Aspirations and Motivations for Facebook Use Through Sem Modeling
Authors: Uszak Nicolas , Szalma James 
Published: September 2018

Facebook is one of the most pervasive social networking sites in the world. Growing out of a humble Harvard cataloging project, Facebook has over 2 billion monthly active users (Facebook Newsroom, 2017). This paper will explore the motivations for such widespread use of this technology. The study of Facebook user motivations is not a new endeavor (E.g. Quan-Haase & Young, 2010; Knowles, Haycock, and Shaikh, 2015; Kross et al.,2013). Generally, there seems to be a consensus that Facebook is able to provide a social outlet and platform of potential connection for users. However, these explicit self-reported motives beg the question of what are the underlying implicit needs or desires driving the action of joining Facebook? What do people actually get out of maintaining a digital presence there?

Uses and Gratifications Theory (U&G) considers how people benefit from mass communication (Katz, Blumer, & Gurevitch (1974). Contrary to early theories where users were just passive consumers of whatever a particular media put in front of them, Quan-Haase & Young, 2010 found six factors of Facebook use gratifications; these factors were pastime, affection, fashion, share problems, sociability, and social information. Self-Determination Theory (SD-Theory) is a meta-framework for defining and classifying different types of motivations in relation to individual differences and social context (Deci & Ryan,1985, 2000). SD-Theory postulates that evolutionarily, humans have three basic psychological needs. According to this view, we have the need for competency, autonomy, and relatedness. Besides psychological needs, another measured component of SD-Theory is life goals, also known as aspirations (Kasser & Ryan, 1993;1996).

Aspirations are life goals one has, based on the values one holds; and are normally divided into two categories. Intrinsic aspirations (IA) are such things as meaningful relationships, individual growth, and community contributions. Extrinsic aspirations (EA) encompass wealth, fame, and image; they are beholden to the judgements of other people and tend to be more of a hoop to jump through rather than an end goal (Kasser & Ryan, 1996).

The Two-Process Model (TPM) ties Self-Determination Theory together with personal goal and motive disposition constructs (Sheldon & Schüler, 2011). According to TPM all humans have basic needs, but there will be individual differences in motives. A weak experience of competency, autonomy, or/and relatedness (i.e., strong need requirements) was found to provoke motivation to improve the situation (Sheldon and Gunz, 2009). Sheldon, Abad, and Hinsch (2011) built upon these findings by measuring connection and disconnection in Facebook use. The purpose for this study was to investigate whether different types of aspirations (intrinsic or extrinsic) predicted connection and disconnection, and whether Facebook motives mediate this relationship.

Participants were 424 college students from a large university in central Florida. Participant gender is 255 female and 167 male, with two not indicating a gender. Participants age range was from 18 to 59 (M=20.8, SD=4.9) years. Three surveys were administered through an online Qualtrics system.

Surveys measured aspirations, social connection, and Facebook use. Structural equation modeling analysis was then conducted to produce several models.

Direct effects were found between EA and connectedness, as well as IA and connectedness. IA and EA were both shown to predict Facebook motives. However, Facebook motives were found not to mediate the relationship between aspirations and connectedness.