Unsociability as Boundary Regulation on Social Network Sites

This study approaches online social networking from the opposite direction, focusing on unsociability, in an attempt to find out how friendships are negotiated and terminated online. The research data was obtained via an online survey (N=107) targeted to SNS users. The findings show that Facebook is closely connected to offline social life, and the fading of offline relationship was the most common reason for cutting ties on Facebook. Usually, the people who were unfriended represented weak ties. Even though unfriending can be considered as the hardest form of unsociability, it was more commonly used than restricting content from certain people. On Twitter and other SNSs, the relationships were less personal. Therefore, ‘unfollow’, ‘block’ and other unsocial features were used to filter and regulate the content subscribed to. Particularly on Facebook, attention should be paid to developing affordances that would enable the system to better match the dynamic and complex nature of social relationships

Unfriend, Unfollow, Unsubscribe: Unsociability on social network sites

Social network sites (SNSs) are virtual spaces for social activity where users can “undo” their social interactions, returning to a previous system state. In this thesis I study this “reversed” sociability – unsociability – as a novel way to approach and support online social interactions. Using focus groups as research method, I explore the practices and perceptions of users engaging in unsocial events over four popular SNSs: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. As focus groups enable people to discuss their opinions in a relaxed yet moderated environment, I gathered opinions of participants expressed in their own terms. Subsequently, I used two data analysis techniques, content analysis and grounded theory, to explore participants’ utterances and group dynamics. The results show that the structure of each site reviewed is determinant to understanding how they support unsociability. Most notably, it was found that people follow a social-over-technical pattern on Facebook, as they base their interactions on their social understanding of this site instead of its technical capabilities. By following this pattern, people engage in unsocial events to save face and regulate their privacy boundaries. I found that people try to keep their unsocial behaviors as positive as possible to reduce accountability for these behaviors. Consequently, they prefer using features that place a self-boundary around them, which I call the soft unsocial features. The hard unsocial features place a dyadic boundary, producing increased social costs. Nevertheless, different people interpret these features in different ways, as I found three distinctive attitude styles towards them: the experimental, cautious, and restrictive. As these platforms become ubiquitous, I argue that unsociability should become an important consideration for designers of SNSs. I propose that SNSs should offer integrated options to revert social interactions in a silent, easy, and flexible way, to support users to “reverse” the increased sociability enabled on these sites. Asiasanat:social network sites, features, unsociability, desig

A Comparison of Adolescents’ In-Person and Virtual Peer Interactions in a Multiplayer Video Game

Virtual peer interaction is prevalent among adolescents (Anderson & Jiang, 2018), but little is known about how adolescents’ virtual interactions with peers compare to their in-person interactions. The present study aimed to compare adolescents’ in-person and virtual interactions in a multiplayer video game during an initial interaction with an unfamiliar peer to examine differences in social behavior, physiological responding, and perceptions of interaction quality. The study also aimed to investigate how motivations for solitude related to interaction quality, and whether these associations differed across virtual and in-person interaction. Participants were 72 adolescents (78% male, Mage = 12.49) from the Washington, DC metropolitan area who interacted with an unfamiliar peer in the lab using the multiplayer game Minecraft. Pairs of participants were randomly assigned to interact with one another in-person, sitting in the same room next to each other, or virtually, able to communicate using the text-based chat feature. Participants completed questionnaires about their motivations for solitude prior to the interaction. They also completed questionnaires about their self-perceptions and affect before and after the interaction, as well as their perceptions of the interaction quality after the interaction. Participants’ social engagement and their social initiations and the partner’s responses were observed during the interaction, and their respiratory sinus arrhythmia was measured before, during, and after the interaction. Results showed that quantity of social interaction was higher in the in-person condition, but perceived quality of the interaction was higher in the virtual condition. Participants spent more time communicating with one another and made more social initiations in the in-person condition. However, participants in the virtual condition received more successful responses to their social initiations and reported enjoying the interaction marginally more, feeling less passive and more assertive, and viewing themselves as more socially competent following the interaction. Participants’ physiological responding did not differ across conditions. Shyness was related to less positive emotional responses to the interaction, particularly in the in-person condition, while other motivations for solitude were less consistently related to social difficulties. These findings suggest that virtual interaction can be an engaging context that facilitates high-quality interactions between unfamiliar peers, and it may be particularly helpful for shy adolescents

