Speech Acts within SNSs 1

Running Head: Speech Acts within SNSs

Speech Act Analysis within Social Network Sites Status Messages

Caleb T. Carr

Michigan State University

Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media

David B. Schrock

Ferris State University

Department of Humanities

Patricia R. Dauterman

*Correspondences should be directed to the first author, Caleb Carr.

 Speech Acts within SNSs 2

Abstract

This research was conducted in an attempt to expand previous research of speech acts and

online messaging, by examining how individuals use the status messages of social

network sites (specifically Facebook and MySpace) to communicate socially and

construct their identity. Seventy-four students' SNS status messages were captured three

times daily over fourteen consecutive days. Content analysis of these data revealed that

status messages are primarily constructed with expressive speech acts, followed by

assertives. Additionally, humor was integrated into almost 20% of status messages. These

findings demonstrate differences in how users express themselves in alternate media, and

are framed not only to discuss self-presentation in social networks, but also to offer

suggestions for theoretical implications for computer-mediated communication research.

Keywords: speech act, social network site, identity construction, CMC

 Speech Acts within SNSs 3

Review of Literature

As new media technologies emerge, it is important to look at the commonalities

and differences in traits and usages of these communication tools. One emergent

technology quickly becoming a societal staple is the social network site (d. m. boyd &

Ellison, 2008). Facebook.com, one of the more popular of these web services, currently

has over 68 million active users (Facebook, 2008). With millions of users on these social

network sites (SNSs) engaging in both self-presentation and interpersonal

communication, SNSs afford a new lens through which to examine human interaction.

The present study is an attempt to expand upon previous research which examined the

content of Instant Messenger away messages (Nastri, Pena, & Hancock, 2006) by

exploring similar messages presented in social network sites. This study drew heavily

from Nastri et al.s study in an attempt to see if language is used in these asynchronous

media in ways that are similar or different from the ways language is used in the

asynchronous applications of a traditionally-synchronous media such as Instant

Messaging applications. Especially in the field of communication technology there is a

tendency for empirical research to be application-specific, even though most theories and

models are developed relatively independent of individual applications being used to

mediate communication. One way to begin closing the rifts that have begin to emerge in

the body of literature is to expand upon previous research by replicating (or at least

recreating) studies in a wider variety of online contexts and with differing virtual

affordances. This study sought to understand how language (and consequently identity) is

constructed in emergent SNSs.

Speech Acts
 Speech Acts within SNSs 4

Communication and psychology scholars have long understood that there is a

connection between speech and action. The theory of reason action (Ajzen & Fishbein,

1980; Fishbein & Azjen, 1975) suggests that a persons behavioural intention (and

ultimately action) is a function of the persons attitudes and social norms about that

behaviour. Previous empirical research has illustrated that the messages a person delivers

can affect that persons attitudes about a subject, even going to far as to turn an

unfavorable attitude into a favorable one (e.g., Freedman & Fraser, 1966). Stampe (1975)

noted the recursive relationship of speech and action, noting that, What one says

determines what one may hope to do in so saying, and what one hopes to do determines

what one may say in the effort to do it (p. 1). From a constructionist perspective, not

only does communication influence action, but communication also creates the reality

and contexts in which individuals exist and interact. It therefore seems appropriate to

study humans, in part, through studying the messages that individuals produce. Speech

acts are one means by which such study can be conducted.

Speech acts are units of dialogue that provide both meaning and reality. Searle

(1970) defined a speech act as language that both describes and is the action. By using

different types of speech actssuch as statements, giving commands, or asking

questionsan individual begins not only to operate within the world around him, but

interact with the world around him, and in doing so impacts the attitudes and actions of

themselves and their interactants (Cooren, 2003). Speech act analyses haves taken many

forms and have been applied to many situations. For example, Overbey and Preston-

Matto (2002) looked at how speech acts were used to develop the characters, mythos and

social interactions within the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Another
 Speech Acts within SNSs 5

application is that of Egner (2006), who looked at how cultural differences between

Africans and Westerners affected meaning of the speech act of promising in

international relations. A third example can be seen in Chirreys (2003) work looking at

the way messages were constructed and used by homosexuals as they outed their

sexual orientation. Although the applications of speech act research are broad, the

unilateral application of speech acts is to understand how individuals construct messages

to communicate and create meaning through language, and specifically the construction

and purposes of messages.

Searle (1969) proposed a model of speech acts which addresses categories of

phrases, each with a specific communicative purpose and each classification mutually

exclusive of others. Searle (1969) explicated five categories of speech acts: assertives,

directives, commissives, expressives and declarations. Clark (1996) later distinguished

two subsets that existed within declarations: effective and verdictive speech acts. Nastri

et al. (2006), guided by Baron, Squires, Tench and Thompsons (2005) findings, further

considered quotations as a seventh type of speech act. Explanations and examples of the

resultant scheme of seven mutually exclusive speech acts can be seen in Table 1.

Guiding Research

Nastri, Pena and Hancock (2006) were interested in several aspects of the speech

acts utilized to construct away messages in an application of a synchronous chat program.

