LGBTQ+ College Students\u27 Perceptions of Social Presence and Self-Disclosure in Online Learning: A Single-Case Study

Social interaction among learners plays a significant role in online learning environments (Garrison, 2006; Kreijns et al., 2014; Mykota, 2017). The construct of social presence in online courses is important because it influences interaction and connectedness among learners and its effects on their learning outcomes and emotional well-being. Social presence at its essence refers to how an individual is perceived as a real person in an online environment (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997). Online students must decide what aspects of their social identities they share in their interactions with their peers and instructors. Furthermore, LGBTQ+ students must negotiate what aspects of their sexual orientations or gender identities they wish to self-disclose while taking online classes. In the past, research has explored how LGBTQ+ individuals use social media and online resources to negotiate their online social identities. Members of the LGBTQ+ community have used online platforms to explore their identity, facilitate the coming out process, and as a means of social support with other members of the community and its allies. However, LGBTQ+ perspectives regarding online social presence and self-disclosure in online learning environments are unknown. The purpose of this single qualitative case study was to explore LGBTQ+ college students\u27 perceptions of social presence and its indicators, affective expression, open communication, and group cohesion in online courses related to their decisions surrounding self-disclosure. Data collection occurred through recorded participant interviews on Zoom. The interviews used semi-structured, open-ended questions created by the researcher. Interview recordings were transcribed and analyzed to uncover LGBTQ+ participants\u27 perceptions of social presence and the factors that influenced their decisions related to self-disclosure. Their responses were coded and categorized using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) and social identity theory (SIT) as theoretical frameworks. The study\u27s findings showed that the lack of collaborative and interactive activities in online classes that promote social presence left participants uncertain about how they perceived their classmates and how they may have been perceived by them. Participants described their experiences in online classes as lacking a sense of belonging and authentic connection. Furthermore, participants were reluctant to share personal information in the initially limited exchanges with their classmates. Participants\u27 decisions to self-disclose information related to their gender identity and sexual orientation were based on factors like privacy, perceived social and political climate, and openness in professional and personal lives. Participants suggested that creating safe online spaces may reduce barriers to self-disclosure through instructors identifying as allies, sharing pronouns, and displaying symbols associated with support of the LGBTQ+ community. Further research is warranted for LGBTQ+ students\u27 perceptions of social presence in online classrooms where their identities have been affirmed through institutional and environmental support

DRM and Privacy

Interrogating the relationship between copyright enforcement and privacy raises deeper questions about the nature of privacy and what counts, or ought to count, as privacy invasion in the age of networked digital technologies. This Article begins, in Part II, by identifying the privacy interests that individuals enjoy in their intellectual activities and exploring the different ways in which certain implementations of DRM technologies may threaten those interests. Part III considers the appropriate scope of legal protection for privacy in the context of DRM, and argues that both the common law of privacy and an expanded conception of consumer protection law have roles to play in protecting the privacy of information users. As Parts II and III demonstrate, consideration of how the theory and law of privacy should respond to the development and implementation of DRM technologies also raises the reverse question: How should the development and implementation of DRM technologies respond to privacy theory and law? As artifacts designed to regulate user behavior, DRM technologies already embody value choices. Might privacy itself become one of the values embodied in DRM design? Part IV argues that with some conceptual and procedural adjustments, DRM technologies and related standard-setting processes could be harnessed to preserve and protect privacy

Social Support Following Pregnancy Loss and its Implications for Women’s Experiences of Posttraumatic Growth

The available literature suggests that social support can contribute to individuals’ positive psychological changes following a traumatic event. However, the effects of the social milieu following pregnancy loss on women’s post-loss adjustment continues to be vastly unexplored. This dissertation explores a gap in the literature surrounding the relationship of interpersonal and intrapersonal social factors on women’s posttraumatic growth (PTG) after miscarriage or stillbirth via three studies. Specifically, the following factors were investigated in relation to PTG: 1) Adult attachment and women’s experiences of dyadic coping; 2) self-disclosure, positive social reactions and deliberate rumination; 3) empathy and prosocial behaviors. Women who had experienced miscarriage or stillbirth were recruited online and completed an online survey that assessed the above mentioned variables as well as demographics and loss context factors. The hypotheses were tested via hierarchical multiple regression, analysis of variance and the PROCESS macro. Overall, the findings across the three studies provide some support for applying PTG theory to women who have experienced pregnancy loss, highlighting the importance of social support in facilitating positive psychological change after the trauma of miscarriage or stillbirth. Specific findings, clinical implications, limitations and recommendations for future research are included in each manuscript

The Impacts of Privacy Rules on Users' Perception on Internet of Things (IoT) Applications: Focusing on Smart Home Security Service

