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The extended ‘chilling’ effect of Facebook: The cold reality of ubiquitous social networking
Abstract
Prior research has established the phenomenon of the ‘Chilling Effect’ where people constrain the self they present online due to peer-to-peer surveillance on Social Network Sites (SNS). However currently uninvestigated is the possibility that the threat of such surveillance on these sites might constrain the self presented offline in ‘reality’, known here as ‘the extended chilling effect’. The purpose of this study is to examine the existence of this ‘extended chilling effect’. Drawing on theories of self-awareness and self-presentation, the impact of surveillance in SNS is theorized to lead to an awareness of online audiences in offline domains, stimulating a self-comparison process that results in impression management. A mixed methods study of semi-structured interviews (n = 28) and a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment (n = 80), provides support for offline impression management in order to avoid an undesired image being projected to online audiences. The novel finding that the chilling effect has extended highlights the potential dangers of online peer-to-peer surveillance for autonomy and freedom of expression in our offline lives.
... Previous studies confirmed the applicability of self-awareness theory in the context of social networking. Drawing on the theory of self-awareness, Marder et al. (2016) posited that the impact of SNS surveillance might make people feel monitored by audiences even in real life. Furthermore, Lavertu et al. (2020) found that the offline salience of online audiences will increase people's public selfawareness and external motivation, thus increasing people's willingness to participate in offline prosocial activities. ...
... In sum, active SNS use increases awareness of the audience's presence (Tu and McIsaac, 2002;Marder et al., 2016;Lavertu et al., 2020), creating a higher public self-awareness. In turn, higher public Overview of the proposed moderated mediation model. ...
... Governments or companies may post pro-environmental information on SNS platforms with low anonymity or strong social ties. These contexts may make users more concerned about impression management and more inclined to environmental protection (Marder et al., 2016;Lee and Jang, 2019). In addition, companies can design products with conspicuous pro-environmental symbols to encourage SNSs users to purchase. ...
A growing body of literature suggests a link between the usage of social networking sites (SNSs) and green consumption. However, researchers have shown that not all types of SNS usage have the same effect on individuals; therefore, to fully understand the relationship between a particular SNS use type and green consumption, as well as the mechanisms underlying the relationship, more research is required. This study examined a moderated mediation model based on self-awareness theory to explain the "how" and "why" of the relationship between active SNS use and green consumption. An offline survey (N = 210) and an online survey (N = 348) were conducted. The results suggest that active SNS use is positively associated with green consumption via public self-awareness and that impression management motives moderate the mediating role of public self-awareness in the relationship between active SNS use and green consumption. By examining the connection between a specific type of SNS use (active SNS use) and green consumption, our study adds to the body of literature on the causes of green consumption. The results have substantial implications for future research promoting socially responsible consumption behavior.
... This statement is indicative of a growing concern with surveillance in the academy. Prior research has found that the perception of social media surveillance produced a chilling effect on speech and behavior that extended even to offline situations (Lavertu et al., 2020;Marder, et al., 2016;Stoycheff, et al., 2019). These findings, along with a growing chorus of concerns about cancel culture in higher education, raise questions about the types of surveillance anticipated by scholars and how perceptions of surveillance may influence the ways that academics present themselves on social media. ...
... Few academic institutions have policies to guide faculty or administrators in such instances (Pomerantz et al., 2015), and the results of this study will further assist higher education in these efforts. In addition, as anticipation of surveillance has been shown to produce a chilling effect on speech and behavior (i.e., self-presentation) (Lavertu et al., 2020;Marder, et al., 2016;Stoycheff, et al., 2019), understanding scholars' perceptions in this regard helps to determine the scope of cancel culture and as it relates to academic speech. Indeed, this study is among the first to gather empirical data from academics, or any population, on the notion of cancel culture. ...
