Gender and image sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp in the UK: Hobbying alone or filtering for friends?

Purpose: Despite the ongoing shift from text-based to image-based communication in the social web, supported by the affordances of smartphones, little is known about the new image sharing practices. Both gender and platform type seem likely to be important, but it is unclear how. Design/methodology/approach: This article surveys an age-balanced sample of UK Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp image sharers with a range of exploratory questions about platform use, privacy, interactions, technology use and profile pictures. Findings: Females shared photos more often overall and shared images more frequently on Snapchat, but males shared more images on Twitter, particularly for hobbies. Females also tended to have more privacy-related concerns but were more willing, in principle, to share pictures of their children. Females also interacted more through others’ images by liking and commenting on them. Both genders used supporting apps but in different ways: females applied filters and posted to albums whereas males retouched photos and used photo organising apps. Finally, males were more likely to be alone in their profile pictures. Practical implications: Those designing visual social web communication strategies to reach out to users should consider the different ways in which platforms are used by males and females to optimise their message for their target audience. Social implications: There are clear gender and platform differences in visual communication strategies. Overall, males may tend to have more informational, and females more relationship-based, skills or needs. Originality/value: This is the first detailed survey of electronic image sharing practices and the first to systematically compare the current generation of platforms

The Intersection of Technology and Everyday Life

27 pagesGrowing up in the age of technology, mobile phones and tablets are all that we've ever known. As a society, we have become reliant on the connectedness that our phones give us to people from all across the world. In some cases, we have become addicted to how we interact with screen-based technology. Built into phones and apps are different techniques to keep us looking longer and scrolling more. I am going to analyze how our use of screen-based technology and phones has changed over time and examine the impact that this has had on society—specifically with Generation Z. With my background in computer science and coding, I will develop an app that focuses on bringing people back into real life. After certain intervals of time of continuous use of your phone, the app will pop up a reminder to take a break, drink some water, and bring yourself back into the moment. With this gentle reminder, I'm hoping to enable people to relieve their dependency to screen-based technology a bit. With the research that I gather, I will interpret the importance of the app and the potential applications it will have to daily life and the impacts it could bring to my generation

How players across gender and age experience Pokémon Go?

The purpose of this study is to provide insights into player experiences and motivations in Pokémon Go, a relatively new phenomenon of location-based augmented reality games. With the increasing usage and adoption of various forms of digital games worldwide, investigating the motivations for playing games has become crucial not only for researchers but for game developers, designers, and policy makers. Using an online survey (N = 1190), the study explores the motivational, usage, and privacy concerns variations among age and gender groups of Pokémon Go players. Most of the players, who are likely to be casual gamers, are persuaded toward the game due to nostalgic association and word of mouth. Females play Pokémon Go to fulfill physical exploration and enjoyment gratifications. On the other hand, males seek to accomplish social interactivity, achievement, coolness, and nostalgia gratifications. Compared to females, males are more concerned about the privacy aspects associated with the game. With regard to age, younger players display strong connotation with most of the studied gratifications and the intensity drops significantly with an increase in age. With the increasing use of online and mobile games worldwide among all cohorts of society, the study sets the way for a deeper analysis of motivation factors with respect to age and gender. Understanding motivations for play can provide researchers with the analytic tools to gain insight into the preferences for and effects of game play for different kinds of users

Privacy and Security Information Awareness and Disclosure of Private Information by Users of Online Social Media in the Ibadan Metropolis, Nigeria

The purpose of this paper is to investigate information privacy and security awareness among online social media (OSM) users in the Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria. Building upon the social exchange theory, some factors that could influence the disclosure of private information on social media were identified. Findings from the analysis of data of 255 respondents revealed that most were aware of information privacy and security measures available on OSM, and the risks associated with the disclosure of private information on OSM. Privacy and security awareness, the perception of benefits associated with the use of OSM, the perception of risks associated with the use of OSM, trust in the security of OSM, and the respondents’ privacy and security self-efficacy influenced the disclosure of private information, while gender did not. Social media providers should provide more enlightenment on privacy settings available on the platforms to create more security and privacy consciousness