Department of Management EngineeringAs communication and information technologies advance, the Internet of Things (IoT) has changed the way people live. In particular, as smart home security services have been widely commercialized, it is necessary to examine consumer perception. However, there is little research that explains the general perception of IoT and smart home services. This article will utilize communication privacy management theory and privacy calculus theory to investigate how options to protect privacy affect how users perceive benefits and costs and how those perceptions affect individuals??? intentions to use of smart home service. Scenario-based experiments were conducted, and perceived benefits and costs were treated as formative second-order constructs. The results of PLS analysis in the study showed that smart home options to protect privacy decreased perceived benefits and increased perceived costs. In addition, the perceived benefits and perceived costs significantly affected the intention to use smart home security services. This research contributes to the field of IoT and smart home research and gives practitioners notable guidelines.ope

Predicting The Disclosure of Personal Information on Social Networks: An Empirical Investigation

The present study considers factors that motivate users of social networks to publish different types of privacy-related information to friends or even the public. In contrast to prior research, we do not limit our research scope to an individual\u27s decision-making process (i.e., the formation of behavioral intentions) but also include actual behavior as observed among a group of real Facebook users. Our objective is to test to what extent existing theory is not only capable of explaining self-disclosure decisions but also to predict subsequent behavior. We test our model using a combination of structural equation modeling and logistic regression with questionnaire data and data collected from the Facebook platform. Our results indicate that the way self-disclosure was operationalized in prior research shows low predictive power, especially when compared to predictions based on simple questions regarding an individual\u27s sensitivity to the disclosure of personal information

Privacy Paradox 2.0

As a starting point, this essay offers six basic propositions. First, the \u27privacy paradox\u27 refers to inconsistencies between individuals\u27 [asserted] intentions to disclose personal information and [individuals\u27] actual ... disclosure behaviors. Put simply, we indicate-at a granular level-specific items of personal information that we will not disclose, but we then give away that same data with what appears to be little regard for the risks of doing so and for little in return. Second, the privacy paradox is a wellestablished concept in many fields of the social sciences, even though the precise contours and causes of the paradox are quite controversial. Third, broadly speaking, legal scholarship has failed to adequately consider either the various conceptions of the privacy paradox set forth in other fields of scholarship or the import of these conceptions to what may be intended or perceived as more normative legal works. Fourth, this failure creates a significant gap in what might be termed relevance, credibility, or practical effect, marginalizing the impact of legal scholarship in the formation of privacy policy. Fifth, this space in the sphere of influence elevates the role of fields that are traditionally less concerned with the core privacy values of personhood, autonomy, and control-inter alia, economics, contract law, marketing theory, and computer science. Sixth, the emergence of social network sites both alters the conditions of the privacy paradox and intensifies the rate and depth of uncontrolled disclosure, further marginalizing legal scholarship that fails to seriously consider the role of the law in privacy policy. Focusing on this final point, the goal of this essay is to describe both the current market in personal information and the privacy paradox as a product of market distortion. Part I identifies two unique phenomena that modify the conditions of the privacy paradox by creating new and powerful distortions in the market, thereby intensifying the rate and depth of personal data disclosure. The first is a transformation in social organization, which drives individuals to join social network sites and to disclose a great deal of personal information on those networks. The second is an alteration of the basic structure of the information exchange agreement that permits social networking sites to recede into the background as third-party beneficiaries to the social exchange of personal information. Part II addresses the necessity to account for the effect of these phenomena in the formation of privacy policies by briefly addressing various proposals for regulating the collection, storage, use, and transfer of personal information. This section argues that many of these proposals are misguided, either because they under-protect personal information by failing to adequately address the problems of valuation and consent or because they overprotect personal information by failing to adequately preserve functionality in socially valuable communications platforms. Part III attempts to briefly conceptualize the broad outline of a more workable solution that, rather than reforming the current notice-and-choice system of privacy protection, is guided by user expectations in imposing minimal restraints on the margins of data collection, storage, use, and transfer practices. Although a solution would impose certain boundaries on the scope of consent, significant space would remain for the negotiation and development of social norms around privacy practices

Examining the Formation of Individual\u27s Privacy Concerns: Toward an Integrative View

Numerous public opinion polls reveal that individuals are quite concerned about threats to their information privacy. However, the current understanding of privacy that emerges is fragmented and usually discipline-dependent. A systematic understanding of individuals’ privacy concerns is of increasing importance as information technologies increasingly expand the ability for organizations to store, process, and exploit personal data. Drawing on information boundary theory, we developed an integrative model suggesting that privacy concerns form because of an individual’s disposition to privacy or situational cues that enable one person to assess the consequences of information disclosure. Furthermore, a cognitive process, comprising perceived privacy risk, privacy control and privacy intrusion is proposed to shape an individual’s privacy concerns toward a specific Web site’s privacy practices. We empirically tested the research model through a survey (n=823) that was administered to users of four different types of web sites: 1) electronic commerce sites, 2) social networking sites, 3) financial sites, and 4) healthcare sites. The study reported here is novel to the extent that existing empirical research has not examined this complex set of privacy issues. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and suggestions for future research along the directions of this study are provided