Firstly, Nastri et al. (2006) wanted to understand how various specific speech acts were

used in away messages. Based on the earlier suggestions of Baron et al. (2005), Nastri et

al. (2006) hypothesized assertive, commissive and expressive speech acts should be most

commonly observed, as they may serve informative and entertainment purposes; whereas
 Speech Acts within SNSs 6

directives, verdictives, and effectives should be observed the least. In other words, based

on the predicted role of away messages in developing messages, Nastri and colleagues

expected to find away message users would construct messages primarily to inform or

entertain the message recipients, most likely friends of the message creator. Additionally,

the authors sought to understand the role of humor in away messages, specifically by

examining the frequency of humor produced in speech acts. Their exploration of away

messages was an attempt to establish speech acts as a useful framework for studying

computer-mediated communication, as well as to determine how away messages were

used to achieve social functions beyond the intended design of away messageshow

asynchronous away messages were being actively and cognitively put to use in an

asynchronous feature of a synchronous computer-mediated communication program.

To examine speech acts in away messages, Nastri et al. (2006) looked at 483

Instant Messenger away messages posted over the course of fourteen consecutive days by

44 participants between 18 and 22 years of age. After completing questions about their

experience using America Onlines Instant Messenger chat program, their screen names

were collected by the researchers. Away messages posted by those screen names were

collected for either seven (n=28) or fourteen (n=21) days three times daily: 10 a.m., 5

p.m., and 10 p.m. Two raters individually first parsed each of the 483 collected away

messages into individual speech acts, then coded for number of speech acts in each away

message (finding a total of 574) the type of speech act, use of non-standard orthography,

and finally for humor content.

A content analysis of speech acts found that assertives were the most common

(M=.68, s.d.=.03), followed by expressives (M=.14, s.d.=.02), commissives (M=.12,

 Speech Acts within SNSs 7

s.d.=.03), and directives (M=.06, s.d.=.01). These findings, supported using Wilcoxon

signed-rank tests, were consistent with the hypothesis that away messages were

constructed primarily through assertive, expressive and commissive speech acts. Nastri et

al.s (2006) other area of inquiry relevant to this study regarded the use of humor in away

messages, and identified that approximately one-fifth (M=16%, s.d.=21%) of the

messages produced by each participant were humorous.

Nastri, Pena and Hancocks (2006) study illustrated several key aspects of the

way people construct asynchronous messages within a synchronous computer-mediated

communication application. Firstly, their study showed that away messages were used

frequently (participants each posted an average of .93 message each day), more so than

the message features of other communication technologies like answering machines.

Secondly, this research supported previous findings (Baron et al., 2005) that away

messages explain ones absence while simultaneously providing either informational or

entertainment value to the recipient. Thirdly, this research demonstrated that users

adapted their language to the constraints of the medium through the strategic use of

CMC- based orthographies such as common abbreviations, emoticons, intentional

misspellings and non-standard usage of punctuation. Finally, although Nastri et al.s

conclusion that humor is often (p. 1040) used in away messages may be overstated (as

humor only appeared in about one-fifth of posted messages), the fact that humor appeared

more often than all but assertive speech acts (in 68% of away messages) and quotations

(in 17% of away messages) indicates that humor should be considered a significant

aspect of away message construction, both in conceptualizing message construction and

in future research. The authors concluded their findings with the suggestion that
 Speech Acts within SNSs 8

participants made active use of away messages for self-presentation purposes (p. 1041),

noting that the demonstrated ability to express a personal identity while maintaining ties

with acquaintances was not necessarily part of the applications original design.

Based on these findings, it seems pertinent to consider how messages are

constructed in other media, particularly those dealing heavily with self-presentation and

relationship maintenance. One means of executing such an extension is to look at the

construction of messages within a popular new telecommunicative application: social

networking sites. By looking at how individuals on these web applications construct

messages, Nastri et al.s work may be continued and compared against messages in

emergent media.

Social Network Sites

boyd and Ellison (2008) defined social network sites (SNSs) as web-based

applications allowing three functions: 1) users construct a public or semi-public profile;

2) present a list of other users to whom an individual is connected; and 3) view and

follow that list and the lists of others within the system. These emerging technologies,

enabling users to articulate and make visible their social networks, have recently taken

the forefront of both commercial and academic interest (d. m. boyd & Ellison, 2008, p.

211). The two SNS frontrunners, MySpace and Facebook, serve exclusively as virtual

social networks where an individual is able to present and maintain a personal image of

themselves [sic] for others to observe and interpret (Reese, Ziegerer-Behnken, Sundar,

& Kleck, 2007, p. 3). These sites allow users to (amongst other functions) post

information about themselves, friend and interact with other users, and build

associations with others, both on an interpersonal level and through social groups.
 Speech Acts within SNSs 9

Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe (2007) found Facebook users utilized the service to

maintain and reinforce social bonds, primarily within preexisting relationships. However,

the first function most users are exposed to is constructing their profile, not unlike

creating a personal homepage, albeit with a number of specific existing information fields

to begin developing an identity on the site. Providing information about yourself,

affording entertainment to yourself and others (both familiar and unknown to the user)

and the fulfillment of goals of self-expression are common utilities afforded by such

expressions online (Papacharissi, 2002). Indeed, it has been posited that the ability to

relate to others online has the potential to both provide a healthy outlet for demonstration

and construction of identity (Turkle, 1995) as well as facilitate deeper and more

meaningful relationships (Walther, 1992; Walther & Burgoon, 1992). The rise in the

popularity of these sites not only affords an opportunity to explore interpersonal and

group relationships online, but to further examine how people construct their identity

(Donath & boyd, 2004) and interpersonally relate to others (d. boyd, 2008; N. B. Ellison

et al., 2007) in an online environment.

