Rich-get-richer effect explains the relationship between extrovert and facebook usage
source:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232549193_The_Relationship_Between_Unwillingness-to-Communicate_and_Students’_Facebook_Use
DOI:10.1027/1864-1105.20.2.67
This paper titled “The Relationship Between Unwillingness-to-Communicate and Students’ Facebook Use” by Pavica Sheldon examines the relationship between students’ willingness to communicate and their social media usage. They examined relationships between different interpersonal communications and the different motives of Facebook usage. Particularly, they investigated the behavioral and attitudinal results of Facebook usage, such as the length of time spent, the number of friends, the duration of usage, etc. The outcomes of this study showed that introverted subjects(showing anxiety during face-to-face communication) have fewer friends on Facebook, while their purpose of usage is just killing time. The study showed that the willingness of using social media for extroverted people is because their friends in real life use the same app. Most extroverted people don’t randomly go online and chat with unknown people. They use the typical social media because their friends are using it. In general, people who are extroverted in real life tend to be more active and more involved in social media, and they have more friends than people who are less willing to communicate. They feel more lonely than the introverts who show less involvement and activeness online. This seems counter-intuitive because people assume extroverts’ needs of expression can be satisfied by face-to-face communication and strong connection with friends in real life, which makes them less likely to value the chance of communicating with people online.
The outcome of this study corresponds to the rich-get-richer effect taught in the lectures in many dimensions. This is explained as it can be increasingly difficult for low-ranked individuals to increase their totals, as they have fewer resources to risk over time; and increasingly easy for high-ranked individuals to preserve a large total, as they have a large amount to risk. This concept can be used in spreading decisions and copying others in a network, as well as being compared as individuals. The more extroverted the person is, the more willing one uses Facebook and finds one’s friends using the same social media. Also, the more friends the user has on Facebook, the more willing he or she wants to linger longer and chat on the app. Therefore, the internet primarily benefits extroverted individuals because the rich-get-richer dynamics of popularity are likely to push it even higher.