Virtual communication among couples

Este artículo analiza las comunicaciones virtuales en las parejas. Se ha aplicado una encuesta representativa online a 2800 internautas. Se emplean metodologías de análisis cuantitativas, discriminativas y de segmentación para identificar las características de quienes virtualizan las interacciones con sus parejas y de cómo las valoran. Los resultados muestran que dicha virtualización está condicionada, no sólo por las variables de edad y sexo de los encuestados, sino por su ocupación, educación, hábitat, estado civil, y hábitos de uso de internet. Y que este conjunto de factores operan de forma interdependiente. Hallazgo que permite entender mejor el funcionamiento de la llamada “brecha digital”.This paper analyzes virtual communications in couples. A representative online survey has been applied to 2800 Internet users. Quantitative, discriminative and segmentation analysis methodologies are used to identify the characteristics of those who virtualize interactions with their partners and how they value them. The results show that such virtualization is conditioned, not only by the variables of age and sex of the respondents, but by their occupation, education, habitat, marital status, and internet usage habits. All these factors operate interdependently. This finding tallows us to better understand the operation of the so-called “digital divide”.Proyecto I+D+i del Grupo de investigación “Identidades sociales y comunicación” de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, (UCM). Proyecto financiado por el Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Referencia CSO2015-63983-P Duración: 4 años 2016 –2019

An integrated model for information adoption & trust in mobile social commerce

Despite the growing importance of mobile social commerce (ms-commerce), little research has been conducted on the effects of informational and social factors on users’ post-adoption behavior. We, therefore, build on the understanding of mobile social commerce in the UK market and how it affects users’ post-adoption behaviors. Our theoretical model leverages the information adoption model, social support theory, and social influence theory. Data was gathered from 377 ms-commerce users from the UK and analyzed via Partial Least Squares (PLS-SEM). The research findings show that both informational and social factors have a positive impact on information adoption in ms-commerce apps. Furthermore, information adoption has a positive impact on trust, which leads to ms-commerce purchase intention, ms-commerce continuance intention, and willingness to share an ms-commerce experience

