Dissertation - Spring 2018

Facebook has come to be a leader in the social media industry due in part to their continued innovation and addition of new features. This study examined two of Facebook’s features, Life Events and Scrapbook. Considering Facebook’s evolution of features and their success among consumers, it is important to examine these features, the benefits they provide to the consumers and company, as well as potential problems. The same features that allow Facebook to serve their users better may also be viewed as another tool in Facebook’s arsenal used to gain insights into the private lives of their customers, to gain more customers, and reduce uncertainty and risk about company resources. And while users may be viewed as vulnerable to Facebook’s strategies, past research has also identified users as active in their use and as having some control over their privacy. This study aimed to understand this negotiation for control between the users and the company by examining Facebook’s new features from multiple angles.