Understanding Members´ Attachment to Social Networking Sites: An Empirical Investigation of Three Theories

Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are pervasive phenomena in today´s society. With greater connectivity and interactivity enabled through emerging technologies, SNSs provide communication platforms for individuals to bridge spatial and temporal differences when making friends, sharing experiences, socializing with others and much more. This study therefore endeavors to shed light on this growing trend by decomposing members´ motives for participating within SNSs into identity-based, bond-based and comparison-based attachments. Each of these forms of attachment in turn affects members´ cooperative and competitive mentality towards others within SNSs. We further construct a theoretical model of members´ communal attachments within SNSs that is then empirically validated via an online survey of 787 active members of SNSs. Empirical findings suggest that members´ communal attachments play an instrumental role in sustaining their continued participation within SNSs.