... Through the convergence of digital, mobile, and social media technologies, surveillance-watching and being watched-is now an everyday experience and a defining characteristic of the present culture (Lyon, 2017). The perception of being visible to online audiences shapes how people present themselves, not only on social media but also offline in "real life" Lavertu et al., 2020;Marder, 2018;Marder et al., 2016;Marwick et al., 2017;Pitcan et al., 2018;Scolere et al., 2018;Stoycheff et al., 2019). Strategically adapting one's speech and behavior to avoid negative evaluation is a normal part of impression management ). ...
The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how academics in the United States described their social media self-presentations (SMSPs) in the context of imagined surveillance. Moral Reasoning Theory drove two RQs: (1) How do academics describe construction of SMSPs in the context of imagined surveillance? (2) How do academics describe the influence of imagined surveillance on their personal SMSPs? 106 academics from across the U.S. were recruited by convenience sampling from two scholarly associations. Data were collected from closed-/open-ended questionnaires (n=102) and semi-structured interviews (n=20). Data analysis applied a six-phased Reflexive Thematic Analysis procedure of inductive coding to generate five themes and 14 subthemes. Academics described SMSP construction as negotiating (1) promises and perils of in/visibility, including (a) unspoken rules, (b) overlapping identities, (c) social support, and (d) personal opinion-sharing, which was profoundly shaped by (2) the rise of cancel culture, or an (a) enforced ideology, (b) activist subgroup, and (c) pressure to signal support. Imagined surveillance influenced SMSPs toward (3) protection over participation by (a) withdrawal from social media, viewing (b) tenure as insufficient, and (c) safe social media strategies; (4) trepidation while teaching due to (a) classroom recording prompted (b) strategic instruction; and (5) resistance and rebellion to (a) push back on cancel culture with a (b) duty to speak out. This study advanced understanding of social media surveillance as a normalizing force on speech and behavior. Findings may be applied to policy and practice regarding social media use in education and other professional settings.
... When previously victimized women find themselves in an online or hybrid college course, their instructor will require them to engage in online peer discussion boards without considering how these women's past bullying experiences have led them to avoid online engagement with people they do not trust. While scholarship has found that the chilling effect of cyberbullying (i.e., the defensive coping strategies adopted by victims) extends into the physical classroom causing students to behave inauthentically to appear desirable to their peers (Marder et al., 2016), these works have not addressed how the chilling effect of cyberbullying might extend into peer interactions in the online classroom. As a result, the current research fails to address if some students are entering the online course with a different attitude or set of strategies for participating on online discussion boards. ...
... Instead of reporting the bully to their university's support services or seeking counseling, victimized students often adopt technical solutions such as blocking the bully on social media, increasing their own privacy settings, and choosing not to post content on social media (Alipan et al., 2018). Often referred to as the chilling effect of online harassment (Marder et al., 2016), these defensive coping strategies create distance between the victim and the cyberbullying, but can isolate the victim from their online community and self-censor their participation (Alipan et al., 2018;Chadha et al., 2020). This chilling effect serves to avoid interpersonal confrontation, or drama, as it is later referred to in this paper. ...
... Women and girls commonly self-censor after negative online interactions like cyberbullying and online harassment (e.g., Duggan, 2017). Marder et al. (2016) found that the chilling effect of cyberbullying extends into face-to-face and social media interaction finding that college students "normalize" their behavior to perform the role of "the perceived standards, expectations and values of the perceived surveyor" (pg. 583). ...
Cyberbullying affects the majority of undergraduate women, contributing to withdrawal from social media and chilling their participation in the growing world of collaborative online discussions. This pilot mixed-methods study integrates surveys, observations, and interviews of nine undergraduate women at a Mid-Atlantic research university to investigate how the chilling effect of cyberbullying may extend into peer interactions within an increasingly common online instructional practice: online discussion boards. It is observed that, in comparison to their non-victimized peers, participating women with prior cyberbullying experiences enact lower social presence and adopt self-silencing and conflict avoidant coping strategies. In particular, these women avoid ever disagreeing with peers out of fear of starting “drama.” Findings challenge educators to consider the potential unintended consequences of instructional design choices and contributes to our understanding of how to design more equitable online learning environments for today’s socially networked learners.
