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Formation of Weak Ties in Social Media

소셜미디어에서 약한 유대관계의 형성

  • Received : 2014.01.20
  • Accepted : 2014.03.05
  • Published : 2014.04.28

Abstract

Social media is a general term for online services by which users share opinions, perspectives, and experiences. It supports interactions between users in sharing contents on it and weak ties among them play an important role in the process. This exploratory study attempts to identify crucial factors of establishing weak ties between social media users in the perspective of social network theory and uncertainty reduction theory. We collected data through diary study and in-depth interview and analyzed it following grounded theory approach. As a result, social media users more actively interacted each other or shared contents based on weak ties, compared to strong ties. In addition, similarity, self-disclosure, and relevance appeared to facilitate establishment of weak ties, by reducing psychological distance between social media users and perceived uncertainty of them.

사용자들이 콘텐츠를 매개로 하여 의견이나 관점, 경험 등을 공유하고, 사용자들 간의 상호작용을 촉진시키는 온라인 서비스를 소셜미디어라고 한다. 본 연구는 소셜미디어 사용자들의 공유 행동과 사용자 간 상호작용을 이해하는데 중요하다고 판단되는 약한 유대관계에 초점을 맞추어 사회 연결망 이론과 불확실성 감소 이론을 기반으로 약한 유대관계의 형성에 영향을 미치는 주요 요인들을 탐색적으로 도출하고자 하였다. 이를 위하여 본 연구에서는 다이어리 조사와 심층 인터뷰 등의 정성적 연구를 실시하였으며, 수집된 데이터를 근거이론 방법론에 따라 분석하였다. 본 연구의 결과, 소셜미디어에서는 강한 유대관계 보다 약한 유대관계를 통한 공유와 상호작용이 활발히 이루어지는 것을 발견할 수 있었다. 또한 유사성과 자기개방, 그리고 관련성이 소셜미디어 사용자 간 심리적 거리감을 줄이고 이는 소셜미디어 사용자들이 느끼는 불확실성을 감소시킴으로써 약한 유대관계의 형성을 촉진시키는 것으로 나타났다.

Keywords

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