Because of both the technological and social affordances of SNSs, the phenomena

of speech acts are especially relevant. Previous research has illustrated the affordances of

new media to construct an identity online (e.g., N. Ellison, Heino, & Gibbs, 2006;

Filiciak, 2003; Turkle, 1995), and SNS consequently present a new medium in which to

explore how individuals construct messages to create and maintain their presence and

connections with others online. Although users can both post and transmit pictures,

videos and music in SNSs, the primary means of communication is still text. Messages

are composed and read in text-format, group affiliations and interests are denoted
 Speech Acts within SNSs 10

textually, and users interact via written messages. Consequently, although SNSs afford a

tapestry of images and sounds, the cornerstone of communication is still at the message-

level. It therefore seems appropriate and relevant to extend Nastri et al.s (2006) work

and findings into a new medium. This extension of previous empirical work has two

potential benefits. First, it allows a type of replication of the previous work on speech

acts in computer-mediated communication, so as to determine the validity of Nastri et

al.s (2006) findings and discussion of the role of messages in CMC. Secondly, such an

extension allows the findings of speech acts to be moved out from a specific

communication tool (instant messaging) and be more generalized to CMC holistically,

rather than limited to specific technological or social practices within a certain medium.

Current Study

Nastri et al. (2006) examined the speech acts constructed in an asynchronous

application of a synchronous mediumaway messages in instant messaging. The nature

of away messages is such that even if a user is not at his/her computer for synchronous

chat, they can still receive information through posted (and more asynchronous) away

messages (Baron et al., 2005; Carr, 2008). Status messages in SNSs serve a similar

purpose to away messagesthey afford an open text field for an individual to provide his

status for others to view. For example, Facebook.com allows a user to type in is excited

for the Louis Hamiltons Grand Prix win this weekend! that others will see when

viewing the users profile. What makes studying status messages in SNSs interesting is

the reverse in media characteristicsSNSs are certainly asynchronous media, not

facilitating direct interpersonal communication, yet status messages can be used for more

immediate communication to those who view it. In the SNS world, status messages are a
 Speech Acts within SNSs 11

means of getting snapshots of an individuals thoughts, behaviors or actions. In short,

while instant messaging affords highly synchronous communication but asynchronous

away messaging, social network sites afford highly asynchronous communication but

more synchronous status messaging. The differences in the communication facilitated by

these media direct the guiding research question:

RQ1: What messages do users of social network sites construct in status

update?

As suggested by Nastri et al.s (2006) study, one way to resolve such research question is

to look at the types of messages being developed and communicated in these social

network sites status updates.

There are differences in the way that instant messengers and social network sites

are intended to be used to communicate. IMing is typically a synchronous activity that

has been shown to facilitate task-related information, both in workplace (Carr, 2008;

Isaacs, Walendowski, Whittaker, Schiano, & Kamm, 2002) and social contexts (Huang &

Yen, 2003). Meanwhile, using a SNS is an asynchronous activity, and by definition

serves primarily a social purpose, facilitating socioemotional information exchange and

relationship maintenance (N. B. Ellison et al., 2007; Stutzman, 2007). As expressive

speech acts are those which express feeling towards the receiver, it can be reasoned that if

ones goal is to present socioemotional information, more expressive messages would be

constructed. This shift in perceived focus from task-related (facilitated by assertive

speech acts) in IM to socioemotional interaction (facilitated by expressive speech acts) in

SNS guides the first hypothesis:

 Speech Acts within SNSs 12

H1a: Expressive speech acts will be most common in social networking

site status update messages.

However, as SNSs also provide a forum for self-presentation and assertion of identity

characteristics, much like personal web pages (see Papacharissi, 2002), it further stands

to reason that in addition to expressive comments, assertive messages may be used to

present aspects of the self to others. Assertive speech acts are used to get the receiver to

form a belief, and as such would be apropos for identity construction and display,

developing the self for others to see and interpret. This potential guides the extension of

the first hypothesis:

H1b: After expressive speech acts, the greatest proportion of speech acts

will be assertive, commissive and directive, respectively.

Nastri et al. (2006) also found slightly less than one fifth of away messages (16%,

SD=21%) used humor, while about a quarter of away messages were the messaging

applications default message. If the speech acts being constructed by participants in SNS

status messages are more expressive than the messages constructed in IM away messages

(as predicted by H1a), and humor is an effective means of expressing emotions (Francis,

1994), it follows that greater amounts of humor will be used to construct SNS status

messages, thus governing the second hypothesis:

H2: Humor will be used greater than 16% of status messages in social

network sites.

