An Exploratory Study on the Use of Social Networking Sites and Subjective Well-Being

This paper investigates the positive aspects of the Internet use. In Study 1, we examined affective experiences while voluntarily using the Internet in a computer laboratory. A follow-up survey was conducted to compare the emotional experiences online to those in everyday lives. Findings show that Cyworld minihompy produces more positive emotions than the other types of Web sites. In Study 2, we employed a survey of Cyworld users to investigate the relationship among self-disclosure, reassurance of worth, and well-being. The results reveal that both honesty of self-disclosure and reassurance of worth are positively related to user’s subjectivewell-being. Fromthe perspective of positive psychology, findings and implications are discussed.