Evaluación de aplicaciones educativas de AR con estudiantes adultos

There is a growing interest in the educational applications of Augmented Reality (AR). While most applications of these technologies have been examined in the context of children education, our knowledge about their usefulness in adult education is deficient and particularly more in the category of Location-Based Augmented Reality (LBMAR) games, so the aim of this thesis is to examine the opinions of adult learners (young, middle-aged and elderly) about one particular LBMAR game, the “Ingress”. The main problems addressed by this research comprise questions relating to the usefulness of some key technological components of AR in education (secondarily) and to aspects of training adults by using AR (primarily). As concerns the technological aspects, i.e. "which one of the three types of AR (marker-based, markerless, location-based) is more often associated with naturalistic approaches and what are their relative advantages?”, this research showed that naturalistic approaches applied to marker-based AR enhance active participation in virtual environments, motivate learners, promote personal involvement in conquering new information, offer different perspectives of the content and arouse interest for knowledge. In the case of markerless AR, naturalistic designs foster participants’ collaboration in games, enhance interactivity, offer panoramic views, visualization, and the possibility to examine the role of visual controls. Moreover, naturalistic approaches applied to location-based AR are suitable for designing multidisciplinary applications, can be used for training and have the possibility to be designed so as to account for locality and context. The fact that, as appears from the peer-reviewed literature that was examined, the location-based AR technologies are more appropriate for education and for smartphones, hints that a deeper examination of their potential usefulness for education (and for adult education in particular) might be interesting. As concerns the educational aspects, which also constitute the main focus of the thesis, these focus on the exploration of the usefulness of the LBMAR game “Ingress” in adult education, by answering two intertwined questions: a) how to assess opinions of adult learners about the LBMAR game “Ingress”? and b) what do adult learners think about this game and how do they perceive its features? Providing answers to these questions is tantamount to receiving adequate results from quantitative and qualitative empirical research which would be designed so as to explore their opinions, views and attitudes with respect to this LBMAR game. Hence, 45 adult persons from Greece, aged 20 to 62,cooperated as subjects of this research. They followed a short introductory informal training (on AR, VR, MAR and the games that are relevant to these technologies) by the researcher of this thesis and were subsequently given the instructions of how to use “Ingress” on a smartphone. The quantitative research was carried out before and after training and all trainees participated by filling 31 Likert-type closed questions before and after training. The qualitative research was based on the analysis of their responses to two different sets of open-ended questions. The first set consisted in 5 such questions to which answered 24 participants and the second set had 2 broader questions to which responded 36 participants. This research showed the advantages for adult education of integrating the ARCS model into the learning phase of an LBMAR game. Specifically, it was shown that using Keller’s widely known “ARCS model” (Attention – Relevance – Confidence - Satisfaction) enabled the classification of users’ responses with respect to their interaction with the game and is therefore useful in evaluating adult education with LBMAR games. The players’ responses did not change linearly with their age and the training has had different impact on each age group of learners. Also, statistical analyses proved that training increased the scores of the factors of ARCS model. Other results of this research showed that those over 36 years old focused more on the facts that the play of “Ingress” is primarily a geographical game and its scenario reflects interesting discussions about the evolution of humanity. Participants in the age groups 20–35 and >52 agreed that the game does not have idle phases, that it combines excitement with insecurity, and that it is pleasant to play locally a game of planetary proportions.Another age-related observation concerned the answers to the question (“How do you feel when you endow the geographical space with personal preferences?”) between age groups with age groups agreeing in pairs: the first two age groups (20–30) and (30–40) agreed more than with the last two (40–50) and (50–60). Yet, in question “Do you think that the game offers opportunities for learning and teaching geography, building on your previous geographical knowledge?” , there was an overlap in the responses of participants among age groups. As for the first question, the most critical concept was: “the users feel a kind of nostalgia”, followed by the concept “the users consider portals as personal creations”. In the case of the second question, the most critical concept was that the participants believe that the game offers entirely new opportunities for education in geography, compared with their previous experiences. This fosters an evidence of constructivist approaches to adult education and, also, relevance of some other prominent theories of adult education such as humanism. Methodologically, this