“Me Too”: Epistemic Injustice and the Struggle for Recognition

Congdon (2017), Giladi (2018), and McConkey (2004) challenge feminist epistemologists and recognition theorists to come together to analyze epistemic injustice. I take up this challenge by highlighting the failure of recognition in cases of testimonial and hermeneutical injustice experienced by victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault. I offer the #MeToo movement as a case study to demonstrate how the process of mutual recognition makes visible and helps overcome the epistemic injustice suffered by victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault. I argue that in declaring “me too,” the epistemic subject emerges in the context of a polyphonic symphony of victims claiming their status as agents who are able to make sense of their own social experiences and able to convey their knowledge to others

What Stories Do Young People Tell About Their Past Experience of Social Withdrawal?

This study took as its subject the stories that young people, aged 16 and over, tell about their experience of social withdrawal. It is argued that social withdrawal highlights some of the tensions between paternalistic and enabling modes of supporting young people, particularly in the ‘intermediate period’ of late adolescence and early adulthood. Social interaction is increasingly seen as a necessary element in the development of a full range of capacities in adulthood. At the same time, a critique of this tendency can be identified which appeals to diversity and autonomy, including in relation to social motivation. A review of the literature revealed a sophisticated model of the development of social withdrawal and its associated difficulties, as well as subtypes with distinctive pathways. However, there was a dearth of qualitative analysis of young people’s subjective experience of social withdrawal. A narrative methodology was adopted to answer research questions centred on stories told and explanations offered about the experience of withdrawal. This was informed by an Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) and related epistemology. Interviews with four participants were followed up with the co-construction of timelines. Their narratives revealed the importance of specific incidents over longer term tendencies. They also revealed the interaction of power and resistance with feelings of shame and humiliation. Finally, they discussed the changing nature of their selves, discussed in the study in terms of ‘symbiosis’. It is suggested that further research locating withdrawn young people in their social context would be beneficial

Archetypal dominant in the Ukrainian sector of social networks

The aimof the article is toanalyze which archetypes are dominant in the personality, activities, objectives, self-concept of users of the Ukrainian sector of social networks and project as a manifestation of users’ personal preferences and resonance in the posts on the social network Facebook.Materials and methods.Insight into phenomenon of identity has been carried out in the media-centered approach to understanding the personality. The essence of this approach based on psychoanalytic theory and extends to modern ideas about oneself and the people which a person encounters throughout his life. In this study the method of contextual and intuitive-logical interpretive analysis was used in order to identify the meanings of publications (aphorisms and quotations) based on personal experience and logical thinking. Content analysis was used to separate certain patterns into thematic groups, which made it possible to identify the dominant archetypes in publications. The posts (aphorisms and quotes) posted on the users’ pages in the Ukrainiansector of social networks (780 units) provided inputs for the study. Results and discussions.Since archetypes are characteristic characters and plotelements, often represent key roles in life-story narratives with familiar and consistent traits, archetypal figures have become prototypes for a universal role model. Quotes and aphorisms are very common incentives for discussion on social networks. Personal preferences in this area are enough indicative to provide a complete picture of the issues of concern. Conclusions. The most common archetypes in the Ukrainian sector of social networks are “Sage”, “Ruler”, “Innocent”, “Everyman”, “Wizard”. The share of these five archetypes is 73%. The fact that the share of the three archetypes “Sage”, “Innocent”, “Explorer” reaches 42%, indicates the prevalence of the strategy of individualism in social networks. The main characteristics of people using these three archetypes to build their identity are spiritual search, reflections on the world and their place in it, endless doubts about themselves, about the correctness/incorrectness of their choices, thedesire to be a bright individual and to choosetheir ownpath. The full development of the personalityand the realization individual’s intentions as an end in themselves become a prerogative. Taking into account these circumstances, as well as the fact that social networks users are united in communities of interest, we can conclude there is a tendency in the development of constructive individualism in social networks –individuals consciously unite into groups to achieve their own goals and organize their lives