Due to the relative novelty of SNSs, as well as the status message function (which for

Facebook and MySpace is only a new feature within the last eighteen months), many

users have less experience at using social network sites status messages than they do
 Speech Acts within SNSs 13

using instant messaging. As use of a technology increases as populations have more time

to become familiar with the technology (Nowak & Rauh, 2006; Rogers, 2003), it can be

expected that many users, even those that use social network sites regularly, have not yet

taken to using status updates. However, while instant messengers are installed with a

default away message, social network sites have no default and simply leave the status

update blank until created or updated. An additional difference between away messages

and SNS status messages is that status messages can be left stable over many days, even

while the user is communicating on the SNS, unlike instant messengers which typically

require users to turn off their away message to resume the programs functionality. This

critical difference guides the second research question:

RQ2: How often do social network site users modify their status message?

The study of status messages in SNSs affords an opportunity to see how

users of these sites are using language to communicate, both interpersonally and

to manage their identity. As more people continue to turn to social network sites

as a means of communication and relationship maintenance, developing a deeper

understanding of the messages used to socially construct these relationships and

identities provides an application for technology-based theories. As discussed

previously, expanding the scope of applications of technology-based theories

offers empirical validation of the theory by increasing the theorys reliability by

expanding its applicability to technologies in a more holistic and general manner

than theories tied to a specific medium, or at least not tested in alternate media.

Method

Participants
 Speech Acts within SNSs 14

In-line with the methodology of Nastri et al.s (2006) study, this study used a

convenience sample of students recruited from a telecommunication survey course at a

large public university in the Midwest United States. The 74 participants (18 females),

whose ages ranged from 18 to 22 years old (M=19.9, SD=.95), were given course extra

credit for their participation. Twenty-eight participants did not produce any status

messages during the two weeks of investigation, resulting in an ultimate sample size of

46 participants. These results are comparable to Nastri et al.s (2006) participants in age,

class standing and number of subjects, though are skewed with male respondents.

Materials

Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire about their computer and social

network site usage at their personal computers, so as to acquire more accurate and precise

responses to items such as number of SNS friends, as respondents would have access to

their SNS profile as they would be able to check their specific number of friends, thereby

increasing the accuracy and specificity of responses. Survey instruments inquired about

participants online habits, including how much time they spent online each day, time

spent on social network websites, number of months of experience using social network

sites and the number of friends in their networksboth their primary network and total

friends throughout networks. Additionally, participants completed the Facebook Intensity

Scale (N. B. Ellison et al., 2007), including items such as How many Facebook friends

do you have and Facebook is part of my daily routine, as well as an adapted version

pertaining to MySpace usage (Appendix A) to gauge how connected and reliant

participants were on these SNSs as a means of communicating with friends.

Procedure
 Speech Acts within SNSs 15

After consenting to participate in the study, participants completed the

aforementioned measures. After completing the questions on the survey participants

initiated a friend request with a profile created on Facebook and MySpace (as

applicable, based on the participants SNS use) for the purposes of this study, so that

status messages could be collected based on the research profiles friend list. Upon

completing the survey instrument and initiating a request for affiliation with a Facebook

profile established for the purposes of this research, participants returned the instrument

to the researcher. Participants were told that their profiles would be looked at over a two-

week period, though they were not told how often their profiles would be checked, nor

were they told what specific elements of their SNS profiles were being examined. Status

updates were collected at 9:00am, 2:30pm, and 9pm daily, during fourteen consecutive

days in April and May of 2008. At the end of the collection period, participants were sent

a message through the SNS debriefing them, and then were defriended.

Content Analysis

Collected status updates were coded following the speech acts used by Nastri et

al. (2006). The unit of analysis was the speech act, defined as punctuation or

propositional units as follows. Status update messages were categorized into their

component speech acts, as single status updates could contain more than one sentence,

and a sentence could contain more than one speech act. For example, a status update

could read, Ive got a headache from last night, but Im going to class anyway. In that

status update there are two speech acts, the first referring to a headache from last night,

the second denoting the writer as going to class. Speech act categories, however, were
 Speech Acts within SNSs 16

mutually exclusive and exhaustiveall speech acts could only be assigned to one and

only one of category.

Status messages were first analyzed for the number of component speech acts that

comprised the update. Second, utilizing the Speech Act Taxonomy described in Table 1,

the speech acts were coded as assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, effective, or

verdictive. Following Nastri et al.s (2006) protocol, quotations within status messages

were coded as a separate category and not categorized into speech acts.

Two raters independently coded all messages. Initial intercoder reliability of

individual speech acts (i.e., parsing a complex status message into unique speech acts)

was acceptable (kappa=.54, p<.001), and a moderate intercoder reliability of humor

(alpha=.65, p<.05). Coders were asked to first resolve disagreement through discussing

the particular speech act, resolving the acts categorization amongst themselves. When

coders could not agree on the categorization of a speech act, a third trained coder was

asked to code the speech act in question, and the agreement of the third coders

assessment with one of the first two coders was used for the speech act.