research it was shown that content analysis is a valuable method for exploring opinions and attitudes of adult users towards MAR games and Jaccard indices can be used to quantitatively explore themes emerging from content analysis. Content analysis was performed on the users’ responses qualitatively in order to identify characteristic sentences expressing attitudes and opinions. For the quantitative assessment of similarities between responses for each question and subconcept, the Jaccard similarity index was calculated pair-wise for every pair of participants. In addition to the Jaccard indices and furthering the scope of new methods for content analysis, this thesis shows how to use Social Network Analysis (SNA) to model concept maps, thus opening up excellent opportunities to create visualizations of concepts and their inter-relationships. Quantitative aspects of SNA analysis (i.e. by using radial centrality and information centrality) provide mechanisms suitable to measure internal relationships in concept maps (in addition to visual inspection) that would not otherwise be visible. Using SNA enabled the classification of users’ responses with respect to their interaction with the game and therefore was a fruitful approach for education that involves MAR games. Furthermore, with this novelty, it is shown how texts derived from interviews or from responses to open questions by different individuals can be analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively with SNA. Concluding, this research has produced novelties at both the educational and the methodological levels. As concerns adult education, it was shown that i) LBMAR games are suitable for it, ii) adult education about them can be enhanced by following Keller’s ARCS model, iii) perception and satisfaction of adult learners depends on age, and iv) certain theories of adult education (i.e. constructivism and humanism) can be relevant when adult learners use LBMAR games such as “Ingress”. As concerns methods of educational research, this research suggested entirely new methods, for first time ever, for analyzing data that are derived from trainees' responses to open questions. These new methods are content analysis of the participants’ responses with the use of Jaccard indices and methods of SNA and can have a wider applicability to educational research.Existe un creciente interés por las aplicaciones educativas de la Realidad Aumentada (RA). Mientras que la mayoría de las aplicaciones de estas tecnologías se han examinado en el contexto de la educación infantil, nuestro conocimiento sobre su utilidad en la educación de adultos es deficiente y, en particular, más en la categoría de juegos de Realidad Aumentada Basada en la Localización (LBMAR), por lo que el objetivo de esta tesis es examinar las opiniones de los estudiantes adultos (jóvenes, de mediana edad y mayores) sobre un juego LBMAR, el "Ingress". Los principales problemas que aborda esta investigación comprenden cuestiones relacionadas con la utilidad de algunos componentes tecnológicos de la RA en la educación (secundariamente) y con aspectos de la formación de adultos mediante el uso de la RA (principalmente). En cuanto a los aspectos tecnológicos, es decir "¿cuál de los tres tipos de RA (basada en marcadores, sin marcadores, basada en la localización) se asocia más a los enfoques naturalistas y cuáles son sus ventajas relativas?", esta investigación demostró que los enfoques naturalistas aplicados a la RA basada en marcadores potencian la participación activa en entornos virtuales, motivan a los alumnos, promueven la implicación personal en la conquista de nueva información, ofrecen diferentes perspectivas del contenido y despiertan el interés por el conocimiento. En el caso de la RA sin marcadores, los diseños naturalistas fomentan la colaboración de los participantes en los juegos, mejoran la interactividad, ofrecen vistas panorámicas, visualización y la posibilidad de examinar los controles visuales. Además, los enfoques naturalistas aplicados a la RA basada en la localización son adecuados para el diseño de aplicaciones multidisciplinares, pueden utilizarse para la formación y tienen la posibilidad de diseñarse teniendo en cuenta la localidad y el contexto. El hecho de que, como se desprende de la literatura revisada por pares que se examinó, las tecnologías de RA basadas en la localización son más apropiadas para la educación y para los teléfonos smartphones, sugiere que podría ser interesante un examen más profundo de su utilidad potencial para la educación (y para la educación de adultos en particular). En cuanto a los aspectos educativos, que también constituyen el foco principal de la tesis, éstos se centran en la exploración de la utilidad del juego LBMAR "Ingress" en la educación de adultos, respondiendo a dos preguntas entrelazadas: a) ¿cómo evaluar las opiniones de los alumnos adultos sobre el juego LBMAR "Ingress"? y b) ¿qué piensan los alumnos adultos sobre este juego y cómo perciben sus características? Dar respuesta a estas preguntas equivale a recibir resultados adecuados de una investigación empírica, cuantitativa y cualitativa, que se diseñaría para explorar sus opiniones, puntos de vista y actitudes con respecto a este juego LBMAR. Por lo tanto, 45 personas adultas de Grecia, con edades entre 20 y 62 años, colaboraron como sujetos de esta investigación. Siguieron una breve formación informal introductoria por parte del investigador de esta tesis (sobre RA, realidad virtual, RA móvil, y sobre los juegos relacionados con estas tecnologías) y posteriormente se les dieron las instrucciones de cómo utilizar "Ingress" en un