Facebook use. We asked participants a series of questions about their use of Facebook including the number of months they have had a Facebook account, average number of minutes they spend on Facebook per day, and the number of Facebook ‘‘friends’’ they currently have. Information disclosure on Facebook. We assessed participants’ level of information disclosure on Facebook using one-item: ‘‘How likely are you to disclose personal information on Facebook?’’ This item was rated on a 7-point scale from very
unlikely to very likely. Using a similar scale, we also asked 15 questions about how likely they are to share certain types of photos (a ¼ .88). Finally, we asked 13 yes/no questions about the various pieces of information people have shared on Facebook (e.g., their relationship status, religion, interests, and other profile elements; KR[Kuder-Richardson]¼ .70). Information control on Facebook. We assessed the extent to which participants limited the information they posted on Facebook and used the privacy setting using a 7-item scale that has been used previously for this purpose (Christofides et al., 2009). The items include, ‘‘How likely are you to change who can see your profile (e.g., only your friends)?’’ and were rated on a 7-point scale from very unlikely to very likely. The scale was found to be reliable for adolescents (a ¼ .81) and adults (a ¼ .82). Self-esteem. We measured self-esteem using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (as used by Ellison, Steinfeld, & Lampe, 2007). Participants rated the extent to which they agree or disagree with a series of statements such as, ‘‘I feel that I have a number of good qualities.’’ This was deemed to be a reliable measure in both samples (a¼ .80 for adolescents, a¼ .87 for adults).