Drivers and Barriers to Online Social Networks’ Usage: The Case of Facebook

Although the past years have witnessed growth in online social networks, the underlying factors driving and inhibiting its diffusion are not well understood. This paper presents empirical research that investigates the factors driving and inhibiting the online social networks usage. It gives a brief overview of the academic literature on the diffusion online social networks. The conduct and findings of a mail survey are then reported. The paper concludes that online social networks in general and Facebook in particular will become an extremely important tool in the future, with the drivers overcoming the barriers in influencing the rate. Furthermore, the study has enhanced previous theories related to Facebook, and it offers a platform for further investigations to take shape in light of what has been discussed and analysed.