What type of Facebook user are you?

On average, 1.28 billion people check their Facebook every day. That number is nearly 2 billion people every month. And according to a recent estimate, the average Facebook user spends 35 minutes a day on the platform, which is a huge number if you multiply that by the total number of users.

In a recent study published by a trio of communications professors at Brigham Young University (USA) explores why.

“What is it about this social media platform that has taken over the world?” asked Tom Robinson, the study’s lead author. “Why are people willing to put their lives on display on this platform? Has anyone ever really asked the question, ‘Why would you want to do this?’”

Based on several feedback surveys on the topic, the research team identified four types of Facebook users:The person who likes to connect(relationship builders);village bell(town cries),selfie-taker(Selfies) andobserver(window shoppers).

Relationship builders post and respond to other people's posts actively. They use Facebook's additional features primarily to strengthen relationships that exist outside of the virtual world. "They use Facebook as an extension of their real life, with their real-life family and friends," Robinson says.

People in this group explicitly identified statements such as “Facebook helps me express love to my family and lets my family express love to me.”

Town criers, on the other hand, maintain a much greater distance between their real and virtual worlds. “Uninterested in sharing pictures, stories, or other information about themselves, they want to inform people about what’s going on,” says Robinson. Like the town criers of old, “they want to spread information.” They repost news stories, proclaim events—but they talk less about themselves, preferring to update family and friends through other means.

Selfies use Facebook to promote themselves. Like Connectors, they post photos, videos, and status updates—but unlike Connectors, they focus on getting attention, likes, and comments. Research has shown that the more notifications people receive for likes or comments, the more satisfied they feel. Selfies often use the Facebook platform to create an appealing personal image of themselves, regardless of whether it’s accurate.

The “windows shopper” type is similar to the “village crier” type, they have the need to browse Facebook but rarely post personal information. But unlike the “village crier” type, they browse Facebook because it is a platform where they can see what others are doing, it is a social media with high coverage and many participants. This type of shopper is identified with statements such as “I can freely look at the Facebook profile of the person I am interested in, thanks to which I can know about their interests and relationship status”.

For the study, the researchers compiled a list of 48 statements that identified potential reasons why people use Facebook. Survey participants were asked to respond to the questions, reflecting their personal relationships with the ideas, and then rate each statement on a scale from “most like me” to “least like me.” Finally, the researchers interviewed each subject to gain a deeper understanding of their evaluations.

While previous Facebook-related research has explored the “connector” and “selfie” types, no research has addressed the “crier” and “observer” types, even though these groups are also very common.

In fact, Facebook users can be identified to some extent as belonging to more than one type. The study found that most users have at least some selfie tendencies. "Social media is pretty ingrained in our lives these days. And most people don't think about why they want to share it on social media. The bottom line is that if people can identify their habits, it will at least create some awareness.

According to XHTT