the social networking website. After analyzing her date, Sheldon found maintenance of
relationships and passing time were the motives for facebook usage that scored highest.
When she compared motives for employing facebook and unwillingness‐to‐communicate,
the author found students who did not enjoy or felt anxiety about face‐to‐face interaction
used facebook to pass time and feel less lonely but were far less likely to believe online
communication would aid them in making new friends. Finally, Sheldon looked at the
correlation between unwillingness‐to‐communicate and the amount of time spent on
facebook as well as attitudes towards it. Her data suggested that students who engage less
in personal social interaction have fewer facebook friends but logged on to facebook more.
The res
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ults of this research appear to support the rich get richer hypothesis.