Results

A total of 207 unique SNS status messages were recorded during the two week period,

with a mean of .18 (SD=.25) messages produced per day by each participant. Of the 207

messages produced, only 3 were posted on MySpace; the remaining 204 were posted on

Facebook profiles. Because of the lack of use of MySpace status updates, the three

messages produced were subsequently excluded from analysis. Twenty-eight participants

did not post a status message in either Facebook or MySpace during the 14-day period,

and were excluded from further analysis.

 Speech Acts within SNSs 17

Descriptive Analysis

Forty-six participants were ultimately used for analysis. Participants reported a

mean of 266 (S.D. = 202.79) Facebook and 231 (S.D. = 593.44) MySpace friends.

Furthermore, results of the Facebook and MySpace Intensity scales, the latter adapted

illustrated that participants were more ingrained into Facebook than MySpace, with a

mean Facebook intensity score of 0.22 (S.D. = .95), and a mean intensity score of -.66

(S.D. = .81) for MySpace. Comparative results of this study and the results of Ellison et

al.s (2007) can be seen in Table 2. Consequently, these participants represent a slightly

younger and male-dominated sample, but an increased adoption of Facebook, up to 100%

from 94% from surveys conducted on a similar sample the previous year.

Speech Act Analysis

Status messages were analyzed according to speech act(s). Following Nardi et.

als protocol, quotations were excluded from analysis. Consequently, all remaining

speech acts were coded and analyzed as one of six exhaustive and mutually exclusive

speech act categories: assertive, directive, commissive, expressive, effective or

verdictive. This yielded a total of 233 speech acts, or an average of 2.54 (SD = 3.50) per

message.

The proportion of each speech act category produced per participant was

calculated by dividing the number of speech acts in a given category by the total number

of speech acts produced by the participant, so as to understand how status messages were

constructed at the level of the individual. There were no effective speech acts and no

verdictive speech acts produced by participants, and these types consequently were not

included in the analysis. Means and standard deviations for all speech act categories are
 Speech Acts within SNSs 18

presented in Figure 1. Due to the categorical nature of the data, non-parametric statistics

were employed for the speech act analysis (Siegel, 1956). Pairwise comparisons among

the four remaining speech act categories (expressives, assertives, commissives and

directives) using on signed-rank tests demonstrated that participants constructed status

messages with expressives more than any other speech act (z = -1.86, p = .063),

providing weaker support than desired (=.05) for Hypothesis 1, but illustrating

expressives are most commonly used to develop status messages. Assertives were

produced more frequently than commissives (z = -4.464, p < .001) or directives (z = -

4.465, p < .001); however, commissives and directives were not significantly different

from one another with regards to frequency of construction (z = -1.514, p > .1). This

finding provides partial support for Hypothesis 1a. These analyses are described in Table

3. Taken together, the data suggest that status messages are constructed primarily with

expressive and assertive speech acts, consistent with Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 1a.

Humor

Recalling the second hypothesis that humor should appear in greater than 16% of

status messages, the proportion of humor per message was calculated by dividing the

total number of status messages containing humor by the total number of messages

produced per person. On average, 21% (SD=31%) of status messages contained some

modicum of humor. A t-test illustrates the participants of this study did use humor more

frequently in Facebook than reported by Nastri et al. (2006) with regard to away

messages (t=1.36, p<.05, one-tailed). Consequently, H2 was supported. Complete

comparisons between the results of this study and the results of Nastri et al. (2006) are

provided in Table 4. The implications of the support of H1 and H2, as well as the
 Speech Acts within SNSs 19

implications of H1a will be discussed in the next section, specifically with relation to the

research questions.

Discussion

This study sought to understand how status messages are constructed in social

networking sites. An analysis of speech acts illustrated that expressive and assertive acts

were used most commonly, whereas humor was present in almost 20% of status

messages. The findings illustrate differences between SNS status messages and IM away

messages as reported by Nastri et al. (2006). These findings help us develop a greater

understanding not only of the creation and display of messages within the context of

SNS, but also begin to shed light on the differences of messages created in comparable

media applications.

Of immediate note is the disparity between the use of Instant Messaging away

messages reported by Nastri et al.s (2006) and the use of Social Networking Site status

messages reported here. The comparable participant pool in this study produced

approximately two-fifths the messages produced by Nastri et al.s (2006) participants.

During the observation period, only 2 of the 26 participants who had a MySpace profile

posted status messages and only 46 of 86 participants who had a Facebook profile posted

status updates. Compared to the mean .93 (S.D. = .63) away messages produced per day

reported by Nastri et al. (2006), SNS users (posting a mean of .181, S.D.=.249 messages

per day) do not appear as predisposed to regularly post status updates as do IM users to

post away messages. One potential reason for this disparity between media may be the

relative novelty of status messages. At the time of the study, status messages had only

been recently added features to both SNS tools. As SNS are typically considered means
 Speech Acts within SNSs 20

of asynchronous communication, it is possible SNS users are not yet aware of or readily

adopting the new tool for constructing messages targeted at friends. However, with users

posting an average of .18 messages per day after only a few months of the feature being

made available, it seems that the status message feature is beginning to be adopted. Even

changing ones status messages once every five days, as the data suggests, still means

that individuals are updating their Facebook status more frequently than they update

voice mail or other asynchronous services (Ehrlich, 1987).

