Joseph Bayer

The Ohio State University | OSU · School of Communication

Whether or not social networks are significantly changing due to emergent technologies continues to be contested by researchers. Our understanding may advance by clarifying the cognitive mechanisms through which people curate their connections, along with the accompanying role of personality in shaping networks in the future.

Much remains unknown about moment-to-moment social-network cognition—that is, who comes to mind as we go about our day-to-day lives. Responding to this void, we describe the real-time construction of cognitive social networks. First, we outline the types of relational structures that comprise momentary networks, distinguishing the roles of personal...

The rise of highly curated networks is a pivotal dimension of social media history, yet its diverse origins remain overlooked. Here, two inductive studies investigated the case of Path: a platform (2010–2019) designed around so-called “Dunbar’s Numbers” and core networks (i.e., close friends). Study 1 conducted manual and automated text analyses us...

Moral differences hinder communication and relationship formation. However, perceptions and reactions to moral dissimilarity varies. Accordingly, we explored how moral adaptiveness (a flexible application of morality) relates to the intent to communicate with and befriend morally dissimilar others by focusing on moral relativism (believing that mor...

Prior theoretical perspectives assert that mobile media and communication accelerate time perception. To test this hypothesis, we coupled mobile app logs and experience sampling to capture social app use and time perception in daily life. Participants ( N = 132) provided self-reports of time perception ( n = 9,081) and recordings of social app use...

Research on mHealth apps provides mixed evidence regarding their effectiveness for behavior change, including physical activity. Synthesizing prior perspectives, we test predictors of tracking app and physical activity intentions (Study 1; n = 658) and their links to everyday mobility (Study 2; n = 418; n = 27,617,440 observations). Study 1 showed...

Research on mHealth apps provides mixed evidence regarding their effectiveness for behavior change, including physical activity. Synthesizing prior perspectives, we test predictors of tracking app and physical activity intentions (Study 1; N = 658) and their links to everyday mobility (Study 2; N = 418; N = 27,617,440 observations). Study 1 showed...

Prior theoretical perspectives assert that mobile media and communication accelerate time perception. To test this hypothesis, we coupled mobile app logs and experience sampling to capture social app use and time perception in daily life. Participants (N = 132) provided self-reports of time perception (n = 9,081) and recordings of social app use (n...

In a survey study of WhatsApp users across three different countries (N = 3,664), we tested how misinformation processes on messaging apps are driven by the levels of information shared vs. social dynamics within messaging groups. Integrating recent perspectives, we offer a conceptual model that focuses on the informational activity of users and tr...

Social media habits represent one of the most common – and controversial – forms of habitual behavior in contemporary society. In this brief article, we summarize the state of research on social media habits, along with their position within the technology habit literature. First, we review the wide range of positive and negative behaviors falling...

The ubiquity of location-data-enabled devices provides novel avenues for psychology researchers to incorporate spatial analytics into their studies. Spatial analytics use global positioning system (GPS) data to assess and understand mobility behavior (e.g., locations visited, movement patterns). In this tutorial, we provide a practical guide to ana...

Mobile messaging platforms, WhatsApp especially, have come under a great deal of scrutiny for how they can be utilized to spread misinformation through virally forwarded rumors and fake news. This chapter complements technological approaches to addressing the problem by shedding light on the social conditions that shape how users deal with misinfor...

Social media habits represent one of the most common – and controversial – forms of habitual behavior in contemporary society. In this brief article, we summarize the state of research on social media habits, along with their position within the technology habit literature. First, we review the wide range of positive and negative behaviors falling...

The elevated satisfaction that comes from interacting with close ties, as opposed to distal ties, is well-established in past research. What remains less clear is how the quality of daily interactions between close versus distal ties may vary as a function of personality. Drawing on data from a 2-week experience sampling study ( N = 108 participant...

The ubiquity of location data-enabled devices provides novel avenues for psychology researchers to incorporate spatial analytics into their studies. Spatial analytics use GPS data to assess and understand mobility behavior (e.g., locations visited, movement patterns). This tutorial provides a practical guide to using GPS data in R, introducing rese...

In this chapter, we chart parallel lines of research on mobile technology and daily mobility. Specifically, we review how people engage with mobile technologies in-place and on-the-go, as well as their broader connection with their mobile devices. In each section, we review and link perspectives from psychology and mobility studies towards an integ...

Given its role as a constant companion, the mobile phone has long been thought of as an extension of the self. However, the psychology of smartphone self-extension has received relatively little attention through empirical research. By explicating theorized facets of self-extension, we explore the dimensionality of smartphone self-extension and exa...

Social media platforms are characterized by diverse features and functions, and these facets remain in constant flux over time. This research examines how users define the central purpose of four major platforms in the United States (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat), and how such lay definitions relate to key outcomes previously associated w...

Given its role as a constant companion, the mobile phone has long been thought of as an extension of the self. However, the psychology of smartphone self-extension has received relatively little attention through empirical research. By explicating theorized facets of self-extension, we explore the dimensionality of smartphone self-extension and exa...

Two experiments examined how the ways in which people mentally represent their personal networks affect perceptions of social support. Social support research often uses ‘‘name generators’ ’in which individuals are asked to choose how many people they receive support from, resulting in cognitive networks that confound size and density. Taking a fix...

Social media platforms are characterized by diverse features and functions, and these facets remain in constant flux over time. This research examines how users define the central qualities of four major platforms in the United States (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat), and how such lay definitions relate to key outcomes previously associated...

