SELF-PRESENT BY AVATARS IN MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAMES: THE INFLUENCE OF SELF-ESTEEM, ONLINE DISINHIBITION, AND SELF-DISCREPANCY

Playing Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) is now a popular leisure activity for some people. Players spend significant energy and money on it. In MMORPGs, players can customize their avatars as virtual identities to present themselves in the virtual world. Avatars are important when playing MMORPGs. However, few previous studies focus on the psychological determinates for avatar presentation in MMORPGs. In this study, we used an online questionnaire of 337 participants to explore the antecedent factors influencing avatar presentation. The current study considers the influence of self-esteem, online disinhibition, and self-discrepancy on self-present and the influence of self-present on avatar presentation of idea self, stand out, and following a trend. The empirical survey result reveals the self-discrepancy between virtual and physical self are relative negatively with self-esteem and positive with online disinhibition. The self-present are influence by both self-discrepancy and online disinhibition. Besides, self-present perception will lead to avatar presentation. The current study provides contributions about confirming the antecedents of avatar presentation that may be serve as fundamental for future research on online game behavior

Branding in a Hyperconnected World: Refocusing Theories and Rethinking Boundaries

Technological advances have resulted in a hyperconnected world, requiring a reassessment of branding research from the perspectives of firms, consumers, and society. Brands are shifting away from single ownership to shared ownership, as heightened access to information and people is allowing more stakeholders to cocreate brand meanings and experiences alongside traditional brand owners and managers. Moreover, hyperconnectivity has allowed existing brands to expand their geographic reach and societal roles, while new types of branded entities (ideas, people, places, and organizational brands) are further stretching the branding space. To help establish a new branding paradigm that accounts for these changes, the authors address the following questions: (1) What are the roles and functions of brands?, (2) How is brand value (co)created?, and (3) How should brands be managed? Throughout the article, the authors also identify future research issues that require scholarly attention, with the aim of aligning branding theory and practice with the realities of a hyperconnected world

Interpreting Social Identity in Online Brand Communities: Considering Posters and Lurkers

YesThis study investigates the psychological effects of social identity on both posters and lurkers in online brand communities (OBCs). The results reveal the intermediate mechanisms mediating and moderating members’ social identity effects on members’ brand commitment leading to positive word-of-mouth and their resistance to negative information about the brand. This article treats social identity as a multi-dimensional construct. Differences amongst posters and lurkers on the relationships between the cognitive, affective and evaluative components of social identity are investigated along with their positive effect on brand commitment and behavioral consequences. Using a sample of 752 OBC members, both posters and lurkers emerge as valuable members and equally likely to derive social identity from their membership of an OBC. However, there are counter intuitive results for relationships within the research model between active and passive members of OBCs. These results offer implications for theory and can help managers to be better interactive marketers

A Study of How Young Adults Leverage Multiple Profile Management Functionality in Managing their Online Reputation on Social Networking Sites

With privacy settings on social networking sites (SNS) perceived as complex and difficult to use and maintain, young adults can be left vulnerable to others accessing and using their personal information. Consequences of not regulating the boundaries their information on SNS include the ability for current and future employers to make career-impacting decisions based upon their online reputation that may include disqualifying them as job candidates. On SNS, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, young adults must decide on how to manage their online reputation by regulating boundaries to their own personal and professional information and identities. One known practice for the regulation of boundaries is the use of multiple profile management (MPM), where users of SNS create and use multiple accounts on a SNS and separate the social and professional identities that they disclose publicly and privately. The purpose of the study was to understand the lived experiences of young adults in how they regulate boundaries on SNS, through the use of MPM, as they manage their online reputation to different audiences. The practice was studied by applying interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) through interviewing young adults of 18-23 years of age, who use MPM on a SNS. Semi-structured interviews permitted participants to provide in-depth descriptions of their lived experiences. Eight themes were identified and described based on the analysis of the interviews that include: SNS use with online audiences, motivations for using MPM, the processes for the presentation of self, online search results, privacy settings, untagging SNS posts, self-editing and censorship, and new features. The themes describe the complexity and challenges that young adults face with regulating boundaries with their professional and social identities online through the use of MPM. Findings from this study have implications for a variety of audiences. Through the findings of this study, SNS developers can introduce new features, improve usability related to privacy management, and further encourage use of their networks. Users of SNS can use this study to understand risks of using SNS and for learning of practices for how to manage their online reputation on SNS

What World of Warcraft is Teaching Us About Learning.