smartphone. La investigación cuantitativa se llevó a cabo antes y después de la formación y todos los alumnos participaron respondiendo a 31 preguntas cerradas del tipo Likert antes y después de la formación. La investigación cualitativa se basó en el análisis de sus respuestas a dos conjuntos diferentes de preguntas abiertas. El primer conjunto constaba de 5 preguntas de este tipo (a las que respondieron 24 participantes) y el segundo conjunto tenía 2 preguntas más amplias, a las que respondieron 36 participantes. La investigación cuantitativa mostró las ventajas para la educación de adultos de integrar el modelo ARCS en la fase de aprendizaje de un juego LBMAR. En concreto, se demostró que la utilización del conocido "modelo ARCS" de Keller (Atención - Relevancia - Confianza - Satisfacción) permitió clasificar las respuestas de los usuarios con respecto a sus interacciones con el juego y, también, es útil para evaluar la educación de adultos con juegos LBMAR. Las respuestas de los jugadores no cambiaron linealmente con su edad y el entrenamiento ha tenido un impacto diferente en cada grupo de edad de los alumnos. Además, los análisis estadísticos demostraron que el entrenamiento aumentó las puntuaciones de los factores del modelo ARCS. Otros resultados de esta investigación mostraron que los mayores de 36 años se centraron más en el hecho de que el juego "Ingress" es principalmente un juego geográfico y su escenario refleja interesantes debates sobre la evolución de la humanidad. Las opiniones de los participantes de los grupos de edad de 20-35 y >52 coincidieron en que el juego no tiene fases ociosas, que combina la emoción con la inseguridad y que es agradable jugar a nivel local a un juego de proporciones planetarias. Otra observación relacionada con la edad se refería a las respuestas a la pregunta ("¿Cómo te sientes cuando dotas al espacio geográfico de preferencias personales?") entre grupos de edad que coincidían: los dos primeros grupos de edad (20-30) y (30-40) estaban más de acuerdo que los dos últimos (40-50) y (50-60). Sin embargo, en la pregunta "¿Crees que el juego ofrece oportunidades para aprender y enseñar geografía, aprovechando tus conocimientos geográficos previos?" hubo un solapamiento en las respuestas de los participantes entre los grupos de edad. En cuanto a la primera pregunta, el concepto más crítico fue: "los usuarios sienten una especie de nostalgia", seguido del concepto "los usuarios consideran los portales como creaciones personales". En el caso de la segunda pregunta, el concepto más crítico fue que los participantes creen que el juego ofrece oportunidades totalmente nuevas para la educación en geografía en comparación con sus experiencias anteriores. Esto fomenta una evidencia de los enfoques constructivistas de la educación de adultos y, también, la relevancia de algunas otras teorías prominentes de la educación de adultos, como el humanismo. Metodológicamente, esta investigación demostró también que el análisis de contenido es un método valioso para explorar las opiniones y actitudes de los usuarios adultos hacia los juegos MAR y los índices de Jaccard pueden utilizarse para explorar cuantitativamente los temas que surgen del análisis de contenido. El análisis de contenido se realizó sobre las respuestas de los usuarios de forma cualitativa para identificar las frases características que expresan actitudes y opiniones. Para la evaluación cuantitativa de las similitudes entre las respuestas de cada pregunta y subconcepto, se calculó el índice de similitud de Jaccard por parejas para cada par de participantes. Además de los índices de Jaccard y de ampliar el alcance de los nuevos métodos de análisis de contenido, esta tesis muestra cómo utilizar el Análisis de Redes Sociales (Social Networks Analysis - SNA) para modelar los mapas conceptuales, abriendo así excelentes oportunidades para crear visualizaciones de los conceptos y sus interrelaciones. Los aspectos cuantitativos del análisis SNA (es decir mediante el uso de la centralidad radial y la centralidad de la información) proporcionan mecanismos adecuados para medir las relaciones internas en los mapas conceptuales (además de la inspección visual) que de otro modo no serían visibles. El uso del SNA permitió la clasificación de las respuestas de los usuarios con respecto a su interacción con el juego y, por lo tanto, fue un enfoque fructífero para la educación que involucra los juegos MAR. Además, con esta novedad, se muestra cómo los textos derivados de las entrevistas o de las respuestas a las preguntas abiertas de diferentes individuos pueden ser analizados tanto cualitativamente como cuantitativamente usando SNA. En conclusión, esta investigación ha aportado novedades, tanto a nivel educativo como metodológico. En lo que respecta a la educación de adultos, se ha demostrado que i) los juegos LBMAR son adecuados para ella, ii) la educación de adultos sobre ellos puede mejorarse siguiendo el modelo ARCS de Keller, iii) la percepción y la satisfacción de los alumnos adultos depende de la edad, y iv) ciertas teorías de la educación de adultos (es decir, el constructivismo y el humanismo) pueden ser relevantes cuando los alumnos adultos utilizan juegos LBMAR como "Ingress". En cuanto a los métodos de investigación educativa, esta investigación sugirió métodos totalmente nuevos para analizar los datos que se derivan de las respuestas de los alumnos a las preguntas abiertas. Estos nuevos métodos son el análisis de contenido de las respuestas de los participantes con el uso de los índices de Jaccard y los métodos de SNA y pueden tener una aplicabilidad más amplia a la investigación educativa

