Abstract
This study compares five Social Networking Services (Facebook, mixi, mobage, Gree, and Twitter) in light of the influences of disclosure of personal information on use patterns. Results indicate that SNSs can be classified into two different types, “strong-tied” SNS and “weak-tied” SNS. Users who disclose more personal identification information are more likely to connect with real world friends, but are less likely to use SNS and make SNS-based relationships. A weak-tied SNS promotes communications only via SNS, while a strong-tied SNS promotes communications with those who are connected in the real world. Disclosure of personal characteristic information is significantly correlated with SNS use and the number of friends, while its counterpart of personal identification information is significantly correlated only with the number of off-line friends. No significant correlation was found between psychological factors and the choice of SNS.
