Figure 2 - uploaded by Shuo Niu
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Example videos in 9 video styles: (a) artistic, (b) challenge, (c) chatting, (d) game, (e) homelife, (f) how-to, (g) religious, (h) review, and (i) story.
Source publication
Loneliness threatens public mental wellbeing during COVID-19. In response, YouTube creators participated in the #StayHome #WithMe movement (SHWM) and made myriad videos for people experiencing loneliness or boredom at home. User-shared videos generate parasocial attachment and virtual connectedness. However, there is limited knowledge of how creato...
Context in source publication
Citations
... The pandemic crisis unfolded in exceptional conditions (Niu et al., 2021), as COVID-19 spread in a world where people are constantly interconnected (Wallace, 2020), also thanks to the availability of information technologies (Durodié, 2020;López-Cabarcos et al., 2020). The same holds true for gaming technologies, whose utilization is now common among the general population and actually increased during the enforced lockdowns around the world (Broughton, 2020;Zhu, 2020). ...
Possible side effects of using web job boards in the e-recruitment context, such as candidates
dropping out from the hiring process, may emerge if these tools are not transparent about data
usage, collection, and processing. In response, we developed a novel web job board designed
to enhance transparency, simulating a job-matching recommender system. A qualitative study
with 20 Italian participants, combining direct observation of the job board use with the
Thinking Aloud protocol and interviews, examines participants’ privacy behaviours in terms of
data disclosure and seclusion. Findings indicate a general willingness among participants to
share personal data, except for information related to their identity. We found that both the
design of the job board and the meanings ascribed by participants to data shaped their privacy
behaviours. Features enhancing user understanding of data usage and control of privacy
settings were positively received, underscoring the importance of design in fostering thoughtful
engagement with job board technologies. We contribute to research on privacy behaviours in
the context of job search and we draw suggestions from the study findings on how to design
platforms that support data protection and allow safe and purposeful disclosure of personal
data, sustaining job seekers throughout the recruitment process.
... In recent years, digital platforms have emerged as commonly used coping mechanisms for loneliness, providing both social interaction and passive engagement. Individuals may use video platforms such as YouTube to cope with their loneliness -higher loneliness is associated with the formation of parasocial relationships, where individuals form one-sided relationships with content creators [Niu et al.(2021), de Bérail et al.(2019, Balcombe and Leo(2023)]. This is consistent with the parasocial compensation hypothesis, which postulates that lonely, socially isolated, and socially anxious individuals tend to be more engaged in parasocial relationships [Madison et al.(2016)]. ...
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly sophisticated, companion chatbots have been proposed as a potential solution to the growing epidemic of loneliness. However, the impact of these AI companions on users' psychological well-being and social behaviors remains poorly understood. This study presents a large-scale survey (n = 404) of regular users of companion chatbots, investigating the relationship between chatbot usage and their experience of loneliness. We find a small but significant direct correlation between session length with chatbots and loneliness, and we develop a model of this relationship through multiple regression analysis, finding social attraction and neuroticism as moderators. We find seven clusters of users, including socially fulfilled dependent users to lonely dependent users. Our work contributes to the ongoing dialogue about the role of AI in social and emotional support, offering insights for what kind of human-AI connections might lead to emotional well-being and complement rather than replace human connections.
... For example, disclosing in the presence of other people may suggest deeper disclosure, and crying may indicate more intimate disclosure than talking. The codebook also includes the emotional valence of selfdisclosure (e.g., positive, negative) [23] and the communication style of self-disclosure (e.g., presenting, interacting) [20]. Table 1 shows the example codes employed in this case study, demonstrating the application of our codebook design process and its role in guiding the development of prompts that capture the nuanced aspects of depth of self-disclosure in depression-related YouTube videos. ...
Despite the growing interest in leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) for content analysis, current studies have primarily focused on text-based content. In the present work, we explored the potential of LLMs in assisting video content analysis by conducting a case study that followed a new workflow of LLM-assisted multimodal content analysis. The workflow encompasses codebook design, prompt engineering, LLM processing, and human evaluation. We strategically crafted annotation prompts to get LLM Annotations in structured form and explanation prompts to generate LLM Explanations for a better understanding of LLM reasoning and transparency. To test LLM's video annotation capabilities, we analyzed 203 keyframes extracted from 25 YouTube short videos about depression. We compared the LLM Annotations with those of two human coders and found that LLM has higher accuracy in object and activity Annotations than emotion and genre Annotations. Moreover, we identified the potential and limitations of LLM's capabilities in annotating videos. Based on the findings, we explore opportunities and challenges for future research and improvements to the workflow. We also discuss ethical concerns surrounding future studies based on LLM-assisted video analysis.