Privacy Paradox 2.0

As a starting point, this essay offers six basic propositions. First, the \u27privacy paradox\u27 refers to inconsistencies between individuals\u27 [asserted] intentions to disclose personal information and [individuals\u27] actual ... disclosure behaviors. Put simply, we indicate-at a granular level-specific items of personal information that we will not disclose, but we then give away that same data with what appears to be little regard for the risks of doing so and for little in return. Second, the privacy paradox is a wellestablished concept in many fields of the social sciences, even though the precise contours and causes of the paradox are quite controversial. Third, broadly speaking, legal scholarship has failed to adequately consider either the various conceptions of the privacy paradox set forth in other fields of scholarship or the import of these conceptions to what may be intended or perceived as more normative legal works. Fourth, this failure creates a significant gap in what might be termed relevance, credibility, or practical effect, marginalizing the impact of legal scholarship in the formation of privacy policy. Fifth, this space in the sphere of influence elevates the role of fields that are traditionally less concerned with the core privacy values of personhood, autonomy, and control-inter alia, economics, contract law, marketing theory, and computer science. Sixth, the emergence of social network sites both alters the conditions of the privacy paradox and intensifies the rate and depth of uncontrolled disclosure, further marginalizing legal scholarship that fails to seriously consider the role of the law in privacy policy. Focusing on this final point, the goal of this essay is to describe both the current market in personal information and the privacy paradox as a product of market distortion. Part I identifies two unique phenomena that modify the conditions of the privacy paradox by creating new and powerful distortions in the market, thereby intensifying the rate and depth of personal data disclosure. The first is a transformation in social organization, which drives individuals to join social network sites and to disclose a great deal of personal information on those networks. The second is an alteration of the basic structure of the information exchange agreement that permits social networking sites to recede into the background as third-party beneficiaries to the social exchange of personal information. Part II addresses the necessity to account for the effect of these phenomena in the formation of privacy policies by briefly addressing various proposals for regulating the collection, storage, use, and transfer of personal information. This section argues that many of these proposals are misguided, either because they under-protect personal information by failing to adequately address the problems of valuation and consent or because they overprotect personal information by failing to adequately preserve functionality in socially valuable communications platforms. Part III attempts to briefly conceptualize the broad outline of a more workable solution that, rather than reforming the current notice-and-choice system of privacy protection, is guided by user expectations in imposing minimal restraints on the margins of data collection, storage, use, and transfer practices. Although a solution would impose certain boundaries on the scope of consent, significant space would remain for the negotiation and development of social norms around privacy practices

The Psychology of Privacy in the Digital Age

Privacy is a psychological topic suffering from historical neglect – a neglect that is increasingly consequential in an era of social media connectedness, mass surveillance and the permanence of our electronic footprint. Despite fundamental changes in the privacy landscape, social and personality psychology journals remains largely unrepresented in debates on the future of privacy. By contrast, in disciplines like computer science and media and communication studies, engaging directly with socio- technical developments, interest in privacy has grown considerably. In our review of this interdisciplinary literature we suggest four domains of interest to psychologists. These are: sensitivity to individual differences in privacy disposition; a claim that privacy is fundamentally based in social interactions; a claim that privacy is inherently contextual; and a suggestion that privacy is as much about psychological groups as it is about individuals. Moreover, we propose a framework to enable progression to more integrative models of the psychology of privacy in the digital age, and in particular suggest that a group and social relations based approach to privacy is needed

Social Data

As online social media grow, it is increasingly important to distinguish between the different threats to privacy that arise from the conversion of our social interactions into data. One well-recognized threat is from the robust concentrations of electronic information aggregated into colossal databases. Yet much of this same information is also consumed socially and dispersed through a user interface to hundreds, if not thousands, of peer users. In order to distinguish relationally shared information from the threat of the electronic database, this essay identifies the massive amounts of personal information shared via the user interface of social technologies as “social data.” The main thesis of this essay is that, unlike electronic databases, which are the focus of the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs), there are no commonly accepted principles to guide the recent explosion of voluntarily adopted practices, industry codes, and laws that address social data. This essay aims to remedy that by proposing three social data principles — a sort of FIPPs for the front-end of social media: the Boundary Regulation Principle, the Identity Integrity Principle, and the Network Integrity Principle. These principles can help courts, policymakers, and organizations create more consistent and effective rules regarding the use of social data