Ph.D. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 2017

A Virtual Ethnographic Enquiry: An Exploratory Study of Adult Children with a Parent in Prison

Significant increases in prison populations in England and Wales, the United States and throughout Western Europe have consequently led to an increase in children who will experience parental imprisonment within these locations. Despite increased academic interest in children with a parent in prison, it remains that relatively little is known about this highly heterogeneous and hard-to-reach social group. In particular, there is a dearth of research undertaken which assesses adult children’s perspectives and experiences of parental imprisonment. The overall aim of this exploratory study thus attempted to overcome this gap in knowledge and examined current and retrospective accounts of parental imprisonment from adult children. Bearing in mind the hard-to-reach aspect of this social group, an unobtrusive, virtual ethnographic enquiry was employed for this study. A thematic analysis of asynchronous computer mediated communication data, as found in an online virtual community comprising adult children with a parent in prison, was undertaken. A central theoretical concept utilised in this study was ‘stigma by association’. This concept was a useful analytic tool and served to highlight potential methods of information control and/or management adult children with a parent in prison may employ as a means of limiting the effects of stigma on their identity. Findings indicated that concealment, secrecy and withholding information about parental imprisonment might be employed by this social group. Reasons for adult children’s loss of contact with an imprisoned parent might include barriers to consistent and sustained contact, a parent’s prolonged imprisonment and/or high rate of recidivism. In addition, adult children with a parent in prison could be parentified, where they might be required to adopt an emotional and/or financial caregiver role for their imprisoned parent, non-imprisoned parent and/or younger siblings

Personality traits and self-presentation on Facebook: a systematic review

The influence of the Internet and Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) on the ways in which individuals with different personality traits present themselves, has been brought into question increasingly as modern life requires more and more of an enmeshment with technology in everyday life. The presentation of the self on Facebook has been the focus of recent research, delivering results that vary and sometimes contradict common ideas of the effects of individuals’ interaction via technology, especially in terms of how personality traits, as determined by the Five-factor model, impact self-presentation. A systematic review of the available literature was conducted, in order to bring about a consolidated description of the literature on the impact of personality traits on Facebook self-presentation. From 37 studies, the review found the motivation for Facebook use to be a mediating factor in the relationship between personality traits. Each personality trait in the Five-factor model impacts upon Facebook use, self-generated content, other-generated content, and the nature of the individual’s self-disclosure in varied ways. Due to visible cues on users’ profiles, some personality traits can be accurately detected by observers. The complexity and interrelatedness of variables involved in this relationship is highlighted by the findings of this review

Personality traits and self-presentation on Facebook: a systematic review

The influence of the Internet and Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) on the ways in which individuals with different personality traits present themselves, has been brought into question increasingly as modern life requires more and more of an enmeshment with technology in everyday life. The presentation of the self on Facebook has been the focus of recent research, delivering results that vary and sometimes contradict common ideas of the effects of individuals’ interaction via technology, especially in terms of how personality traits, as determined by the Five-factor model, impact self-presentation. A systematic review of the available literature was conducted, in order to bring about a consolidated description of the literature on the impact of personality traits on Facebook self-presentation. From 37 studies, the review found the motivation for Facebook use to be a mediating factor in the relationship between personality traits. Each personality trait in the Five-factor model impacts upon Facebook use, self-generated content, other-generated content, and the nature of the individual’s self-disclosure in varied ways. Due to visible cues on users’ profiles, some personality traits can be accurately detected by observers. The complexity and interrelatedness of variables involved in this relationship is highlighted by the findings of this review

Convivir en Redes Sociales Virtuales. Diseño, desarrollo y evaluación del programa ConRed, una intervención Psicoeducativa basada en la evidencia

La tesis doctoral ha realizado una revisión sistemática y actualizada de la literatura científica sobre el uso que los menores hacen de Internet y las redes sociales virtuales, la calidad de las relaciones que establecen en ellas, los factores de riesgos y de protección vinculados a problemas como, por ejemplo, el cyberbullying, así como de las vías para su prevención e intervención. 2. contenido de la investigación EstaTesis doctoral se compone de cuatro estudios consecutivos que ofrecen a la comunidad científica información válida para mejorar de la calidad de las relaciones interpersonales que los y las adolescentes mantienen tanto de forma directa como a través de dispositivos digitales, principalmente, con sus iguales. En cuanto a metodología, es de resaltar la combinación de diseños transversales y longitudinales, el uso de diversidad de análisis estadísticos de distinta naturaleza como son los modelos lineales generalizados de medidas repetidas, los análisis factoriales exploratorios y confirmatorios y los modelos de ecuaciones estructurales. 3.conclusión De los resultados del trabajo se desprende una conclusión muy esperanzadora. La ciberconducta de los menores puede ser mejorada a través de programas de intervención whole policy desarrollados en las aulas