What is the purpose of a claim

The purpose of a claim in an essay is to support and prove your main argument. For example, it's similar to a person arguing to prove his position which means he is making a claim. Morever, if written effectively, a claim statement will keep your readers interested. Also, It will create questions in their minds and they will possibly find the answers in your essay.

martians or other types of aliens represent a unique fear as opposed to zombies. vampires and other types of monsters.   in most sci-fi stories, aliens come from other worlds and have different or more advanced technology.   abductions and experimentation on human bodies that involve these technologies, or the use of these technologies against human beings and the use of unknown "powers", are a type of fear that's different from that of other types of monsters.  

the answer would be, she updates her online profiles regularly and participates in work-related online discussions.