ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the implications of using homogeneous populations in studies of use and consumption of new technologies. It provides an account of how young Latinas/os—one of the most prominent ethnic groups using social media—engage with Facebook. Online users gravitate towards Facebook to enhance their social ties. Besides the relational motivation, some users engage with Facebook for self-oriented or narcissistic tendencies. Facebook users can select the most favorable profile picture, untag incriminating photos, edit their posts, or keep friends who know little about them so particular online self-presentations are safeguarded. Since Facebook content communicates aspects of the self, it is important to analyze the congruency between the physical self and the online self. Besides demographics, the frequency with which users updated their Facebook profiles served as another control variable. Two-tail bivariate correlations were conducted prior to the formal analyses to observe general patterns among variables.
