Trapped in Facebook : A grounded theory exploration

Abstract: Facebook is the biggest social network and therefore it is of interest to view how people get immersed into the user experience of it. Not much has been done about immersion into Facebook and how it entraps the user in a never-ending flow of impressions. Using a combination of qualitative interview studies and think-aloud walkthroughs we set out to study this phenomena. We found a varying mix of immersion, from those who couldn’t stop looking through their feeds to those who just used Facebook as a phonebook. We also found that while many wanted to reduce their usage of Facebook, none seemed able to make that plunge. From this we find design implications for both designing for immersion and avoiding entrapment. One key to the former is to have an error free environment, while the latter would be to make sure that all information is searchable.