178 research outputs found
Social network profiles as information sources for adolescents' offline relations
This paper presents the results of a study concerning the use of online profile pages by adolescents to know more about âofflineâ friends and acquaintances. Previous research has indicated that social networking sites (SNSs) are used to gather information on new online contacts. However, several studies have demonstrated a substantial overlap between offline and online social networks. Hence, we question whether online connections are meaningful in gathering information on offline friends and acquaintances. First, the results indicate that a combination of passive uncertainty reduction (monitoring a targetâs profile) and interactive uncertainty reduction (communication through the targetâs profile) explains a considerable amount of variance in the level of uncertainty about both friends and acquaintances. More specifically, adolescents generally get to know much more about their acquaintances. Second, the results of online uncertainty reduction positively affect the degree of self-disclosure, which is imperative in building a solid friend relation. Furthermore, we find that uncertainty reduction strategies positively mediate the effect of social anxiety on the level of certainty about friends. This implies that socially anxious teenagers benefit from SNSs by getting the conditions right to build a more solid relation with their friends. Hence, we conclude that SNSs play a substantial role in todayâs adolescentsâ everyday interpersonal communication
Towards Psychometrics-based Friend Recommendations in Social Networking Services
Two of the defining elements of Social Networking Services are the social
profile, containing information about the user, and the social graph,
containing information about the connections between users. Social Networking
Services are used to connect to known people as well as to discover new
contacts. Current friend recommendation mechanisms typically utilize the social
graph. In this paper, we argue that psychometrics, the field of measuring
personality traits, can help make meaningful friend recommendations based on an
extended social profile containing collected smartphone sensor data. This will
support the development of highly distributed Social Networking Services
without central knowledge of the social graph.Comment: Accepted for publication at the 2017 International Conference on AI &
Mobile Services (IEEE AIMS
Teenage uploaders on YouTube: networked public expectancies, online feedback preference, and received on-platform feedback
This article focuses on teenage YouTube uploaders' networked public expectancies when posting a video. These expectancies allow uploaders to cope temporarily with the uncertainty of who exactly will view their video. The results indicate that teenage uploaders strongly expect viewers that are situated close to them in both geographic and socio-demographic terms. Furthermore, we discuss the uncertainty-reducing properties of online feedback. We propose that different types of online feedback are preferred to verify the prior networked public expectancies. An effect of the identified online public expectancy (viewers with a similar interest/activity) is found for the importance of feedback both on the platform (e.g., views, comments) and off the platform (e.g., interaction on a social-network site). The identified offline public expectancy (friends/family) affects the importance attributed to off-platform feedback. Surprisingly, no effect of the unidentified online public expectancy (the general public) was found on on-platform feedback. This finding, in conjunction with the low expectancy of this group, raises the question of whether teenagers either cannot conceive this ambiguous mass public, or, if their expectancies are accurate, whether they are aware of the fact that only a small fraction of the videos on YouTube reach notable popularity. Therefore, in a second study, we test the accuracy of the online networked public expectancies by testing their effects on the longitudinal growth of actual feedback (views, comments, and rates). The results provide modest evidence that teenage uploaders have accurate online public expectancies
Exploring the eco-attitudes and buying behaviour of Facebook users
Eco-friendly consumersâ attitudes are becoming increasingly frequent, recent research
indicating that pro-environmental purchase behaviour not only lower costs on the long
term, but also enhance business stakeholdersâ and consumersâ confidence in high added
value products and services. This paper undertakes an interdisciplinary research on how
social media (i.e. Facebook) can influence usersâ perceptions and buying behaviour related
to five categories of ecological products and services (eco-food, eco-tourism, eco-housing,
eco-textiles and eco-beauty & cosmetics). This research investigates how ecological
products and services could gain popularity and overpass the identified purchasing barriers
(e.g. high prices, low awareness, low availability) via superior integration in consumersâ
daily experiences with Facebook. The research findings indicate that Facebook represents
an effective and innovative environment that could build the necessary links between green
attitudes and consumersâ hearts and minds
The STIN in the Tale: A Socio-technical Interaction Perspective on Networked Learning
In this paper, we go beyond what have been described as 'mechanistic' accounts of e-learning to explore the complexity of relationships between people and technology as encountered in cases of networked learning. We introduce from the social informatics literature the concept of sociotechnical interaction networks which focus on the interplay between participants, technology, learning artefacts and practices. We apply this concept to case material drawn from transnational trade union education to identify and to analyse three aspects of networked learning: the local sociotechnical networks of learners; the construction of an overarching, global sociotechnical network for learning; and the evolution of such networks over time. Finally we identify issues for further research highlighted by these models
Exploring the Eco-attitudes and Buying Behaviour of Facebook Users
Eco-friendly consumersâ attitudes are becoming increasingly frequent, recent research indicating that pro-environmental purchase behaviour not only lower costs on the long term, but also enhance business stakeholdersâ and consumersâ confidence in high added value products and services. This paper undertakes an interdisciplinary research on how social media (i.e. Facebook) can influence usersâ perceptions and buying behaviour related to five categories of ecological products and services (eco-food, eco-tourism, eco-housing, eco-textiles and eco-beauty & cosmetics). This research investigates how ecological products and services could gain popularity and overpass the identified purchasing barriers (e.g. high prices, low awareness, low availability) via superior integration in consumersâ daily experiences with Facebook. The research findings indicate that Facebook represents an effective and innovative environment that could build the necessary links between green attitudes and consumersâ hearts and minds.ecological products & services, Facebook, green attitudes, buying behaviour, eco-food, eco-tourism
Wearing Many (Social) Hats: How Different are Your Different Social Network Personae?
This paper investigates when users create profiles in different social
networks, whether they are redundant expressions of the same persona, or they
are adapted to each platform. Using the personal webpages of 116,998 users on
About.me, we identify and extract matched user profiles on several major social
networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. We find evidence
for distinct site-specific norms, such as differences in the language used in
the text of the profile self-description, and the kind of picture used as
profile image. By learning a model that robustly identifies the platform given
a user's profile image (0.657--0.829 AUC) or self-description (0.608--0.847
AUC), we confirm that users do adapt their behaviour to individual platforms in
an identifiable and learnable manner. However, different genders and age groups
adapt their behaviour differently from each other, and these differences are,
in general, consistent across different platforms. We show that differences in
social profile construction correspond to differences in how formal or informal
the platform is.Comment: Accepted at the 11th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social
Media (ICWSM17
The case against the democratic influence of the internet on journalism
Book synopsis: Web Journalism: A New Form of Citizenship provides a much-needed analytical account of the implications of interactive participation in the construction of media content. Although web journalism is a fast-changing technology this book will have sustained appeal to an international readership by seeking to critically assess Internet news production.
⊠With the rise of blogging and citizen journalism, it is a commonplace to observe that interactive participatory media are transforming the relationship between the traditional professional media and their audience. A current, popular, assumption is that the traditional flow of information from media to citizen is being reformed into a democratic dialogue between members of a community. The editors and contributors analyse and debate this assumption through international case studies that include the United Kingdom and United States.
⊠While the text has been written and designed for undergraduate and postgraduate use, Web Journalism: A New Form of Citizenship? will be of use and of interest to all those engaged in the debate over Web reporting and citizen journalism
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