On an average, 1.28 billion people check Facebook daily, and according to a recent estimate, an average Facebook user spends 35 minutes a day on the platform.
"What is it about this social-media platform that has taken over the world," lead author Tom Robinson, Professor at the Brigham Young University, said in a statement.
To answer this, the team compiled a list of 48 statements to identify potential reasons as to why people use Facebook.
They found four categories of Facebook users: relationship builders, town criers, selfies and window shoppers.
Relationship builders post, respond to others' posts and use additional Facebook features primarily in an attempt to fortify relationships that exist beyond their virtual world.
"They use it as an extension of their real life, with their family and real-life friends," Robinson said.
Town criers, on the other hand, are unconcerned with sharing photos, stories or other information about themselves, they instead "want to inform everybody about what's going on". "They push out information," Robinson noted.
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