Investigating trust in information and impression management of students on Facebook

Abstract

The growth of social networking sites in the last few years has changed the pattern of its utility thereby providing yet another new social phenomenon. Of particular interest is the intention of recruiting managers to use social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace to conduct background checks on prospective job candidates. Also, school authorities and law enforcement officials have occasionally used evidence gleaned from a user's Facebook account to trace or confirm evidence of criminal activities. This research contributes to the existing literature by extending existing theory that integrates the theoretical framework of digital impression management with trust in the accuracy of digital information using nine independent variables: visibility indicator, SNS information currency, visibility awareness, technology awareness, impression motivation, SNS information quality, information objectivity, information relevance, and SNS information trustworthiness to predict a dependent variable, impression construction. The authors developed the proposed model based on the existing literature. Using Impression Management Theory, and Trust in Digital Information Theory, this work posits a framework that describes how user behavior is related to visibility awareness, trust in a social networking site information, and awareness of various features of the technology. The implications of this study emphasize the value of the impression management framework and attempts to explain the very complex human behavior in an online platform. The authors of this research acknowledge limitations. This study does not consider whether impression management in the context of online social interactions results in perceived resonant or discordant realities of the actors creating the impression for the target audience, which is outside the scope of this research. Future research will test this posited model.