... Recently, Marder, Joinson, Shankar, and Houghton (2016) provided seminal empirical support for the influence of online audiences on individuals' offline impression management behavior, coining the resulting phenomenon as the 'extended chilling effect' of social media; that is, the constraining of behavior in reality (i.e. offline) as a consequence of the perceived expectation these online audiences hold. ...
... Whilst this prior work paints a somewhat black 'Orwellian' image of social media, the authors hint at the possibility for a flip side to the 'chilling' outcomes, where online audiences also have the potential to stimulate positive behavioral outcomes. Responding directly to Marder et al. (2016) calls for further exploration of this phenomenon, the current research introduces and provides the first examination of the extended 'warming effect' of social media. ...
... Whether the effect of online audiences on an individual's behavior in 'reality' (behaviors that do not occur directly with the site interface) is warming or chilling, depends on the goal-directed behavior of the individual. Indeed, Marder et al. (2016) coined the extended chilling effect as an impression management device to mitigate undesired images being projected to online audiences (i.e. negatively directed impression management). ...
Online audiences (e.g. Facebook friends, Instagram followers) shape users' self-presentation online, but little is known about whether or not they impact users' actions in ‘reality’, so offline, when they are not engaged directly with a site interface. To bridge this gap, we provide the first investigation of the ‘extended warming effect’ of social media, a special form of a phenomenon in which saliency (cognition) of online audiences in offline encounters triggers impression management behavior in the pursuit of a more desirable online public image. Across two controlled experiments in the context of charity fundraising, we support the existence of the extended warming effect. We find that as online audiences become more salient, people show greater intentions of engaging in prosocial behavior offline (e.g. enhanced likelihood of making a donation). This effect is mediated by higher public self-awareness and extrinsic motivations. In addition, we find that the extended warming effect is amplified for more intense social media users. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.
... While analyzing behavioral changesis of general interest, we focus our attention on behavioral deterrence or inhibitions, or so-called chilling effects, of profiling activities. Therefore, we make a distinction between behavior that aims to avoid an undesired image or action (e.g., chilling effects), and other forms of behavioral changes, which aim to approach a desired image or action (e.g., assertive self-presentation) ( Marder et al., 2016 ;Schütz, 1998 ). In this sense, we rely on Penney's (2017) definition of chilling effects, used in the context of state surveillance, as well as on Marder et al.'s (2016) broader definition, which understands chilling effects as the "impact of surveillance by the audience(s) on constraining behavior" (p. ...
... Existing literature on chilling effects has provided evidence of different behavioral modifications, both online, through selfcensorship and behavior customization, as well as offline via impression management ( Marder et al., 2016 ). However, the literature tends to conceptualize chilling effects primarily as a response to peer monitoring or government monitoring; we are not aware of in-depth studies on the chilling effects of corporate or public/private partnership monitoring and profiling. ...
... Similarly, Brandtzaeg et al. (2010) found that conformity on social media sites occurs when individuals are exposed to increased surveillance by other members online. Marder et al. (2016) provided corroborating evidence of how "peer to peer monitoring" ( Andrejevic, 2004 ) can result in chilling effects, even in the offline world. When users are aware of online audiences in the offline world (e.g., attending a party with some of your Facebook friends), they tend to modify or censor their behavior in the offline domain in anticipation of the online consequences ( Marder et al., 2016 ). ...
