An investigation on the Acceptance of Facebook by Travellers for Travel Planning

Due to the emergence of social media and web 2.0 applications within the last few years, tourists' travel behaviour and decision-making changed. This study investigates tourists' behavioural intentions to use Facebook for travel planning purposes. To address this objective, a combination of survey and 19 interviews provided qualitative and quantitative data. Results indicated that Information search, Sharing travel experiences and Trust were the main determinants of intention to use Facebook. In particular, travellers view Facebook as a tourism information source, they are more willing to share their experiences on their own profile rather than a providers page and that they trust other tourism related sites more than Facebook. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed

Contingencies of Self-Worth and Social-Networking-Site Behavior

Social-networking sites like Facebook enable people to share a range of personal information with expansive groups of "friends." With the growing popularity of media sharing online, many questions remain regarding antecedent conditions for this behavior. Contingencies of self-worth afford a more nuanced approach to variable traits that affect self-esteem, and may help explain online behavior. A total of 311 participants completed an online survey measuring such contingencies and typical behaviors on Facebook. First, exploratory factor analyses revealed an underlying structure to the seven dimensions of self-worth. Public-based contingencies explained online photo sharing (beta = 0.158, p < 0.01), while private-based contingencies demonstrated a negative relationship with time online (beta = -0.186, p < 0.001). Finally, the appearance contingency for self-worth had the strongest relationship with the intensity of online photo sharing (beta = 0.242), although no relationship was evident for time spent managing profiles.Radio-Television-Fil

Uses and Gratifications of digital photo sharing on Facebook

Despite the rapid adoption of Facebook as a means of photo sharing, minimal research has been conducted to understand user gratification behind this activity. In order to address this gap, the current study examines users’ gratifications in sharing photos on Facebook by applying Uses and Gratification (U&G) theory. An online survey completed by 368 respondents identified six different gratifications, namely, affection, attention seeking, disclosure, habit, information sharing, and social influence, behind sharing digital photos on Facebook. Some of the study’s prominent findings were: age was in positive correlation with disclosure and social influence gratifications; gender differences were identified among habit and disclosure gratifications; number of photos shared was negatively correlated with habit and information sharing gratifications. The study’s implications can be utilized to refine existing and develop new features and services bridging digital photos and social networking services.Peer reviewe

Psychological Contract Violation and Sharing Intention on Facebook

While there is a psychological component to every written contract, it is particularly the case for exchanges on social network site (SNS), where users tend to ignore the user agreement. As a form of social exchange, content sharing on SNS is guided by psychological contract, i.e., implicit and assumed reciprocal obligations. This study investigates how psychological contract violations (PCVs) affect people’s sharing intentions on Facebook. Based on a survey of 347 Facebook users, we find that sharing intention is negatively influenced by interpersonal and institutional PCVs through SNS users’ information privacy concern and trust. Interestingly, PCV by another user positively influences the affected user’s perceived violation by the SNS, suggesting a collateral damage of interpersonal PCV towards SNS. This paper adds to the privacy literature on SNS by revealing the fundamental role of PCV that alters users’ trust and information privacy concern in online social exchange

Perceptions of privacy on Facebook

Information privacy in an information age is a paradoxical issue, especially with the recent innovations of the Internet. Social networking sites collect a great deal of personal information about their users. Previous studies regarding both traditional and online commercial marketplace privacy issues have found consumers to be wary of disclosing personal information, but also unaware of the regulations concerning sharing of customer information among companies. This study focused on the differences between heavy and light users’ perceptions on privacy on Facebook. Results from a 25-question survey showed heavy users of social networking sites perceive a greater depth of communication on Facebook and have a more accurate perception of Facebook’s privacy policy than did light users of social networking sites

Social Media and Democracy: How Do Facebook Videos Affect Individuals' Political Values?

