Abstract

Facebook is both a social and commercial entity. The large revenues generated by Facebook’s context-based advertising system ($600 million in 2009), attest to the fact that people go to Facebook not just to socialize but also to learn about new products and services. When Facebook friends discuss commercial products, Facebook is providing the social platform for a commercial context. Since Facebook has features that expose people to new products, forms of entertainment, and social settings, it provides users with a great deal of variety of experience. The findings of this study show that feelings of satiation in one’s life motivate people to seek out variety on Facebook. Facebook’s ability to mediate this variety-seeking behavior is used to explain the dual nature of Facebook usage as both a commercial and social platform.

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