Antecedentes e consequências da fadiga de redes sociais

Mestrado Bolonha em MarketingPerante o aumento da utilização de redes sociais, é necessário estar ciente de que para além dos benefícios que se pode obter através destas, também existe um lado negativo que pode ter repercussões em quem as utiliza. Os utilizadores de redes sociais, perante um conjunto de fatores associados a estas plataformas e à sua utilização, podem sentir fadiga. Por sua vez, a fadiga de redes sociais pode ter consequências para esses mesmos utilizadores. Posto isto, através deste estudo pretende-se perceber quais os fatores que antecedem a fadiga de redes sociais e quais as consequências da mesma. Este estudo assenta numa metodologia quantitativa, conduzida através de um questionário divulgado com recurso à Internet. Resultante de uma amostragem não-probabilística por conveniência e bola de neve, foram obtidas 462 respostas, das quais 318 se consideraram válidas. Os resultados obtidos através de método de modelagem de equações estruturais de mínimos quadrados (PLS-SEM) evidenciam que no que toca ao comportamento dos utilizadores nas redes sociais, a comparação social é o único fator que influencia a fadiga de redes sociais. No entanto, esta fadiga também é impactada pela sobrecarga de informação, pela sobrecarga de comunicação e pela sobrecarga social. As relações entre os fatores referidos e a fadiga são positivas, pelo que a fadiga aumenta à medida que estes fatores também aumentam. Por sua vez, esta fadiga afeta a intenção de descontinuidade e o bem-estar dos utilizadores de redes sociais. Assim, o crescimento da fadiga de redes sociais tem como consequências o aumento da intenção de descontinuidade e a diminuição do bem-estar. A nível académico, o presente estudo permitiu obter mais conhecimento sobre os antecedentes e as consequências da fadiga de redes sociais, explorando relações que ainda não tinham sido estabelecidas ou que ainda não tinham sido analisadas em conjunto. A nível empresarial, permite que as estratégias utilizadas em redes sociais sejam repensadas e adaptadas consoante os fatores que aumentam a fadiga e possibilita uma análise do impacto das consequências da fadiga para as organizações.Given the increase in the use of social media, it is necessary to be conscious that in addition to the benefits that they bring, there is also a negative side that can have repercussions on those who use them. Social media users, faced with a set of factors associated with these platforms, may feel fatigue. In turn, social media fatigue can have consequences for those users. Hereupon, through this study it is intended to understand which factors precede social media fatigue and what its consequences are. This study is based on a quantitative methodology, conducted through a questionnaire published on the Internet. Resulting from a non-probabilistic convenience and snowball sampling, 462 responses were obtained, of which 318 were considered valid. The results obtained through partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) show that regarding to the behavior of social media users, social comparison is the only factor that influences social media fatigue. However, this fatigue is also impacted by information overload, communication overload and social overload. The relationships between the mentioned factors and fatigue are positive, so fatigue increases as these factors also increase. In turn, this fatigue affects social media discontinuance intention and social media users’ well-being. Thus, the growth of social media fatigue leads to an increase in the discontinuance intention and a decrease in well-being. At the academic level, the present study allowed to obtain more knowledge about the antecedents and consequences of social media fatigue, exploring relationships that had not been established yet or that had not been analyzed together yet. At the business level, allows to rethink and adapt the strategies used in social media according to the factors that increase fatigue and allows an analysis of the impact of the consequences of fatigue for organizations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio