Are you happy for me … on Facebook? The potential importance of “likes” and comments

- We applied Gable and Reis's (2010) capitalization processes model to Facebook.
- People remembered better their status updates that had received more likes.
- Satisfaction with response to one's status update depended on # of likes it received.
- Receiving more likes & comments was linked with greater self-esteem & happiness.
- Those who received more comments perceived FB community as more interested & caring.

Sharing positive personal news-known as capitalization-with an enthusiastic listener in personal interactions has been associated with positive outcomes (Gable & Reis, 2010). We sought to extend this capitalization model to an online context involving masspersonal communication (O'Sullivan & Carr, 2017). We surveyed participants (n = 311) about their Facebook status updates from the previous two weeks. As hypothesized, participants perceived as more positive and important and recalled better their status updates that had received more responses. Receiving more likes and comments on one's status updates was also associated with reporting greater happiness and self-esteem, greater satisfaction with the responses one's status updates received, and perceiving one's Facebook community to be more interested in one's good news. The present findings point to the potential importance of the likes and comments people receive on their Facebook status updates.