A User-Focused Reference Model for Wireless Systems Beyond 3G

This whitepaper describes a proposal from Working Group 1, the Human Perspective of the Wireless World, for a user-focused reference model for systems beyond 3G. The general structure of the proposed model involves two "planes": the Value Plane and the Capability Plane. The characteristics of these planes are discussed in detail and an example application of the model to a specific scenario for the wireless world is provided

Put your best face forward: adolescent use of Facebook and the establishment of a hypermeality

Department Head: Sue Pendell.2010 Summer.Includes bibliographical references (pages 92-99).This thesis seeks to understand how adolescents, aged 13-15, use the online social network (OSN) of Facebook to perform identity. Over the course of three chapters, the researcher uses the frameworks of social semiotics, narrative studies, and performance studies to analyze the site's design, features, and users, respectively. This analysis is meant to clarify whether Facebook as a medium rearranges and changes the activities of a generalized adolescent population in U.S. America, or if the medium simply reinforces pre-existing social practices. To answer this question, the study focuses heavily on the use of a new term, "hypermeality," in order to explain the communal narrativization of the social self online. The study concludes by stating that Facebook creates a hyperreal environment for both negative and positive outcomes of networking. These negatives include cyberbullying, self-centrism and problematic Internet use, while the positives include online community building and cosmopolitanism that might extend to offline behaviors and awareness. It is the goal of this thesis to add to the conversation on new media technologies, contributing to a better understanding of how the previously mentioned theoretical frameworks can be applied to the study of OSNs—their role and function in the lives of adolescent computer users. This knowledge should foster the development of safe OSNs, intergenerational computer-mediated communication, and the de-stigmatization of new media cultures

#effyourbeautystandards: message construction in the body positivity movement on Instagram

Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018Beauty is a socially constructed concept that delineates specific characteristics of physical appearance which are to be perceived as aesthetically pleasing. In Western cultures, the ideal of this constructed beauty can be found to center on thinness. Reinforced through media images, the thin ideal can lead to internalization and increased body dissatisfaction in female viewers. To counteract body dissatisfaction resulting from internalization of these ideals, advocators on the social media platform Instagram can be seen to popularize the concept of body positivity. The resulting social movement aims at enabling individuals who do not fit the normed thin ideal to develop a benevolent approach to their physique. In the analysis of a sample of 280 Instagram posts concerned with the body positivity movement, a clear trend towards an adjusted construction of self-presentation was observed that clearly differs from socially enforced norms of beauty and ideal body size. When constructing posts that are concerned with body positivity, users of Instagram adjust the creation of their digital personality to fit the norms of imperfection and honesty inherent in the movement. Interviews conducted by the researcher further confirmed that the public recognizes that the messages communicated within this movement reveal personal stories and insecurities to both function as inspiration and motivation to the audience while also constituting a means of receiving validation

Self-Organising Map Approach to Individual Profiles: Age, Sex and Culture in Internet Dating

A marked feature of recent developments in the networked society has been the growth in the number of people making use of Internet dating services. These services involve the accumulation of large amounts of personal information which individuals utilise to find others and potentially arrange offline meetings. The consequent data represent a challenge to conventional analysis, for example, the service that provided the data used in this paper had approximately 5,000 users all of whom completed an extensive questionnaire resulting in some 300 parameters. This creates an opportunity to apply innovative analytical techniques that may provide new sociological insights into complex data. In this paper we utilise the self-organising map (SOM), an unsupervised neural network methodology, to explore Internet dating data. The resulting visual maps are used to demonstrate the ability of SOMs to reveal interrelated parameters. The SOM process led to the emergence of correlations that were obscured in the original data and pointed to the role of what we call \'cultural age\' in the profiles and partnership preferences of the individuals. Our results suggest that the SOM approach offers a well established methodology that can be easily applied to complex sociological data sets. The SOM outcomes are discussed in relation to other research about identifying others and forming relationships in a network society.Self-Organising Map; Neural Network; Complex Data; Internet Dating; Age; Sex; Culture; Relationship; Visualisation

Digital native identity development in virtual worlds

In the transition from childhood to adolescence, teens are engaged in defining who they are and finding a place in the wide world creates insecurity. Digital natives are growing up as part of digital generation where technology is ubiquitous in a young person’s life. One online technology commonly used by digital natives are virtual worlds. Increasingly, they have come to rely on this digital media to help them navigate the challenges and issues they face in this period of life. This paper presents a research framework designed to provide a road map for the IS community in conducting research into this new and exciting area of virtual worlds and their impact on digital native identity development

Analysis of Social Networks in a Virtual World

As three-dimensional virtual environments become both more prevalent and more fragmented, studying how users are connected via their avatars and how they benefit from the virtual world community has become a significant area of research. An in-depth analysis of virtual world Social networks is needed to evaluate how users interact in virtual worlds, to better understand the impact of avatar Social networks on the virtual worlds, and to improve future online Social networks. Our current efforts are focused on building and exploring the Social network aspects of virtual worlds. In this thesis, we build a Social network of avatars based on their interaction in the Second Life virtual world and compare it to other Social networking sites found on the web. Experimental results with data crawled from Second Life virtual worlds demonstrate that our approach was able to build a representative network of avatars in a virtual world from the sample data. The analysis comparison between virtual world Social networks and others in the flat web allows us to gauge measures that better explore the relationship between locations linked by multiple users and their avatars. Using this comparison, we can also determine if techniques of personalized search and content recommendation are feasible for virtual world environments

Depression, self-esteem and narcissism and its association with Facebook use

Based on extensive research from the USA, Europe and Asia into mental health symptoms, it has been suggested that mental health might be influenced by social networking use, and specifically Facebook. It is evident that there is a gap in studies and local research into mental health and social networking. From a South African perspective, there appears to be no known research conducted in this field, and therefore the rationale for the present study was based on the observation that, as a large proportion of South African internet users also use Facebook, it would be fruitful to focus on whether mental health symptoms were influenced by Facebook use in a South African setting. The study adopted a quantitative approach to explore different hypotheses. The hypotheses included whether more Facebook activity might correlate with an increase in feelings of depression (Hypothesis 1); whether there was a correlation between individuals with low self-esteem and their level of Facebook activity (Hypothesis 2); and whether high narcissism scores in individuals indicated a correlation with increased or high levels of Facebook activity (Hypothesis 3). A total of 336 participants who were students from the University of Cape Town (UCT) completed the survey, which comprised several questionnaires. The first questionnaire required participants to provide their demographic information. The second measure addressed their Facebook online activity, requiring that participants indicate how many times they check their Facebook page each day, the time spent on Facebook per session, and how they accessed Facebook. Other questionnaires assessed the psychological constructs of depression, self-esteem and narcissism, using existing scales. These included the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II); the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D); the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES); and the Narcissism Personality Inventory (NPI-16). The data were analysed across several steps, including descriptive statistics, to explore demographics (i.e. age, sex and race); then participants' scores on the psychological constructs (BDI-II, CES-D, RSES, and NPI-16) were explored to gain an overall impression of the sample and a basic understanding of how participants scored on the various psychological constructs. Thereafter Pearson correlations were calculated to assess whether participants' scores on the psychological constructs correlated with their Facebook activity, as measured by their time spent, the number of times they checked Facebook, and their method of access. The results indicated that there was no significant relationship between Facebook activity and the psychological constructs explored. This finding contradicts various studies discussed in the literature review, some of which suggest that Facebook use could have a negative effect on depressive symptoms, self-esteem and narcissistic traits, and some which suggest that Facebook use could have a positive effect on mental health