Disability Escape? Facebook Use by High School Students with Developmental Disabilities (2012)

Undergraduate: Laura Jasmine

Faculty Advisor: Joe Bob Hester
Department: Journalism & Mass Communication

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Social networking sites (SNSs) are growing in popularity in the United States. In particular, the SNS Facebook boasts millions of users. While past studies have researched the use of Facebook among adult and college student populations, there is a research gap for other demographics.

Informed by uses and gratifications theory, this study sought to discover why high school students with developmental disabilities use Facebook using in-depth interviews. A survey was also used to determine why high school students without developmental disabilities use Facebook. Responses from the samples were compared.

This study found that high school students with and without developmental disabilities use Facebook for many of the same reasons, including popularity, communicating with offline friends, gathering information about others and keeping up with friends and family in geographically distant locations. Neither group appears to use Facebook as a way to escape a disability or other perceived social impairment, such as being shy or unattractive.

This study also found differences between the samples. Students with developmental disabilities care more about personal expression on Facebook. Additionally, students without disabilities use Facebook to do homework and communicate with members of extracurricular clubs, whereas students with disabilities do not. Though neither sample uses Facebook as a disability escape, there are interesting differences and similarities between the groups.