Abstract:

In recent years, social media has become popular in the virtual world. There are websites on the Internet where members or participants discuss about specific topics, share recent activities or upload photos or videos. Social media such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Myspace are Internet based applications, and individuals use them in order to create and share content about their favorite topics. On the other hand, human beings have social needs and they look for different ways to gratify themselves during life time. Social media with a wide range of facilities have provided a sense of self-esteem which is one of the most important elements of human social needs. Since Facebook was ranked first as the most popular social networking sites in past years, and because of researchers personal experiences of observing the popularity of Facebook among Girne American University students, this study aimed at discovering the motivations behind using Facebook among students, finding out whether there is any significant correlation between a specific motivation and self-esteem or not. In order to do that, 120 undergraduate students participated in a survey study. They were selected by using probable sampling method. Data was collected by means of questionnaire and analyzed by Kendall's tau correlation coefficient. The results expanded previous studies which claim social networking sites may improve self-esteem of their users. The results showed that less self-esteem is related to share more activity, uploading photos and making new friends on Facebook, while no significant correlation was found between lack of self-esteem and discussing about personal problems on Facebook. 

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