... YouTube does not disclose the number of unique users who viewed a video. Thus, these platform statistics mentioned above are usually used to examine viewers' engagement and reach [5,9,10,13,61,62]. The total view count of videos measures the reach factor of a video. ...
Developmental Delays and Disabilities (DDDs) refer to conditions where children are slower or unable to reach developmental milestones compared to typically developing children. This can cause significant stress for parents, leading to social isolation and loneliness. Online videos, particularly those on YouTube, aim to support these parents and caregivers by offering guidance and assistance. Studies show that parents of children with DDDs create videos on YouTube to enhance authenticity and build connections. However, there is limited knowledge about how other parents with children with DDDs perceive and are impacted by these videos. Our study used a mixed-method approach to annotate and analyze more than fifteen hundred YouTube videos on children's DDDs. We found that these videos provide crucial informational content and offer mental and emotional support through shared personal experiences. Comments analysis revealed a strong sense of community among YouTubers and viewers. Interviews with parents of children with DDDs showed that they find these videos relatable and essential for managing their children's diagnosis and treatments. We concluded by discussing platform-centric design implications for supporting parents and other caregivers of children with DDDs.
... The pandemic crisis unfolded in exceptional conditions (Niu et al., 2021), as COVID-19 spread in a world where people are constantly interconnected (Wallace, 2020), also thanks to the availability of information technologies (Durodié, 2020;López-Cabarcos et al., 2020). The same holds true for gaming technologies, whose utilization is now common among the general population and actually increased during the enforced lockdowns around the world (Broughton, 2020;Zhu, 2020). ...
... We subtracted the number of likes, dislikes, and views on February 18, 2021. We calculated a like rate by subtracting the number of dislikes from likes, dividing this by the total views and multiplying this by 100 (Niu et al., 2021). ...
Introduction
YouTube vloggers may be important socialization figures, yet their influence on adolescents' health‐related behaviors and cognitions is largely untested. In this two‐study mixed‐method project, we first assessed the extent of (non)compliance to COVID‐19 regulations by vloggers on YouTube and how viewers reacted to this. Second, we experimentally assessed the effects of vlogger behavior paired with viewer evaluations on adolescents' COVID‐19‐related attitudes, intentions, and behavior.
Methods
For Study 1, we coded 240 vlogs of eight popular Dutch vloggers on YouTube recorded in the period of February 2020–March 2021. For our 2 × 2 between‐subjects experiment in Study 2, Dutch adolescents (N = 285, Mage = 12.99, SD = 1.02, 41.8% girls) were randomly assigned to conditions in which they saw vlogs showing either compliance or noncompliance to COVID‐19 regulations, and to conditions in which they saw either supportive or dismissive comments under these vlogs.
Results
Study 1: Vloggers' noncompliance with COVID‐19 regulations was not uncommon and received relatively more viewer support than compliance, suggesting that portrayed noncompliance may be potentially influential. Study 2: Adolescents were more worried about COVID‐19 after they watched a compliant (vs. noncompliant) vlogger. Also, vlogger noncompliance decreased adolescents' perceived importance of COVID‐19 regulations and rule‐setting for adolescents who identified strongly with the vloggers they watched.
Conclusions
Vloggers' (non)compliance affects adolescents' COVID‐19‐related worrying, and attitudes and behavior of adolescents who identify with vloggers strongly. This seems concerning given the sometimes harmful and risky behaviors vloggers portray online but could potentially also be employed to encourage healthy behaviors.
... Its popularity may be partially caused by people experiencing loneliness (Entringer and Gosling, 2021) and anxiety (Kohls et al., 2021) from social isolation during the COVID-19. During this time, streamers created contents that featured #StayHome #WithMe to build social connection with viewers, and help viewers mitigate loneliness and boredom (Niu et al., 2021). ...
Watching other people share their lives in real time via streaming platforms, also known as In Real Life (IRL) streams, has gained popularity as a form of entertainment and a meaningful way for people to experience social presence and community with others. Our study focuses on IRL streams to investigate how the multiple dimensions of social presence (cognitive copresence, psychological involvement, and behavioral interdependence) with the streamers and other viewers are associated with community identification. Through an online survey of 423 IRL stream viewers, our study found that community identification is associated with different dimensions of social presence derived from the streamers and other viewers. Specifically, cognitive copresence was not sufficient to evoke a sense of community. Psychological involvement with the streamers and behavioral interdependence with other viewers were significantly associated with the participants’ community identification. The findings provide support for examining social presence as a multidimensional construct in studying online interactions on platform with asymmetrical affordances in which different groups of users have varying communication affordances.
... At its core, YouTube allows users to publish, watch, and interact with long-or shortform videos. HCI research on YouTube videos has covered video creation, communities, and platform algorithms [18,59,70,111,133,134,161,205]. ...
... social relationships and networking [9,27,39,45,48,64,99,110,163,192,202,209], commenting on videos [112,158,159,212], user-led content moderation [21,22,200], social movements and crises [66,133,134,153,195] New Video Interaction Systems and Techniques Designing a new video interaction system or tool; or an improvement of current video features on VSPs. ...
... Wohn et al. sought to relate viewers' motivations for gifting to social provisions [202]. Other studies examined how VSPs mediated social participation during crisis events [153] and social movements [133,134]. ...
Video-sharing platforms (VSPs) such as YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch have grown rapidly in recent years and attracted millions of users. Research topics such as online communities, video interactions, and recommendation algorithms have drawn increasing attention. Group and community dynamics were also examined with live streaming and short-form videos. However, HCI literature lacks a holistic picture of video-sharing research themes, methods, and findings that summarizes the diverse topics on interaction modalities and communities. Prior reviews on VSPs were about a particular platform or reviewed as a part of social media. This paper contributes a scoping review of 106 articles on video-sharing published in HCI literature from 2012 to June 2022. We identified six research themes through grounded theory analysis and encoded five HCI research methods in VSP studies. We concluded a framework with five components to structure findings in video-sharing research, with which we reflect on future directions on this topic.
... The theoretical framework of parasocial relationships has been long established in television, radio, online communities, and social networking sites, and in 2018, was found to be generalizable to YouTube [13]. During COVID-19, YouTubers applied parasocial relationships to help cope with the disaster [14] whereby vloggers established one-way close relationships with users. However, these engaging relationships are not real-life experiences. ...
... In response, YouTube channels and videos were modified to assist with emotional health or exercise programs, mindfulness practice, and music programs. A study demonstrated how YouTube creators participated in the #StayHome #WithMe Movement (SHWM) through the analysis of 1488 SHWM videos to examine video sharing as a pathway to social provisions [14]. The parasocial relationships formed with SHWM YouTubers were a psychological protective factor during the pandemic, although there are concerns that this trend will continue to the detriment of face-to-face relationships that previously served in a more protective way. ...
There are positives and negatives of using YouTube in terms of loneliness and mental health. YouTube’s streaming content is an amazing resource, however, there may be bias or errors in its recommendation algorithms. Parasocial relationships can also complicate the impact of YouTube use. Intervention may be necessary when problematic and risky content is associated with unhealthy behaviors and negative impacts on mental health. Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable. Although YouTube might assist in connecting with peers, there are privacy, safety, and quality issues to consider. This paper is an integrative review of the positive and negative impacts of YouTube with the aim to inform the design and development of a technology-based intervention to improve mental health. The impact of YouTube use on loneliness and mental health was explored by synthesizing a purposive selection (n = 32) of the empirical and theoretical literature. Next, we explored human–computer interaction issues and proposed a concept whereby an independent-of-YouTube algorithmic recommendation system steers users toward verified positive mental health content or promotions.
... The business model and platform culture encourage creators to improve their connection with the viewers and become platform celebrities (referred to as "celebrification") [12,45,52]. In return, viewers offer emotional, instrumental, and financial support to creators and streamers [44,64]. In addition, research showed that users are often unaware that videos can be manipulated [57]. ...
