온라인 커뮤니티 이용자와 SNS 이용자의 구분요인: 기질성 요인과 활동성 요인을 중심으로

Since the mid-2000s, the social media paradigm has shifted from online communities to social networking sites. This study aims to identify the factors that differ between the two types of social media and to reveal their implications. The study focuses on whether the effects of self-esteem, personality traits and offline activities remain significant after controlling for other factors such as users’ sex, age and Internet use. Korean Media Panel Data, collected by the Korea Information Society Development Institute, were used for the analysis. The results confirm that the users of online communities and social networking sites differ significantly according to their self-esteem, conscientiousness, and physical and social activities. Online community users tended to show higher self-esteem and conscientiousness and to engage more frequently in physical offline activities than social networking site users did. However, social networking site users engaged in social offline activities more frequently than online community users did. These results highlight the need for further research to examine the societal value of online communities and to find a balance between online communities and social networking services