36,847 research outputs found
Qualitative Research on Youths’ Social Media Use: A review of the literature
In this article we explore how educational researchers report empirical qualitative research about young people’s social media use. We frame the overall study with an understanding that social media sites contribute to the production of neoliberal subjects, and we draw on Foucauldian discourse theories and the understanding that how researchers explain topics and concepts produces particular ways of thinking about the world while excluding others. Findings include that 1) there is an absence of attention to the structure and function of social media platforms; 2) adolescents are positioned in problematic, developmental ways, and 3) the over-representation of girls and young women in these studies contributes to the feminization of problems on social media. We conclude by calling for future research that can serve as a robust resource for exploring adolescents’ social media use in more productive, nuanced ways
Attachment and problematic Facebook use in adolescents: the mediating role of metacognitions
Background and aims: Recent research used attachment theory and the metacognitive tenet as frameworks to explain problematic Facebook use (PFU). This study aims to test, in a single model, the role of different attachment styles and metacognitions in PFU among adolescents. Methods: Two separate studies were conducted in order to establish the link between security (Study 1) and insecurity (Study 2), metacognitions, and PFU. A total of 369 and 442 Italian adolescents (age: 14–20 years old) participated in Study 1 and Study 2, respectively. Results: Path analyses revealed the relative importance of different attachment dimensions with mother and father in predicting PFU and the mediating role of metacognitions between attachment styles and PFU. Discussion and conclusion: In conclusion, since attachment styles and PFU may significantly affect adolescents’ development and well-being, the results of this study may provide some practical indications for researchers and practitioners
clicktatorship and democrazy: Social media and political campaigning
This chapter aims to direct attention to the political dimension of the social media age.
Although current events like the Cambridge Analytica data breach managed to raise awareness for the
issue, the systematically organized and orchestrated mechanisms at play still remain oblivious to most.
Next to dangerous monopoly-tendencies among the powerful players on the market, reliance on
automated algorithms in dealing with content seems to enable large-scale manipulation that is applied for
economical and political purposes alike. The successful replacement of traditional parties by movements
based on personality cults around marketable young faces like Emmanuel Macron or Austria’s Sebastian
Kurz is strongly linked to products and services offered by an industry that simply provides likes and
followers for cash. Inspired by Trump’s monopolization of the Twitter-channel, these new political
acteurs use the potential of social media for effective message control, allowing them to avoid
confrontations with professional journalists. In addition, an extremely active minority of organized
agitators relies on the viral potential of the web to strongly influence and dictate public discourse –
suggesting a shift from the Spiral of Silence to the dangerous illusion of a Nexus of Noise
Rhythms of social interaction: messaging within a massive online network
We have analyzed the fully-anonymized headers of 362 million messages
exchanged by 4.2 million users of Facebook, an online social network of college
students, during a 26 month interval. The data reveal a number of strong daily
and weekly regularities which provide insights into the time use of college
students and their social lives, including seasonal variations. We also
examined how factors such as school affiliation and informal online friend
lists affect the observed behavior and temporal patterns. Finally, we show that
Facebook users appear to be clustered by school with respect to their temporal
messaging patterns
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