationship with the person who posted it” and “I like or comment posts so theperson who posted the post then hopefully will like or comment on my posts”. The findings werethat from these four statements, entertainment was the greatest reason for Facebook users tolike and comment posts. This was followed by strengthening of relationships and posts withusable information, but both relationships and information were not so strong reasons. Lastly
to like and comment posts to get own likes and comments was rejected as a reason to like andcomments Facebook posts. The implication of this study is that companies should use
entertainment
to
get
more
likes
and
comments
on
theirposts.
KEYWORDS: Facebook, like and comment, entertainment, relationships, information,
attention
1. Introduction
Social networking sites offers a way forpeople to us computers for communicationand to search for information (Lee & Lee,2017 and Powell, 2009). These sites allow
users to create a profile from which they caninteract with other users (Powell, 2009).
Social networking sites are growing rapidly
and Facebook is one of the biggest sites wehave (Ellison, Steinfield & Lampe, 2007,
Pempek, Yermolayeva & Yermolayeva,
2009 and Powell, 2009). Social networking
sites have become a valued tool forcommunication in many people’s daily life
(Ellison et al., 2007 and Powell, 2009).
With Facebook, users can communicate
through posts and messages (Pempek et al.,2009). Posts can also be “liked” and“commented”.
The like button is a tool where the user canshow that they like, enjoy or support theposted content. Friends of a user can see
what content a user likes and the more likes
a post get the higher up in the news feed itwill show. The total number of likes will
also be seen on the post and sometimes it is1possible to see the names of users who has
liked the content. Facebooks description of
likes is that it’s a way for users to give
positive feedback and connect with things
that the user care about (Facebook, 2016
and Wikipedia, 2016)1.
Comments are a type of user-generated
content which means that it’s content which
has been created by users. Comments hasvery much the same function as likes,
though with comments a user can use words
to express more of his or her feelings, both
positive and negative. Comments can also
be used to bring other users to certain
content (Wikipedia, 2016)2.
As stated above, likes and comments aretools that can be used for communication on
Facebook. Mostly to show others what you
enjoy or to show appreciation, by likes, orby giving your opinion about something, bycomments. As we have seen comments canalso be used to spread content by referringsomeone to it. What is it then that makes
people use these tools? What drives users tolike and comment posts on Facebook? How
do individuals benefit? Is there somethingthat motivates us to do it or do we evenconsider it as something beneficial?
An understanding of people’s activity on
Facebook is important for today’scompanies (Hansson, Wrangmo and Søilen,2013). Today, social networking sites is an
important communications tool for many
companies (Hansson et al., 2013). Manycompanies
use
Facebookasanadvertisement tool and if you understandwhat will give your company’s posts more
likes and comments, you can use thisknowledge to increase the activity of your1

The source is a wiki and must be interpreted
carefully.

posts and hence increase the changes ofyour company to get awareness on
Facebook (Hansson et al., 2013).
2. Theory
According to Park, Kee & Valenzuela(2009) are there four reasons for using
Facebook: socializing, entertainment, selfstatus seeking, and information seeking.
Park
&
Lee
(2014) foundthatentertainment, relationship maintenance,
self-expression, and communication are
main reasons for using Facebook. Park et al.
(2014) also states that entertainment
motivation is the greatest. Nadkarni &Hofmann (2012) proposed that Facebook
use derived from to two basic social needs:(1) the need to belong and (2) the need for
self-presentation.
According to a study by Lee et al. (2017)
convenient
relationship,
information
motives and entertainment motives arehighly rated by Facebook users. Facebook
users have a high percentage of humor andgossip posts and are likely to use“comment” or “like” to show appreciation
to these posts (Lee et al., 2017). Facebook
also provides a well-functioning area forexchange of information and opinions (Leeet al., 2017).
According to Błachnioa, Przepiorkaa, &Rudnickab (2016) low level of self-esteem
and a high level of narcissism can serve as
predictors of a high level of Facebook use.
Narcissism can predict four different
aspects of Facebook use, namely: Facebook
personal
importance,
instrumental
Facebook use, social Facebook use, andFacebook intensity (Błachnioa et al., 2016).

2

The source is a wiki and must be interpreted
carefully.