Another explanation of the reduced use of status messaged compared to away

messages is the role of status messages in SNSs. Away messages represent an integral

and meaningful part in IMs, indicating that the target is not available for synchronous

chat, and in doing so conveying message about the immediate disposition of the target. In

SNSs, status messages do not play such a necessary role, and their presence may simply

be a means of self expression rather than serving a structural function within the medium.

Consequently, status messages may appear less frequently strictly because they play a

different role within the medium.

Previous research has proposed that SNSs provide a forum for social interaction

and interpersonal exchange (Donath & boyd, 2004). The findings of this research support

such a proposition, with almost 60% of status messages containing an expressive speech

act and reflective almost 52% of the speech acts produced to convey emotion towards the

receiver(s). Further, 39% of speech acts were produced to have the receiver form an

impression or belief (i.e., assertives), 6% to seek to get the receiver(s) to do something

(i.e., directive) and 3% to commit to future action (i.e., commissive). The proportion of

expressive speech acts within status messages was higher than all other categories, and
 Speech Acts within SNSs 21

expressive and assertive speech acts were significantly higher than other categories. Clark

(1996) noted that effective and verdictive speech acts (statements about the status of an

institution) are typically made within institutional or organizational settings, and as SNSs

do not constitute such an environ the absence of such speech acts may not be surprising.

The role of SNS in supporting interpersonal interactions is further supported by

the presence of humor in 21% of status messages. About one-fifth of Facebook users are

integrating jovial content into their status messages. Instances of humor have been

conceptualized as an indicator of socioemotional communication in previous research

(Hiltz, Johnson, & Turoff, 1986), and its presence in SNS status messages may be

indicative of the same. The amount of humor is significantly greater in SNS status

messages than in IM away messages, indicating that SNS may reflect a medium in which

individuals express themselves more openly and interpersonally, especially as they are

providing the status messages to individuals with whom they are acquainted and have

friended. This increase in humor content also may reflect the parallels between SNS

profiles and personal homepages. Papacharissi (2002), in looking at the content of

personal websites, found that homepages tended to be developed for one of three primary

purposes: to provide information about the individual, communicating with friends and

family , and to entertain friends. In this way, self-presentation seems to be replicating the

role of personal websites. The first two purposes (information and communication) are

inherent in SNS: one constructs a profile (self-presentation) and joins the site to keep in

touch (communicate). This study suggests that the third goal may, too, be sought via

SNSsindividuals may seek to entertain others via humor in their status messages.
 Speech Acts within SNSs 22

Previous research has thoroughly acknowledged the role and function of specific

types of speech acts within various settings (e.g., Baron et al., 2005; Nastri et al., 2006).

What is of importance to the focus of this research is the notable differences between the

findings of this study and comparable research conducted with similar participants in a

similar yet different communication application, as it illustrates the different messages

constructed in different online media. Culnan and Markus (1987) made two important

notes regarding researching effects of mediation communication. The first was that while

face-to-face communication differs from computer-mediated communication, the

fundamental communicative processes may not be as radically different as many scholars

assume. However, their second note is of great significance to the findings of the present

researchdifferent media have the potential to facilitate different communication and via

different processes. It is the implications of this research mapped onto their second notion

which will drive the remainder of this discussion.

Goal Achievement and Strategic Use. Theorists have long discussed the impacts

of communicative goals on media selection. Early CMC research suggested that CMC

was unable to transmit cues that facilitated interpersonal interaction, and instead focused

on the role of CMC in task-related situations (e.g., Daft & Lengel, 1986; Kiesler, Siegel,

& McGuire, 1984). More recent research has acknowledged the potential for CMC to

foster rich and highly interpersonal interactions, sometimes more so than face-to-face

counterparts (Walther, 1996). While the early theories looked at how individuals selected

media based on the nature of the task-related goals they desired to achieve, subsequent

research on media has instead focused on the mechanisms by which CMC facilitates

interpersonal interactions. The findings of this research, and specifically that expressive
 Speech Acts within SNSs 23

(i.e., socioemotional) messages are a primary component of status message development

in contrast to the predominance of assertives in IM, implies that there may be some

strategic cognitive processes that users are going through to decide what messages to use

to construct away messages given the nature of SNS. Consequently, it may be prudent for

future research to begin to once again look at the process of media selection, but to do so

from a relational perspective. Walther and Bazarova (2008) offer one example of the

beginnings of such research, as they look at the perceptions of propinquity amongst

members of computer-mediated groups, taking specific note of information complexity

and available media as dependent variables. By demonstrating differences in messages

constructed in different media for similar purposes, this research further illustrates the

need to look at the mechanisms and processes by which users select amongst various

media to accomplish communicative goals.

