International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 4 No. 5; May 2013 27 College Students’ Use of Social Media: Site Preferences, Uses and Gratifications Theory Revisited Bellarmine A. Ezumah Assistant Professor Murray State University 210 Wilson Hall Murray, Ky 42071, USA. Abstract With the ubiquity of computer-mediated communication, it is becoming increasingly difficult to choose which medium or content to employ in gratifying whatever use or need people may seek at each point in time. Empirical results in 2012 from questionnaires administered among 289 college students ranging in age from 18 to 28 years show that college students use Social Media Network Sites (SMNSs) for so many reasons. These include keeping in touch with friends (98.9%), sharing photos (81.7%), keeping in touch with family (79.3%), and entertainment (70.9%), among others. Facebook emerged as the preferred SMN site followed by Twitter, while LinkedIn was the least popular site among this group. While some participants still maintain their MySpace account, they depicted this site as archaic and a rarely visited site. Overall, ease of use and potential for eclectic tasks are qualities that garnered Facebook most preferred status as a social networking site. Keywords: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Social Media, Uses and gratification theory. 1. Introduction Contemporary communications studies devote more and more time and space towards examining the audience as active participants who consciously choose what media and media contents to use with the intention of serving specific needs. Mass media research focusses on what we do with media which, in essence, contradicts earlier studies on mass society, direct effects, and even limited effects of what-media-do-to-us approaches. At the center of this active audience paradigm is the Uses and Gratifications theory (Katz & Blumler, 1974) which postulates that people put specific media content and medium to specific use in the hope of having some needs gratified. There is a natural nexus, of course, between media and technology. The trend in emergent technologies comprises three major components, namely: content creation, content sharing, and interactivity. These are the attributes shared by social media, a phenomenon that now dominates most adult peoples’ lives. The Pew Research Center (2011) indicates that 66% of online adults use one form of social media or another. The same study also found that social networking sites are an appealing medium for various personal human gratifications including, but not limited to, staying in touch with current friends, staying in touch with family members, connecting with old friends, connecting with others who share similar hobbies and interests, making new friends, reading comments by celebrities, athletes or politicians, as well as finding potential romantic or dating partners. With the ubiquity of computer-mediated communication, it is becoming increasingly difficult to choose which medium or content to employ in gratifying whatever use or need people may seek at different points in time. In August 2010, TM.Biz (an online resource for trademark owners) listed 4,000 active social networking sites worldwide. In addition to the obvious need for creating and maintaining social ties, social media networks have provided avenues for employees in organizations to maintain an active voice in the workplace by openly sharing their views. Such practice was neither encouraged nor attempted in the past (Miles & Muuka, 2011). Similarly, these sites also help users to create and maintain community (Ulusu, 2010), construct social identities (Salimkhan, Manago, & Greenfield, 2010) and many other functions.