The concept of media dependency can be traced to one of the earliest works in the field as such proposed by Ball-Rokeach and Deflaur (1976). According to the theory, a certain individual can only fulfill their needs and satisfaction through the use of media tools thus developing a certain kind of dependency. (Communication Theory) Social media is an emerging media platform and is one form of the media which many people utilize because of its beneficial attributes for its consumers. In fact, it has been reported that there is a dominant presence of social media in the daily lives of most adult using the platform because of various reasons such as easy socialization among other users. (Pew Research Center, 2011 as cited by Ezumah, 2013)
There is an argument between scholars regarding to the definition of the term social media. (Ezumah, 2011) However, there certain aspects and properties of the entity that the general would agree upon, this would be that social media originated from the idea of the earlier of form that is the Web 2.0 that allows users to create their own content then disseminate it to the others. (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010, p.61 as cited by Whiting and Williams, 2013) Other widely accepted definitions based on the characteristics would be: (1) the ability to create electronic profiles online; (2) selection of people to socialize with and (3) to see the contact of other users through their profile. (Boyd and Ellison, 2008 as cited by Ezumah, 2013)