In this article, we provide an overview of the literature on chilling effects and corporate profiling, while also connecting the two topics. We start by explaining how profiling, in an increasingly data-rich environment, creates substantial power asymmetries between users and platforms (and corporations more broadly). Inferences and the increasingly automated nature of decision-making, both based on user data, are essential aspects of profiling. We then connect chilling effects theory and the relevant empirical findings to corporate profiling. In this article, we first stress the relationship and similarities between profiling and surveillance. Second, we describe chilling effects as a result of state and peer surveillance, specifically. We then show the interrelatedness of corporate and state profiling, and finally spotlight the customization of behavior and behavioral manipulation as particularly significant issues in this discourse. This is complemented with an exploration of the legal foundations of profiling through an analysis of European and US data protection law. We find that while Europe has a clear regulatory framework in place for profiling, the US primarily relies on a patchwork of sector-specific or state laws. Further, there is an attempt to regulate differential impacts of profiling via anti-discrimination statutes, yet few policies focus on combating generalized harms of profiling, such as chilling effects. Finally, we devise four concise propositions to guide future research on the connection between corporate profiling and chilling effects.
... In studying data sharing behaviors, it would be negligent to dismiss the ever-presence of surveillance. In fact, increased awareness of surveillant technology and actors has fostered a new sense of surveillance or 'chilling' effect online, which influences the way people search (Penney, 2016(Penney, , 2021 and share information (Citron & Penney, 2019;Marder et al., 2016;Marthews & Tucker, 2017). Chilling effects have been proposed as a theory of social conformity, with the feeling of being watched restricting an individual's range of freedom to make choices as a result of the perceived social norms exhibited by the audience around them (Penney, 2021). ...
... While it has been proven that surveillance has a significant effect on behavior, the research is not consistent on what exactly that effect will be due to various surveillance operationalizations. While chilling effects research would expect people to share less under surveillance (Marder et al., 2016;Marthews & Tucker, 2017;Penney et al., 2016), other work (Bickman & Rosenbaum, 1977;Bateson et al., 2006) would predict a salutary effect, where people are more socially proactive and responsible. Nevertheless, this study expects that the watchful eye effect will have a significant impact on the PMT framework. ...
Mobile phones have evolved to allow individuals to easily access and disclose the private information of others to a seemingly infinite network. Notably, the permanent nature of mobile data has aided its path between individuals and the police, storing integral evidence for criminal investigations in the palms of peoples' hands. Understanding cognitive factors that predict when an individual would choose to report mobile data to the police is integral, particularly in a time of heightened controversy over data access limits and ubiquitous surveillance. This study extends Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) through incorporating the watchful eye effect and the theory of contextual integrity to analyze predictors of intention to share data with the police. The results of a 2 (Situational severity: high or low) x 2 (Surveillance: present or absent) between-subjects factorial vignette methodology (N = 222) revealed that participants behaved independently of feeling watched, but that such sharing can be causally attributed to situational severity. Further, we found PMT variables—including perceived severity, response-efficacy, self-efficacy, and response cost—as well as perception of the police to serve as predictors of intentions to share with the police, with some of these factors mediating the effects of situational severity and surveillance. This study not only provides a theoretical contribution to PMT but also practical recommendations for mobile design that considers surveillance normalization and prioritizes data autonomy.
... Presenting multiple facets of ourselves is not well supported on most single services, in part because group systems are underutilized, and users are far more likely to self-censor rather than to utilize audience management tools on social media platforms (Fiesler et al., 2017). This is also known as the "lowest common denominator" effect where the most easily offended audience acts to "chill" expression (Marder et al., 2016), meaning that online audiences to act as a type of information control (Fiesler et al., 2017;Hogan, 2010 (Piwek & Joinson, 2016), LinkedIn continues to advertise itself as the "world's largest professional network," in comparison to other apps or range of sites used for sexual expression and flirting (e.g., Tinder, Grindr) (Albury, 2017). Hence, there are nuances to how users negotiate their identities, whether content is cross-posted and when (especially with increasing integration of services), and how their perceptions change when you can be "nameless" on a platform (e.g., Reddit, Instagram to an extent but it links with Facebook accounts). ...
... This article sought to provide a novel approach to explore online settings by utilizing the RGTs alongside semi-structured interviews, specifically here, social media identities and self-presentation across platforms. We found that participants do maintain multiple presentations of self across multiple sites, and do engage in a set of (not necessarily efficient) self-regulation behaviors (Hogan, 2010;Marder et al., 2016). ...