The use of experience sampling methodology (ESM), also known as ecological momentary assessment (EMA), is firmly established in the social sciences. The family of ESM methods employ in vivo self‐reports, providing opportunities for social scientists to study human behavior with high ecological validity. More recently, researchers across disciplines...

Do humans have bigger or smaller social networks today? We reflect on the state of this research question and assert that an updated approach is needed to understand the effects of emergent technologies on network structure. Although the absolute changes in average network size are likely to remain elusive, recent perspectives converge on the idea...

The social environment an individual is embedded in influences their ability and motivation to engage self-control processes, but little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying this effect. Many individuals successfully regulate their behavior even when they do not show strong activation in canonical self-control brain regions. Thus, indivi...

The use of experience sampling methodology (ESM), also known as ecological momentary assessment (EMA), is firmly established in the social sciences. The family of ESM methods employs in vivo self-reports, providing opportunities for social scientists to study human behavior with high ecological validity. More recently, researchers across discipline...

This review delineates core components of the social media ecosystem, specifying how online platforms complicate established social psychological effects. We assess four pairs of social media elements and effects: profiles and self-presentation; networks and social mobilization; streams and social comparison; and messages and social connectedness....

Social exclusion has the potential to alter subsequent social interactions with the members of personal networks, especially given their online availability in contemporary life. Nonetheless, there is minimal research examining how social challenges such as exclusion alter ensuing interactions with personal ties. Here, we tested whether being exclu...

In this paper, we investigate how individual differences in availability preferences are related to (1) self-reported quality of interaction with strong and weak ties and (2) perceptions of bridging social capital. We employed experience sampling methods and collected data over the course of two weeks—combined with surveys at baseline and endpoint,...

Humans are driven to pursue and preserve social relationships, and these motivations are reinforced through biological systems. In particular, individual differences in the tuning of biological systems that respond to social threats may motivate individuals to seek out differently structured social environments. Drawing on a sample of adolescent ma...

Technology habits have been objects of research for over 100 years and provided heuristic cases for the study of habits over the last two decades. This chapter traces the history of research on information and communication technologies in daily life, with an eye toward measurement and conceptualization problems. Similar to the new technologies of...

Self-control is vital for a wide range of outcomes across our lifespan, yet the developmental trajectory of its core components during adolescence remains elusive. Many adolescents can successfully regulate their behavior even when they do not show strong activation in brain regions typically recruited during self-control in adults. Thus, adolescen...

Significance We examine brain dynamics during a common social experience—social exclusion—to determine whether cohesive networks in the brain support navigation of the social world and contribute to the shape of friendship networks. Specifically, exclusion is associated with increased cohesion within brain networks that support understanding what o...

Ideas spread across social networks, but not everyone is equally positioned to be a successful recommender. Do individuals with more opportunities to connect otherwise unconnected others-high information brokers-use their brains differently than low information brokers when making recommendations? We test the hypothesis that those with more opportu...

Social ties are crucial for humans. Disruption of ties through social exclusion has a marked effect on our thoughts and feelings; however, such effects can be tempered by broader social network resources. Here, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging data acquired from 80 male adolescents to investigate how social exclusion modulates functiona...

This article advances a contextual approach to understanding the emotional and social outcomes of Facebook use. In doing so, we address the ambiguity of previously reported relationships between Facebook use and well-being. We test temporal (shorter vs longer time spans) and spatial (at home vs away from home) dimensions of Facebook activity using...

Although social media are increasingly used through mobile devices, the differences between mobile and computer-based practices remain unclear. This study attempts to tease out some of these differences through multiple analytical strategies and samples. Drawing on theoretical expectations about the affordances, motivations, and cognition of mobile...

Ephemeral social media, platforms that display shared content for a limited period of time, have become a prominent component of the social ecosystem. We draw on experience sampling data collected over two weeks (Study 1; N=154) and in-depth interview data from a subsample of participants (Study 2; N = 28) to understand college students’ social and...

Parents, educators, and policymakers have expressed concern about the future implications of young people's sharing practices on social media sites. However, little is known about how young people themselves feel about their online behaviors being preserved and resurfaced later in adulthood. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 28 college-g...

The study and analysis of large and complex data sets offer a wealth of insights in a variety of applications. Computational approaches provide researchers access to broad assemblages of data, but the insights extracted may lack the rich detail that qualitative approaches have brought to the understanding of sociotechnical phenomena. How do we pres...

Staying "connected" has become a societal norm and a personal habit. The goal of this article is to explain how individuals internalize-and activate-social connectedness during daily life. As such, we take a sociocognitive approach to integrate perspectives on implicit societal expectations (connection norms) and automatic individual behavior (conn...

The everyday use of mobile devices is sometimes performed in a highly unconscious manner (e.g., automaticity, habits, impulses), whereas other times it is performed in a highly conscious manner (e.g., immersion, presence, absorption). In Study 1, we surveyed individuals (n = 250) to evaluate the seemingly oppositional relationship between automatic...

The problems of distracted driving and distracted pedestrian accidents have attracted the attention of public health officials, transportation and psychology researchers, and communication scholars. Though public safety campaigns intended to curb dangerous texting behaviors have been implemented, relatively little is known about the psychological p...

Prior research indicates that Facebook usage predicts declines in subjective well-being over time. How does this come about? We examined this issue in 2 studies using experimental and field methods. In Study 1, cueing people in the laboratory to use Facebook passively (rather than actively) led to declines in affective well-being over time. Study 2...

The mobile phone is missing from Rich Ling's Taken for Grantedness: The Embedding of Mobile Communication into Society.