Exploring predictors and consequences of Personal Fable ideation on Facebook

Research has begun to examine adolescents' motivations for using social networking sites. The present set of studies supplement this literature by considering the relationships between characteristics of adolescent development and media use. Using American and Dutch samples of adolescents, the paper examines predictors and consequences of a developmental construct, Personal Fable, which is characterized by feelings of uniqueness and invulnerability. Overall, results indicate that Facebook use is associated with Personal Fable ideation, which is then related to certain media use behaviors such as posting a new photo or status update. By nature, these practices constitute self-disclosure; however, results from the second study indicated that Personal Fable does not moderate the relationship between Facebook use and problematic self-disclosure, contrary to predictions. Such findings provide important information about the link between Facebook use and constructs of adolescent development, with implications for researchers' understanding of predictors of adolescents' online behaviors.