The Relationship Between Social Media Engagement and Psychological Well-Being in College Students at The University of New Hampshire

Social media use has increased substantially in recent years, and for the college-aged population, social media is often the leading method of communication. Research indicates this reliance on digital connection could have a negative impact on the health of young adults (Bagroy et al., 2017). The college years are a time of personal growth and defining actions, yet can also be burdened by mental health issues related to stress, anxiety, and depression (Hunt & Eisenberg, 2010). Acknowledging these trends, the current study explores how college students’ specific frequency and intentionality while interacting on social media relates to their psychological well-being. A brief online survey was developed, comprised of questions aiming to quantify student’s behavior while engaging on social media, as well as use of the validated Brief Inventory of Thriving Scale (BIT) to measure psychological well-being. A total of 177 students were surveyed, with an average age of 20.7, 78.5% female, and 69.5% upperclassmen from a variety of academic majors. Findings from this study indicate that students spent the most amount of time using Snapchat (2.77 avg. hr./day), Instagram (2.26 avg. hr./day), and YouTube (1.28 avg. hr./day). Participants (42.9%) expressed editing some to all of their content before posting, and 73.5% indicated checking social media right before going to bed. A Spearman\u27s rank-order correlation did not identify any significant relationships between the number of hours spent using Instagram or Snapchat and any items of the BIT. Additionally, there was a weak, negative correlation between checking social media both when waking up (r=-0.263, p\u3c0.001) and before going to bed (r=-0.247, p=0.001), and the BIT item “my life has a clear sense of purpose”. Therefore, social media intentionality, compared to frequency, may have a greater impact on psychological well-being than frequency

Reverse Metadesign: Pedagogy And Learning Tools For Teaching The Fashion Collection Design Process Online

[EN] The present article discusses the experience of redesigning the pedagogy and learning tools of a pillar course at the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano, the Metadesign studio course. Metadesign is a design methodology that leads to the concept definition of a new product or service, through a research process that synthesizes design goals, technological and productive constraints, market context and consumption trends for a consumers’ group of reference. It represents a unique methodological approach characterizing the design education as it provides a consolidated research practice able to support the design process. The course structure foresees the reconstruction in phases and successive elaborations of all the elements of context that come into relation with the object of the design process (product, space, service, communication artifact…) influencing its characteristics and creating the “abacus” of elements that make its development possible. In line with the ever-increasing need to reshape the whole education system through the paradigms of digital transformation, and due the acceleration the COVID-19 emergency pushed to the request for on-distance courses, the article presents a renewed reverse course structure, highlighting strengths and opportunities for further improvements that represent a solid base for innovating a fashion design education.Casciani, D.; Colombi, C.; Vacca, F. (2021). Reverse Metadesign: Pedagogy And Learning Tools For Teaching The Fashion Collection Design Process Online. En 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 75-83. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd21.2021.13181OCS758

An exploration of South African university students utilization of and engagement with mental health-related information on Instagram

Mental health difficulties are prevalent among university students in South Africa and globally, but help-seeking is low due to a variety of structural and attitudinal barriers. It is therefore important to find novel ways of offering mental health information and support through modalities that are both accessible and acceptable to students. Although there has been much concern about the role of social networking sites (SNS) in creating risk for mental health difficulties, SNS are also increasingly being utilized by young adults to access mental health-related content for purposes of education, awareness, and support. However, there has not been any research to date on how university students in South Africa use and engage with mental health-related content on SNS. The current mixed methods study explored South African university students' experiences of accessing and using mental health-related information on Instagram. In the first phase of the study, an online survey was administered to Psychology students (n= 335) at a South African university, exploring use of Instagram to access mental health content. A content analysis was then performed on the ten most commonly accessed mental health-related Instagram accounts listed by survey participants. Finally, seven participants who completed the survey took part in semi-structured interviews to further explore their experiences of using Instagram to access mental health content. A combination of descriptive statistics and thematic analysis was used to analyze data across the three phases. The most common types of mental health content accessed by participants included mental health awareness and psycho-education, inspiration, coping strategies, as well as memes and humour. The most significant qualitative themes from the findings included using Instagram to improve awareness and management of one's own and other people's mental health symptoms, develop better coping mechanisms, find self-care tips, experience connectedness and social support, normalise mental health difficulties and validate and alleviate negative feelings. A small minority of participants reported that accessing mental health-related content on Instagram was unhelpful or triggering. Overall, the findings indicate that Instagram offers an accessible and acceptable source of mental health information, coping strategies, connectedness and validation for participants struggling with mental health issues. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed

4sh: Coping via Crayons, Canvas, and Mixed-Media Artmaking

This arts-based thesis is a personal account of making sense of loss, embracing emotion, and the cathartic qualities of mixed-media art relying greatly on family photographs. The findings from this will inform my teaching approach and assist budding artists (my pupils) in creating connections by breaking down walls to promote growth of their artistic voice

Profiles, identities, data: making abundant and anchored selves in a platform society

The practice of profile making has become ubiquitous in digital culture. Internet users are regularly invited, and usually required, to create a profile for a plethora of digital media, including mega social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Understanding profiles as a set of identity performances, I argue that the platforms employ profiles to enable and incentivize particular ways and foreclose other ways of self-performance. Drawing on research into digital media and identities, combined with mediatization theories, I show how the platforms: (a) embrace datafication logic (gathering as much data as possible and pinpointing the data to a particular unit); (b) translate the logic into design and governance of profiles (update stream and profile core); and (c) coax—at times coerce—their users into making of abundant but anchored selves, that is, performing identities which are capacious, complex, and volatile but singular and coherent at the same time

A Pedagogy of Techno-Social Relationality: Ethics and Digital Multimodality in the Composition Classroom

I bring together the relational ethics of feminist critical theory with approaches of multimodal rhetoric to examine the ethical implications of composing on social media platforms. Most social media platforms are designed to value consumerism, efficiency, quantity of web traffic, and constant synchronous response over concerns of responsible and critical communication. I propose a rhetorical approach of techno-social relationality (TSR) as an intervention against such corporate-minded design. Through this approach, I argue that civil engagement is not limited to people’s social responsibilities but rather is entwined in complex, material-technical contexts. By considering the responsibility of our machines as much as ourselves, I lay a foundation for the multimodal writing pedagogies I would like to see implemented in composition courses

Mapping the digital food environment: A scoping review protocol

Introduction Food environments are the interface through which people interact with the broader food system. They are a key determinant of healthy and sustainable diets. The widespread use of digital technology in late modernity and the shift towards a digital society have posed new challenges for nutrition and health, with a concomitant surge in research on social media, digital health promotion interventions, and more recently, increasing interest in digital food marketing. While the literature is abundant on studies linking food, nutrition and digital technology, the effort to conceptualise and describe the digital food environment is new. This scoping review aims to support the development of a definition of the digital food environment and characterise it, along with key thematic research trends on this topic and potential consequences for nutrition and health. Methods and analysis The planned scoping review will be supported by the methodological framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley and further developed by Levac et al. Development and reporting will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and MetaAnalyses—Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist and guidelines. The development of the search strategy was guided by the food environment conceptual framework developed by Turner et al. Four databases will be searched: MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus and Web of Science. Citation searching will be applied to identify additional studies, through checking of reference lists of primary studies and reviews. Studies in English, published from the year 2000 onwards, will be included. No geographical or population limits will be applied. Data will be extracted and analysed using a standardised charting tool. Ethics and dissemination No ethical approval is required for this study. The results will be submitted to an international peer-reviewed journal and scientific conferences. They will be disseminated through digital science communication platforms, including academic social media, to amplify its reach and usefulness.publishedVersio

How Does Social Media Interactivity Affect Brand Loyalty?

As social media has become a prominent platform for networking, many organizations have begun to establish more than one brand community, as a set of supplements to their branded websites. Once most online brand interactions take place on social networking sites rather than branded sites, such customer-oriented interactions will become much more complicated and unpredictable. It is a real challenge for organizations to build successful customer-brand relationships through social networking sites. Hence, organizations that wish to enhance brand loyalty by running brand communities face the challenge of effectively conducting social customer relationship management (CRM) tactics. As social media users are susceptible to highly interactive features, understanding the nature of social media interactivity in brand communities is the key to building successful social CRM. The aim of the study is to investigate not only the effect of social media interactivity on community benefits, but also the effect of community benefits on brand loyalty. In addition to measuring the direct effects of social influence and media richness on brand loyalty, the study assessed the indirect effect of responsiveness on brand loyalty by means of community benefits, including knowledge gains and sense of membership. The results, based on data collected from 229 social media users who are followers of a Super Basketball League (SBL) team’s Facebook page, indicated that media richness had a strong, positive, and direct effect on brand loyalty, and that responsiveness had direct effects on their knowledge gains and their sense of membership, which in turn affected brand loyalty indirectly