2

High level of narcissism makes people moreengaged in Facebook and gives them a hardtime imagine life without it (Błachnioa etal., 2016). Using Facebook gives people
with a high level of narcissism a way tostick out and enjoy a higher social status(Błachnioa et al., 2016). For people with ahigh level of narcissism Facebook gets used
more often for both social and instrumental
purposes (Błachnioa et al., 2016).
According to Błachnioa et al. (2016)
narcissism is also linked with Facebook
self-promotion. Furthermore Błachnioa etal. (2016) says that those who have a highself-esteem are not in need of attention on
Facebook and they may not attach muchweight to using it and to being active or
popular there. People with high self-esteem
rather use Facebook as a tool at work or for
educational purposes (Błachnioa et al.,2016). Conversely, for people with a low
level of self-esteem Facebook activity is atool for improving self-image (Błachnioa etal., 2016).
According to Teo, Lim & Lai (1999) two
main factors for Internet usage are,perceived usefulness and perceived
enjoyment. Teo et al. (1999) emphasizes
that it’s important for individuals andcompanies to keep their web pages updated
to keep them useful and interesting forInternet users.
Perceived enjoyment and perceived ease ofuse are strong determinants of intention touse a pleasure-giving information system(van der Heijden, 2004). It is also stated thatwhen the information is more functional,
the pleasure-giving factors are still
important (van der Heijden, 2004). Van der
Heijden (2004) suggest that pleasure-giving
values (perceived enjoyment and perceived
ease of use) plays an essential role toincrease
acceptanceinformation.

offunctional

Enjoyment is according to Kuan-Yu & HsiPeng (2011) the most important factor
affecting the behavior of social networking
sites users. Users want social networking
sites to make them and their friends feelinterested and have fun. Kuan-Yu et al.
(2011) also points out that a greater numberof people reinforce the enjoyment of social
networking sites. Users appreciate theopportunity to meet new people, whereby
they can expand their social network (KuanYu et al., 2011).
Social networking sites help people tomaintain relations (Ellison et al., 2007).
Facebook users mostly interact with people
whom they also interact with offline(Ellison et al., 2007). Online activity can beused to support relationships even when life
is changing (Ellison et al., 2007).
A brief summary of the theory that has beenpresented concludes that there are four main
reasons for people to use Facebook,
namely: To find and share useful
information (Błachnioa et al., 2016, Lee etal., 2017, Park et al., 2009 and Park & Lee,2014). To find and share joyful
entertainment (Kuan-Yu et al., 2011, Lee etal., 2017, Park et al., 2009, Park & Lee,2014, Teo et al., 1999 and van der Heijden,
2004). To maintain and strengthen
relationships (Ellison et al., 2007, Kuan-Yu
et al., 2011, Lee et al., 2017, Park et al.,2009 and Park & Lee, 2014). To express
oneself and to be seen by others mainly
because of the need of attention (Błachnioa
et al., 2016, Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012
and Park et al., 2009). These four reasons
will be the premises underlying the study
and will form the basis for further research.
33. Method
The introduction and theory has beendeveloped as secondary research. The main
source of information has been scientificarticles that has been found through the
database summon. Other secondary sources
have been webpages found through google
and scientific literature and articles foundfrom the reference list of other scientificarticles. The secondary research has been
made to develop a background for the
primary research.
What has been found through the secondary
research are that there are four main reasonsfor people to use Facebook: Information,entertainment, relationships and attention.
These premises underlies the further
research and the study has furthermore
made a questionnaire survey based on these,
to bring greater understanding to whatmakes Facebook users like and comment
posts. Which of these four reasons for using
Facebook gives reason for users to like andcomment posts?
The primary data for identifying what it isthat makes Facebook users like andcomment posts has been developed througha quantitative research. Google forms has
been used for developing a questionnaire
survey which has been posted on Facebook.
Google forms has been used because it lets
the user collect over 200 responses which
was needed for this study. There were no
notable problems with using Google Forms,
all the features needed for the survey wereavailable. The survey was posted on
Facebook for the simple reason that it’s
where you’ll find the greatest access toFacebook users, which is the survey unit.
Facebook is also a convenient channel torapidly find many respondents and that wasneeded because the study was made undertime pressure. A risk with using Facebook
is that it is difficult to control who responds.
However, Google forms enables you tocheck the answers afterwards and there
were no signs of dubious answers.
To get as wide spread of respondents as
possible, the survey was shared by peopleof different ages and gender in different
parts of Sweden. A limitation of the study isthat it's mainly Swedes that has answered.
Another limitation was that it was mostly
young adults who answered. The mostcommon age demographic on Facebook are
although young adults with about 30 % of
the user accounts (Zephoria, 2016).
Therefore their opinion weighs heavily. The
theoretical population for the survey has
therefore been Facebook users from
Sweden, from both gender and in all ages
but mostly young adults. Young adults havebecome a focus because, as stated above,
they represents the majority of Facebook
users. The population was chosen to get a
representation of the general opinion fromthe majority of Swedish Facebook users.
The survey was designed with fourstatements which were answered through a
Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5
(strongly
agree).
Eachstatement
represented one each of the four premises
and the respondent got to choose fromstrongly disagreeing to strongly agreeing
the statements. The survey was made in
Swedish but the statements has beentranslated to English when presented in thisstudy.
One question per premise was used to get as
few questions as possible and this was
mainly for practical reasons, again becauseof time pressure. With fewer question more4

people will probably answer. There wasalso some scientific meaning to this because
fewer questions makes it easier to analyze.
However, one question per premise made so
the statements had to be very extensive. The
downside to this is that the study doesn’t
have so much depth to rely on from thesurvey. If the survey would be made again
with more time to make us of it would besmart to use at least two questions about
each premise with different wording andfocus, to increase understanding andreliability in the study. However, theresponses from this survey were goodenough for drawing some simple
conclusions.

3. Empirical data
A total of 241 people answered the survey.
It was evenly distributed between thegender with 122 (50, 6%) males and 119(49, 4%) females. The age distribution werea bit overrepresented of people between theages of 18 to 27 (78 %). When drawing
conclusions from this material one therefore
have to be careful. However the range of theintervals were quite wide.
Ages
68-

1

58-67

2

48-57

The responses from the survey have beenassembled and analyzed separately for eachstatement. These results have furthermore
been compared to the theory underlying
each statement and then evaluated formaking conclusions about each reasons
influence on making Facebook users like orcomment posts.

38-47

15
6

28-37

24

18-27
-17

190
3

Furthermore the result from the survey will
be presented separately for each of the fourstatements.

5

Statement 1

Statement 2“I like or comment posts that provide
useful information”“I like or comment posts that areentertaining”
93

68
54

59
61

35

42
25

Strongly
disagreeDisagree

NeutralAgree

Strongly
agree

The result from this statement suggest that
there is a variation for liking or commenting
posts that provide useful information. Most
people (93) agrees on seeing this as amotivator to like or comment posts but
almost as many (89) disagrees. There is also
a great number of people (59) who stays
neutral to this statement. The different
genders were quite similar in their varying
view of this. People in different ages also
seemed to have a quite similar, variatedview. The mean value is 2, 98 and the
median is 3.

21

24

Strongly
disagreeDisagree

NeutralAgree

Strongly
agree

According to the results from this statement
entertainment is a great motivator for
Facebook users to like or comment posts.
This goes for both genders and all ages. The
mean value is 3, 62 and the median is 4.

6

Statement 3

Statement 4“I like or comment posts to strengthen therelationship with the person who posted it”“I like or comment posts so the person who
posted the post then hopefully will like orcomment on my posts”

75
116
42

45

45

34
50
34

29
12

Strongly
disagreeDisagree

NeutralAgree

Strongly
agree

According to the results from this statement
most people (120) agrees on liking orcommenting posts to strengthen therelationship with the person who posted it.
This seems to be more common amongfemales rather than among males, but somemen also have a positive view to thisstatement. People in different ages have asimilar view. The mean value is 3, 23 andthe median is 3.

Strongly
disagreeDisagree

NeutralAgree

Strongly
agree

According to the results from this statement
it’s a weak reason for Facebook users to likeor comment posts to get own likes orcomments. This view is shared for bothgenders and all ages. The mean value is 2
and the median is 2.