Are you alone? Measuring solitude in childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood

The goal of this review was to provide an overview of how solitude has been operationally defined and measured since the year 2000 in psychological studies of children, adolescents, and emerging adults. After applying exclusionary criteria, our review of the extant literature identified n = 19 empirical studies, which we grouped into three broad methodological categories: (1) experiments/manipulations (n = 5); (2) retrospective reports (n = 7); and (3) experience sampling measures (experience sampling methodology; n = 7). A review of these studies indicated considerable variation in how solitude is operationalized and measured. There is also a notable lack of studies measuring solitude in childhood. Implications for ‘what matters’ when assessing solitude are discussed, and we provide a series of suggestions for helping this research area move forward

Osmospheric Dwelling. Smell, Food, Gender and Atmospheres

Understanding the tight connections between human dwelling and the sense of smell seems nowadays urgent. Since human being-in-the-world finds its very prerequisite in being-in-the-air, an inquiry on air design, today particularly intrusive, is a philosophical necessity. The aim of this contribution is to sketch an exploratory investigation on the aesthetic relationships between space, smell and gendered atmospheres through the case of food, specifically through its osmosphere: its flavour as its affective aura. Firstly, I discuss analogies between atmospheres and smells. Secondly, I proceed by presenting olfactory devices whose aim is conveying gendered food-related and emotional atmospheres, scrutinising the phenomenological intertwining between food, cooking, gender, ‘sense of home’ and the olfactory imaginary of the matter. Finally, I put forward some observations which weave together aerial dwelling and ecological thought

Vínculos entre la timidez y las habilidades sociales: análisis de tendencias entre grupos de edad y sexo

The different theories about personality traits have progressively evolved. There is, however, a general agreement on the considerable barriers that shyness behaviors can pose to well-being and personal development. Under the paradigm of quantitative research, the present study aims to analyze behaviors related to shyness in a sample of 391 people aged between 11 and 63 years. A questionnaire was used in which the frequency with which different behaviors appeared was estimated. The results have evidenced a more frequent presence of shy behaviors in the female sex. Considering different age groups, significant differences have also been found in certain specific behaviors. These findings have important implications since the prolonged time of pronounced shyness could lead to the appearance of more serious psychological disorders. In response to the avoidance of these psychological consequences, it is proposed that emotional and social competencies be assessed by the educational guidance teams as the main triggers that can affect the comprehensive development of students. In addition, it would be advisable to include in their educational centers different strategies or socio-emotional education programs that contribute to the personal, social, and emotional development of all students in all educational stages.Las diferentes teorías sobre rasgos de la personalidad han ido evolucionando progresivamente. Existe, no obstante, un acuerdo generalizado sobre las considerables barreras que pueden suponer las conductas de timidez para el bienestar y el desarrollo personal, social y profesional de las personas que presentan estas conductas. Bajo el paradigma de la investigación cuantitativa, el presente estudio tiene el objetivo de analizar comportamientos relacionados con la timidez en una muestra de 391 personas con edades comprendidas entre 11 y 63 años. Se utilizó un cuestionario en el que se estimaba la frecuencia con la que aparecían distintas conductas. Los resultados han evidenciado una presencia más habitual de conductas tímidas en el sexo femenino. Considerando distintos grupos de edad, también se han encontrado diferencias significativas en situaciones para pedir ayuda a otras personas o hablar dentro de un grupo social. Estos hallazgos tienen importantes implicaciones, pues la prolongación en el tiempo de una pronunciada timidez podría desembocar en la aparición de alteraciones psicológicas de mayor gravedad. En respuesta a la evitación de estas consecuencias psicológicas, se propone que desde los equipos de orientación educativa se valoren las competencias emocionales y sociales como principales desencadenantes que pueden afectar al desarrollo integral del alumnado. Además, convendría incluir en sus centros educativos diferentes estrategias o programas de educación socioemocional que contribuyan al desarrollo personal, social y emocional de todo el alumnado en todas las etapas educativas