One of the greatest innovations in the 21st century is the high level of accessibility to information via forms of media such as Facebook, Twitter, and online news services. In this scholarly article, the intent is to examine how the videos individuals view on Facebook affect their opinions on current issues. With the emergence of social media as a distinctive news source, sharing information on sites like Facebook has become one of the main methods used by political organizations to educate the masses on their stance. The purpose of this research study is to observe correlations between the sharing of videos on Facebook and those videos’ ability to sway the views of participants. Methodology used will be based on a survey conducted after participants view selected videos. A posttest only questionnaire will be distributed to Facebook users through the website. Participants are split into three groups: a control group, and two groups that each viewed a short video about a current issue. The videos selected are chosen from the most popular posts on Facebook. After viewing the videos, participants from groups 1 and 2 each filled out the same survey as the control group. Once the data is collected, independent variables such as age and education will be used to determine whether viewing the videos was associated with a difference in participants’ opinions or reinforced opinions they already held. I expect to find that opinions of participants who watch the videos will tend to be more message consistent with the video viewed than the opinions of participants who did not view it. This research increases our understanding of how social media can be used as a platform for political groups to gain support of their positions

Social Connectedness on Facebook – An Explorative Study on Status Message Usage

With over 400 million active users Facebook is undeniably a large social phenomenon and one of the largest social networks on the Internet. Together with Facebook a variety of novel communication styles have developed, dramatically influencing social interaction. The underlying paper reports the results of a survey (N=109) analyzing Facebook’s micro-blogging function available through users’ status updates. Our results suggest that the use of status update messaging generates a feeling of connectedness between users. Furthermore, non-parametric analyses distinguishing between low- and highconnected groups have been performed and experimentally confirmed the existence of distinct user profiles as a function of the variable “feeling connected”. The analyses revealed that the more individuals use their status message function to actively reveal information about themselves, the more connected they feel. Connectedness seems the result of active information sharing modulated by the amount of information shared rather than by the type of information an individual is sharing

“People You May (or May Not) Know:” Usage Intensity, Status Motivation, and Intimate Self-Disclosure as Predictors of Bridging Social Capital on Facebook

Drawing on the concept of social capital, this study examines the impact of usage intensity, status motivations, and intimate public self-disclosure on Facebook users’ informational access and feelings of general social support. Survey data collected from a random sample of undergraduate Facebook users (n=583) were used to test several hypotheses predicting perceptions of bridging social capital. A multivariate ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model revealed significant positive associations between both Facebook usage intensity and status motivations, and perceptions of bridging social capital, while no significant relationships were found between various forms of intimate self-disclosure in public channels and perceptions of bridging. The findings of this study suggest that strict standards of information sharing exist on Facebook and that users selectively disclose personal information in order to adhere to these norms, supporting the view of social networking sites as diverse online communities that better facilitate the formation and maintenance of casual relationships rather than strong connections among users

Knowledge sharing and social media: Altruism, perceived online attachment motivation, and perceived online relationship commitment

Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, have become extremely popular. Facebook, for example, has more than a billion registered users and thousands of millions of units of information are shared every day, including short phrases, articles, photos, and audio and video clips. However, only a tiny proportion of these sharing units trigger any type of knowledge exchange that is ultimately beneficial to the users. This study draws on the theory of belonging and the intrinsic motivation of altruism to explore the factors contributing to knowledge sharing behavior. Using a survey of 299 high school students applying for university after the release of the public examination results, we find that perceived online attachment motivation (β = 0.31, p \u3c 0.001) and perceived online relationship commitment (β = 0.49, p \u3c 0.001) have positive, direct, and significant effects on online knowledge sharing (R2 0.568). Moreover, when introduced into the model, altruism has a direct and significant effect on online knowledge sharing (β = 0.46, p \u3c 0.001) and the total variance explained by the extended model increases to 64.9%. The implications of the findings are discussed

Dynamite in small packages: the Engaged Elite as an Facebook emerging niche market

Social networking sites, such as Facebook, have gained immense popularity as communication platform. Generation Y’ers have a strong need to engage and connect – both digitally, and in person. This paper examines the Facebook behaviour of Generation Y by means of a self-administered, campus-intercept survey of 383 university students. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether various clusters of Generation Y Facebook-users could be identified on the basis of their Facebook behaviour and usage. All multi-item constructs were subjected to an exploratory-factor analysis and a two-Step Cluster analysis. Three clusters, labeled ‘Engaged Elite’, ‘Neutral Masses’ and ‘Facebook Floaters’ were revealed. The results indicate that Facebook remains a feasible communication channel to initiate and engage in a number of marketing activities. However, the focus should not be on ‘pushing’ content and information, but rather on engaging the users – and to facilitate sharing between users across their networks