A tale of two sites: Dual social network site use and social network development

Previous work on social network sites (SNSs) has extensively examined Facebook use. Grounded in the scholarship of social capital and social relationship maintenance, we examined international students’ participation with Facebook versus a SNS in their home-country (Renren or Cyworld). We anticipated that social network building on Facebook would be driven by desires to expand bridging social capital, whereas SNS use on Renren/Cyworld would function to maintain existing bonds. A survey of 335 Chinese and Korean students in the U.S. showed that when given multiple choices of SNSs, the affordances of SNSs are sustained across cultures, networks, and sites. We conclude with thoughts as to how our findings might be used to help people manage social relationships across two different sites in their home country and new country of residence.