7

4. Analysis
According to the results from the survey,
entertainment is the greatest reason for
Facebook users to like or comment posts.
This goes in line with the theory underlying
this study. Park et al. (2014) states thatentertainment is the main reason for using
Facebook. Van der Heijden (2004) suggestthat perceived enjoyment plays an essential
role to increase acceptance of functional
information,
which
means
that
entertainment affects more than just posts
that are supposed to entertain and therefore
becomes an even greater reason. According
to Lee et al. (2017) Facebook contains ahigh percentage of humorous posts, andusers are likely to comment or like to show
appreciation to these posts. This states boththat Facebook users sees a lot ofentertainment posts, which makes themmore likely to get attention, and also that
Facebook users are likely to like orcomment them. Also Kuan-Yu & Hsi-Peng(2011) states that the most important factor
affecting the behavior of social networking
site users is enjoyment which should meanthat Facebook users are likely to like orcomment entertainment posts.
To strengthen relationships was the second
greatest reason for Facebook users to like orcomment posts (according to the resultsfrom the survey). This reason, however,
was from the whole viewed more as aneutral motivator, with a mean value of 3,
23. Based on this result it’s therefore notsignificant that this is a strong reason for
Facebook users to like or comment posts.
However, there are more Facebook users
who see it as a reason (120) than there are
who doesn't (76). Ellison et al. (2007) andPark et al. (2014) emphasizes that people
use Facebook to maintain relationships.

That is to say that relationships are a reason
for using Facebook but not necessarily tostrengthen relationships, but rather tomaintain them.
There were, according to the results fromthe survey, mixed views from Facebook
users about liking or commenting posts thatprovides useful information. On seeing thisas a motivator to like or comment posts
almost as many agreed (93) as disagreed(89). There were also a great number ofneutral Facebook users (59). This is also inline with the theory that the study is basedon. Błachnioa et al. (2016), Lee et al.
(2017), Park et al. (2009) and Park et al.
(2014) all mention information as a reason
for using Facebook. To seek information, tocommunicate information, or to educate
oneself. However, nobody is claiming thatit’s the strongest reason, which is reflectedin the survey results. It is seen as a reason
for some but the general view is neutral.
Lastly, to like or comment posts to get own
likes and comments, was according to theresults from the survey, not seen as a reason
for Facebook users to like and comment
posts. 166 Facebook users disagreed andonly 41 agreed. However, this can be adifficult question to answer, and some may
not want to admit this behavior forthemselves or are not even aware of it. The
behavior to get attention can also play out indifferent ways and this is not necessarily themost common way. Because the theory
from the study says that it is a reason forusing Facebook. Park et al. (2009) claims
that self-status seeking is a main reason forusing Facebook. Park et al. (2014) alsoemphasizes self-expression as a reason forusing Facebook. Nadkarni & Hofmann(2012) proposes that people us Facebook
because of the need to belong and the need8for self-presentation. According to
Błachnioa et al. (2016) narcissism is linked
with Facebook self-promotion. Facebook
gives people with a high level of narcissism
a way to stick out and enjoy a higher social
status (Błachnioa et al., 2016). Błachnioa etal. (2016) also claim that people with a low
level of self-esteem use Facebook as a toolfor improving self-image. However, theresults of the survey must be accepted andthis can therefore not be seen as a reason for
Facebook users to like or comment posts.
The results from this study indicates thatage dosent affect the use of likes andcomments, but there is not enoughrespondents in this survey to conclude this,so when making conclusions from thismaterial one therefore have to be careful
making generalizations.
5. Conclusion
The findings from this study is thatentertainment is the greatest reason for
Facebook users to like and comment posts.
This is also supported by previous studies
on the use of Facebook. There is also some
support that Facebook users like andcomment posts to keep relationships but notnecessarily to strengthen relationships.
Some see useful information as a reason tolike and comment posts, but about as many
doesn't see it as a reason. The reason thatdefinitely doesn't seem to be a motivator tolike and comment posts is to get your own
likes and comments. That is to say that toget attention is the weakest motivator ofthese four, but this is also a difficult
question to get truthful answers from.

6. Implications
Companies could use this knowledge bymaking their Facebook posts moreentertaining. Funny and humorous posts
will attract the most likes and comments andwill therefore bring most attention to thecompany. It could, for instance, be a goodidea to also do informative posts funny. To
make post that users can comment to sharewith their friends can also be a good idea.
Because it gives them an opportunity tostrengthen relationships. This is also
something that we see. Many posts on
Facebook today is all about spreading fun
things with friends by tagging them withcomments. For instance: “comment threefriends that has to see this” *a funny post*.
7. Future studies
With a better understanding to what it is thatmakes people like and comment on
Facebook, future studies could be about
why this makes people like and comment.
We understand that people like posts thatthey find entertaining, but why do they wantentertaining posts? To understand why
could bring even greater understanding to
the activity on social networking sites.
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