Modality Switching. Most CMC research (particularly experimental research) has

focused on interactions that occur specifically online, frequently with zero-history groups

that will not interact again outside of the research context, and often will not interact

outside of computer-mediated medium. One notable exception to this is the work of

Ramirez and Zhang (2007) which explored how transitioning from mediated to face-to-

face relationships impacted relational outcomes. What has been ignored, in comparison,

is the nature of interaction as the relationship moves from a face-to-face to an online

context. How do individuals goals and interactions alter as a result of that shift in

modality? Previous SNS research has illustrated that most of an individuals friends in

SNS are also acquaintances in real-life; in other words, people dont have friends on SNS

that they dont know outside of the web application (d. m. boyd & Ellison, 2008; N. B.
 Speech Acts within SNSs 24

Ellison et al., 2007). Although the causality behind the preponderance of expressive

speech acts is beyond the scope of this research, it would be of interest to see if the

amount of expressives is a result of interactants having prior knowledge and relationships

with those who are expected to see the status update. Said another way, does the number

of expressives in status message posts reflect the number of expressives individuals use

in their offline communication with the same individuals?

Predictive factors. While the previous issues have been applied in an attempt to

provide explanatory analyses of the research, it is also necessary to address the predictive

role of theory, and its absence in the study. The hypotheses in this study were derived

under the assumption that social networking sites were better suited to facilitating

socioemotional communication specifically of the expressive nature. This assertion was

supported quantitatively within the research. However, the fundamental nature of the

medium may and should not be the only factor to consider when theorizing differences

between media. For a theory to be useful, it must not only be able to retrospectively

explain why a phenomenon occurred, it must also be able to proactively predict results

based on a specified series of precedent variables (Shoemaker, Tankard, & Lasorsa,

2003). Although this study has illustrated different communication resulting from two

media, it not fully predicted why such differentiations occurred in a theoretically-

grounded way. As new media begin to emerge and become integrated into society, it

becomes increasingly important for theories to emerge to enable researchers to not only

conceptualize how specific media are constructed and function, but to further be able to

develop functional models that could detail the mechanisms and interactions that guide

both interaction and use of media.

 Speech Acts within SNSs 25

Conclusion

This study was conceptualized and executed in an attempt to replicate previous

research (Nastri et al., 2006) to explore how individuals express themselves online, and to

also extend such research into a new medium. Such an extension was intended to explore

how different media may individuals using different media may manifest different types

of expressions. The findings of this study support previous claims that social networking

sites are inherently social and emotive in nature, demonstrating the preponderance of

expressive acts of communication, displaying and sharing emotion amongst other SNS

users. In addition to the predominance of expressive speech acts, the increased proportion

of humor used in SNSs over IMs further demonstrates the social and emotive nature of

SNS and their role in maintaining interpersonal and emotional ties amongst networked

individuals.

The results of this study, while illuminative in their own right, become even more

significant when interpreted in tandem with previous research. The findings presented

here illustrate the role of media on self-presentation and demonstrate that generalizations

of findings across multiple media may not be fairly made based on exploration of a

phenomenon within a single context or technology. As the opportunities and means for

individuals to communicate continues to proliferate, there is a need to begin to develop

theories outside of specific media to begin to explore relational media holistically and

how they impact the nature and processes of communication amongst their users. The

development of such a theory would be advantageous to understand the nature of

communication in multiple situations, especially in online contexts and in situations

 Speech Acts within SNSs 26

where individuals choose (either strategically or unconsciously) which medium to use for

a specific communicative goal.

 Speech Acts within SNSs 27

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 Speech Acts within SNSs 32

Appendix A

Social Network Website Survey

Thank you for answering our questions about your experiences using social network
websites. Please answer all questions to the best of your ability.

Name: ___________________

Biological gender: Male Female

Year in school: Freshman (0-30 credit hours) Sophomore (31-60 credits)

Junior (61-90 credits) Senior (91+ credits)
Graduate/Professional Other

Local Residence: On-Campus Off-Campus

My home (permanent) residence is: In-State (MI) Out-of-State

Are you a member of a sorority/fraternity? Yes No

How many on-campus extracurricular groups are you actively participating in?
None 1 2 3
4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11+

In an average day, how many hours do you use the Internet for either work or pleasure?
None Less than 1 1-2 2-3
3-4 4-5 5-6 6-7
7-8 8-9 9-10 10-11
11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15
15-16 16-17 17-18 18+

Do you use some form of Instant Messaging chat program (ex. AIM, ICQ, etc.)?
Yes No
If yes, about how long have you used an IM program? ____ years & ____months

Facebook
Do you have a Facebook account? Yes No
If No, please move on to the next page.

About how long have you had your Facebook account? ____ years & _____ months
 Speech Acts within SNSs 33

How many total Facebook friends do you have at MSU or elsewhere? _____

In the past week, on average, approximately how many minutes have you spent on
Facebook each day? _____

How many total Facebook groups do you belong to? ______

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Disagree Agree
Facebook is part of my everyday
activity
I am proud to tell people Im on
Facebook
Facebook has become part of my
daily routine
I feel out of touch when I havent
logged onto Facebook for a while
I feel I am part of the Facebook
community
I would be sorry if Facebook shut
down
I use Facebook to learn more about
other people in my classes
I use Facebook to learn more about
other people living near me
I use Facebook to keep in touch with
my old friends

When you are done with this part of the survey, please send a friend request to Telecom
Study. It will have a TISM logo for a profile photo.
 Speech Acts within SNSs 34

MySpace
Do you have a MySpace account? Yes No
If No, please move on to the end of this page (**).

