Systems Engineering Approaches to Minimize the Viral Spread of Social Media Challenges

Recently, adolescents’ and young adults’ use of social media has significantly increased. While this new landscape of cyberspace offers young internet users many benefits, it also exposes them to numerous risks. One such phenomenon receiving limited research attention is the advent and propagation of viral social media challenges. Several of these challenges entail self-harming behavior, which combined with their viral nature, poses physical and psychological risks for the participants and the viewers. One example of these viral social media challenges that could potentially be propagated through social media is the Blue Whale Challenge (BWC). In the initial study we investigate how people portray the BWC on social media and the potential harm this may pose to vulnerable populations. We first used a thematic content analysis approach, coding 60 publicly posted YouTube videos, 1,112 comments on those videos, and 150 Twitter posts that explicitly referenced BWC. We then deductively coded the YouTube videos based on the Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC) Messaging guidelines. We found that social media users post about BWC to raise awareness and discourage participating, express sorrow for the participants, criticize the participants, or describe a relevant experience. Moreover, we found most of the videos on YouTube violate at least 50% of the SPRC safe and effective messaging guidelines. These posts might have the problematic effect of normalizing the BWC through repeated exposure, modeling, and reinforcement of self-harming and suicidal behavior, especially among vulnerable populations, such as adolescents. A second study conducted a systematic content analysis of 180 YouTube videos (~813 minutes total length), 3,607 comments on those YouTube videos, and 450 Twitter posts to explore the portrayal and social media users’ perception of three viral social media-based challenges (i.e., BWC, Tide Pod Challenge (TPC), and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Ice Bucket Challenge (IBC)). We identified five common themes across the challenges, including: education and awareness, criticizing the participants and blaming the victims, detailed information about the participants, giving viewers a tutorial on how to participate, and understanding seemingly senseless online behavior. We found that the purpose of posting about an online challenge varies based on the inherent risk involved in the challenge itself. However, analysis of the YouTube comments showed that previous experience and exposure to online challenges appear to affect the perception of other challenges in the future. The third study investigated the beliefs that lead adolescents and young adults to participate in these activities by analyzing the ALS IBC to represent challenges with minimally harmful behaviors intended to support philanthropic endeavors and the Cinnamon Challenge (CC), to represent those involving harmful behaviors that may culminate in injury. We conducted a retrospective quantitative study with a total of 471 participants between the ages of 13 and 35 who either had participated in the ALS IBC or the CC or had never participated in any online challenge. We used binomial logistic regression models to classify those who participated in ALS IBC or CC versus those who didn’t with the beliefs from the Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM) as predictors. Our findings showed that both CC and ALS IBC participants had significantly greater positive emotional responses, value for the outcomes of the challenge, and expectation of the public to participate in the challenge in comparison to individuals who never participated in any challenge. In addition, only CC participants perceived positive public opinion about the challenge and perceived the challenge to be easy with no harmful consequences, in comparison to individuals who never participated in any challenge. The findings from this study were used to develop interventions based on knowledge of how the specific items making up each construct apply specifically to social media challenges. In the last study, we showed how agent-based modeling (ABM) might be used to investigate the effect of educational intervention programs to reduce social media challenges participation at multiple levels- family, school, and community. In addition, we showed how the effect of these educational based interventions can be compared to social media-based policy interventions. Our model takes into account the “word of mouth” effect of these interventions which could either decrease participation in social media challenge further than expected or unintentionally cause others to participate

The Real Effects of Fintech on the Global Financial System

Purpose: Financial technology (FinTech) entails radical changes for every facet of financial services, and has increasing significance for the global economy. The purpose of this paper is to present a birds’ eye view of salient effects of Fintech on the global financial system.   Design/methodology/approach: A literature review approach is adopted, with analysis revealing that the absence of institutional support for new financial technologies is the most significant reason for the destabilization of the financial industry, and the formation of financial bubbles in various market segments. The current implications and future directions are explored based on theoretical and empirical analyses.   Findings: This study contributes to the advancement of knowledge by summarising current practices, providing new insights, and monitoring emerging trends in financial technologies, as well as shedding light on a variety of topics of interest to policymakers and academics by proposing future research topics.   Practical implications: This study emphasises the current status of research in the field of financial technology, which can assist policymakers and institutions in selecting their future actions.   Originality/value: Very few studies have conducted an exhaustive literature assessment on Fintech and its impacts on the global financial system

Investigating the Factors Affecting an Older Adult\u27s Dental Care Provider Choice

The percentage of patients relying on information provided by other patients in form of online reviews over the information from federal agencies as healthcare reports is expected to increase. To increase the use of these healthcare reports, which contains data from a more representative sample, several researchers have suggested incorporating online reviews into these physician comparison websites. Therefore, it’s important to understand the factors in these online reviews that affect the healthcare consumers decisions. To do so, we recruited 310 participants through Qualtrics Research Suite to participate in a 3*2*2*2 within-subjects study. Specifically, we used the dentistry domain to test the effect of the nature of the review, the staff rating, the cleanliness rating and the bedside manner rating on patient\u27s trust in the review, the decision to choose a dentist and confidence in the decision. The findings suggest that nature of the review, the bedside manner rating and the cleanliness rating significantly influence a healthcare consumer’s decision and trust in the information. Since the staff rating does not provide data about the doctor as it focuses on the staff members, it was seen regarded as the least important decision aid. When the review and the ratings were consistent (both high or both low), the participants reported a higher level of trust and confidence in their decision than when this information was inconsistent (e.g., a positive review with low ratings)

Does construction service provider\u27s response matter? Understanding the influence of anecdotal information on online consumer decisions

The home improvement service industry is growing rapidly, and the advancement in technology has made information about service providers, such as customer reviews, accessible with a few clicks. However, the impact of anecdotal information, like reviews and a service provider\u27s response to a review, have not been studied extensively in the home improvement service industry. Using the Data Frame Theory of Sensemaking, this study investigated the combined effect of these two variables on an online consumer\u27s decision. We recruited 360 participants through Qualtrics Research Services to participate in a 4∗3 between-subjects study. The findings suggest that when all reviews were either entirely positive or negative, i.e., consistent information, the service provider\u27s response did not influence the customer\u27s decision. However, when the reviews were inconsistent, the service provider\u27s response was influential. In addition, negative reviews created a lack of trust in the information, which is a potential area for future research