majority of elderly subjects indicated needs towards online social networking mostly relating
to social searching behavior on SNS confirming earlier findings that the direction of SNS use
is typically from offline to online. Main concerns expressed about data security and privacy
on contemporary SNS may be explained by incomprehension and complexity of settings. Exploratory
findings are summarized to a classification scheme of elderly SNS users. The thesis
further identified social connectedness and social support as two relevant psychological notions
in online social networking that are positively associated with each other and positively
related to an individual’s social capital, and potentially enhance subjective well-being of SNS
users. Findings further suggest that frequency of use has a positive moderating effect on the
relationships between social support, social connectedness, and social capital in online social
networking. However, such an effect cannot be demonstrated for network size. Evidence and
theoretical insights resulted in compilation of 14 social design principles that support developers
of social systems in appropriate design decisions and thinking, and expand currently
available descriptions such as the Facebook Social Design Guidelines.