Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, Vol. 5, No. 4, November 2017 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1 P-ISSN 2350-7756 | E-ISSN 2350-8442 | www.apjmr.com Feedback on Facebook Fails to Predict the User's Subsequent Posting Sherwin E. Balbuena 1 and Princess Z. Balbuena 2 1 Dr. Emilio B. Espinosa, Sr. Memorial State College of Agriculture and Technology, Cabitan, Mandaon, Masbate, Philippines; 2 Social Studies Department, Mobo National High School, Mobo, Masbate, Philippines balbuenasherwine@debesmscat.edu.ph 1 , princesszaragoza86@yahoo.com 2 Date Received: August 3, 2017; Date Revised: October 4, 2017 Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Vol. 5 No.4, 1-10 November 2017 P-ISSN 2350-7756 E-ISSN 2350-8442 www.apjmr.com Abstract –Facebook use is a new and complex social behavior that has stimulated research interests in psychology. Due to a distinct lack of theoretical basis for this new communication phenomenon, a number of studies established the significant association between personality traits and Facebook use. This study investigated the motivational effect of friends’ feedback on the user’s subsequent Facebook posting and examined the correspondence between the user’s perceived motivation and actual motivation-behavior outcome using a new method. Results showed no significant association between the number of feedback and the number of subsequent posts, users’ perceived motivations were consistent with their actual motivation-behavior outcomes, users’ self-reports validated the new results and confirmed the previous findings that Facebook use is aimed at satisfying the individual’s needs for belongingness, self-presentation, and social information-seeking. It is suggested that the amount of feedback on Facebook is an ineffective determinant of the users’ frequency of subsequent postings. Keywords –extrinsic motivation, reinforcement, social media, Facebook likes INTRODUCTION Facebook is a social networking site originally intended to create an online social environment for students in a university. Its popularity grew exponentially around the globe and became accessible to people of diverse backgrounds because of its user- friendly features, integrative multimedia capabilities, and the roles it plays in providing a virtual environment for interpersonal interaction, entertainment, information, and other purposes. Its versatility and responsiveness to diverse needs has inspired both old and new users to engage in online social networking, which helps to satisfy personal, work-related, economic, educational, and social needs. Social networking sites have three major features: First, it enables the users to create their (semi-)public profiles; second, it gives the user the discretion to choose other users with whom connections are shared; third, it provides a venue for users to get updates from each other [1]. Facebook enables users to construct visible profiles, which display the user‟s basic information, such as name, gender, birthdate, and email address. Adding profile pictures, residence address, and other personal information is left as an option for the user [2]. Sharing information through posting status updates (live or recorded videos, photos, and news) and multimedia contents (shared posts from persons, pages, or external webpages) is aided by technical features such as Facebook Wall, Groups, and Pages, the privacy of which can be adjusted to the desired audience. In turn, the audience (friends) viewing the contents can give feedback through reactions in the form of clicking on the emoji (i.e., like, love, haha, sad, wow, and angry), share, and comment buttons. Private person-to-person or person- to-group conversations such as video calls and chats are managed by Facebook Messenger. These features facilitate the user‟s interaction with his/her connections or friends. Facebook‟s physical environment itself can be a source of motivation. The multimedia capabilities of Facebook that help facilitate communication and information between users are potent motivators in encouraging new sign-ups and in maintaining old user accounts. Some studies have shown that some technical features of Facebook do have motivational effects on Facebook use. For example, features such as self-disclosure settings were found to have significant association with user‟s satisfaction on Facebook [3]. Furthermore, students preferred using Facebook over Moodle for online discussions because