About how long have you had your MySpace account? ____ years & _____ months

How many total MySpace friends do you have at MSU or elsewhere? _____

In the past week, on average, approximately how many minutes have you spent on
MySpace each day? _____

How many total MySpace groups do you belong to? ______

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly

Disagree Agree
MySpace is part of my everyday
activity
I am proud to tell people Im on
MySpace
MySpace has become part of my
daily routine
I feel out of touch when I havent
logged onto MySpace for a while
I feel I am part of the MySpace
community
I would be sorry if MySpace shut
down
I use MySpace to learn more about
other people in my classes
I use MySpace to learn more about
other people living near me
I use MySpace to keep in touch with
my old friends

When you are done with this part of the survey, please send a friend request to the display
name, TC Research. It will have a TISM logo for a profile photo.

**Thank you for completing this survey. Please return the completed survey to the
researcher.
 Speech Acts within SNSs 35

Table 1 Coding scheme for analyzing speech acts and quotations in Facebook status

messages

Speech Act Properties of Speech Act Example(s)

Assertive Statements of fact, getting the viewer to GRILLING on this

form or attend a belief beautttiful day, is home.

Directive The sender uses this to get the receiver to saying watch payback,

do something (i.e., a command) hey do it

Commissive The sender commits himself to do only 26 more days, 80 to

something go

Expressive Sender expresses feeling towards (though hoping something amazing

not necessarily about) the receiver will happen..., wishing he

was a weapon master.

Effective To change an institutional state of affairs Youre fired, Play ball,

Chapter at 7 or youre

fined

Verdictive To determine what is the case in an I find him innocent,

institution strike

Quotation The message is not originally produced by crying blood and bleeding

the sender tears, "You hit Me Like A

Cosmic Blast

Note. Most examples were selected from the status messages collected. Because they did
not appear in this study, effective and verdictive examples were drawn from Nastri et al.
(2006).
 Speech Acts within SNSs 36

Table 2 Participant demographic comparison between present study and Ellison et al.

(2007)

Present Study Present Ellison et al. Ellison et

(2008) Mean Study s.d. (2007) Mean or al. s.d.

or % (n) % (n)

Gender:
male 76% (56) 34% (98)
female 24% (18) 66% (188)
Year in school 1 1.95 0.95 2.55 1.07
Home residence:
in-state 85% (63) 91% (259)
out-of-state 15% (11) 09% (25)
Local residence:
on campus 73% (54) 55% (157)
off campus 27% (20) 45% (127)
Member of fraternity 08% (6) 08% (23)
or sorority
Hours of Internet use 5 hours 18 min 3:08 2 hours 56 min. 1:52
2
per day
Facebook members 100% (74) 94% (268)
Facebook friends 266.14 202.79
Facebook groups 27.58 30.29
Facebook Intensity 0.22 0.95 -0.08 0.79
MySpace members 28% (20) N/A
MySpace friends 231.71 593.44 N/A
MySpace groups 1.38 2.77 N/A
MySpace intensity -0.66 0.81 N/A

1
1 = freshman, 2 = sophomore, 3 = junior, 4 = senior, 5 = graduate student
2
converted from ordinal scale using mid-point of response category (e.g., 1-2 hours = 1 hour 30 minutes)
 Speech Acts within SNSs 37

Table 3 Pairwise Wilcoxon test comparisons among proportions of speech acts

Effectives/ Effectives/ Effectives/ Assertives/ Assertives/ Commissives/

Assertives Commissives Directives Commissives Directives Directives

Z -1.860 -5.095** -4.907** -4.907** -4.564** -1.514

.063 .000 .000 .000 .000 .130

Pairwise comparisons were based on the proportion of each speech act category,
calculated by dividing the total of speech acts in a given category by the total number of
speech acts produced by the participant.
* p=.06, two tailed. **p<.01
 Speech Acts within SNSs 38

Table 4 Speech Act construction comparison between present study and Nastri et al.

(2006)

Present Study Present Nastri et al. Nastri et

(2008) Mean Study s.d. (2006) Mean al. (2006)

Speech Act/Post Speech Act/Post s.d.

Assertive .19 (86) 0.27 .68 0.03

Directive .01 (6) .08 .06 0.01

Commissive .02 (12) .06 .12 0.12

Expressive .27 (110) .34 .14 0.03

Effective .00 (0) .00 .00 0.02

Verdictive .00 (0) .00 .00 0.00

Quotation .05 (22) .17 .17 .22

Humor .19 (65) .29 .16 0.21

Total Messages 204 483

Messages per day per .18 .25 .93 .63

participant

Total Speech Acts 233 574

Acts per message 2.54 3.50 1.14 0.44

 Speech Acts within SNSs 39

Figure 1 Frequency of speech acts within SNS status messages

*Figures presented are means of speech acts within status messages per person, while
numbers in parentheses are standard deviations.