... Es así como la pregunta sobre cómo se configura la identidad a través de la interacción en las OLSN, han continuado dominando el discurso académico (Beyens, Frison, & Eggermont, 2016;Hawk, Van den Eijnden, Van Lissa, & Ter Bogt, 2019;Hodkinson 2017;Marder, Joinson, Shankar, & Houghton, 2016;Santos, 2018), señalando que lo virtual no alude a algo irreal, sino a otra forma de realidad o de existir en el tiempo y espacio. ...
... En particular de los discursos analizados se observa cómo conclusiones más destacadas de nuestro trabajo encontramos que las dinámicas que se generan en la socialización en red, y convierten la relación con el otro en una parte constituyente de la propia identidad (Santor, et al., 2000); sin el otro el ser se vuelve invisible, a través del otro es posible construirse y validarse, mucho más que en un espacio "real" (Hawk, et al., 2019;Guedes, et al., 2016). (Andreassen, Pallesen, & Griffiths, 2017); al mismo tiempo como efecto de la presión de los iguales por sobre la representación del yo, se presentan casos de autocensura, forzados por las expectativas de la audiencia (Das, & Kramer 2013;Marder, et al. 2016;Marwick, & Boyd, 2011). ...
The purpose of the study has been to identify the mechanisms that influence the construction of online identities of adolescents and the way they relate to each other. Thirty-six semi-structured ethnographic interviews are analyzed, applied to students between the ages of 12 and 18, belonging to all social sectors of the region of Valparaiso, Chile. The methodological design uses the content analysis technique, prioritizing a critical interpretative perspective and not an analytical-structural-linguistic one. Among the most outstanding conclusions of our work we find that virtual social networks represent for adolescents, a fundamental element to define themselves and identify themselves as subjects; however, the construction and definition of network identity depends on and requires the acceptance and recognition of others, often inducing a subjectivity molded to the demands of an ever more demanding audience, which can limit the freedom of gestures and opinions.
... In particular, future research may investigate how the various identities performed by unions interact and influence each other. Does union online identity performance shape the narrative construction of union identity in other communicational spaces, as research conducted at the individual level would suggest (Marder et al., 2016) ? Or are these different forms of identity performed independently, thus contributing to a layering of union identities? ...
With the rise of social media, unions are increasingly performing their identity on the digital scene. While this displacement has generated much academic speculation, the literature still largely ignores how unions concretely stage ‘who they are’ on social media. This article elaborates upon Goffman's approach to identity performance by analysing how eight Quebecois trade unions present themselves online. The findings highlight four types of online identity performance: self-caricaturing bureaucracy, fading service provider, opponent polarizing and community narcissizing identity performance. The article makes two main contributions to the literature. First, it enriches debates about unions’ use of social media by showing that digital technologies may not be considered as universally good, bad or neutral for unions’ online identities. Second, it contributes to discussions about the nature of unions’ identities by highlighting how communicational spaces help to shape them.
... As a result, the levels of interaction between users and activist groups can be considered as almost predetermined due to the creation of online 'echo chambers' i.e. spaces where users are only exposed to content they are more likely to agree with and interact with other users who are of like mind or opinion; 'the looping of self-declared cause/identity with the information that the relevant user encounters, with little intervening friction' (Valluvan, 2019: 187 potentially be accepted as reasonable. It is evident that the level of surveillance of social media platforms is also impacting on users in the offline realm, where an increased sense of self-awareness leads to offline behaviours adhering to them in the likely possibility that they may be captured and become available for online audiences (Marder et al., 2016). The use of these commercialised platforms by activist groups within the progressive anti-racist movement in the United Kingdom seems rather paradoxical considering their stance against neoliberalism. ...
In recent years, the rise of right-wing populism and post-truth politics has created a dangerous cocktail, enabling ‘immigration’ and ‘anti-racism’ to be framed within dominant political and media coverage in such a way that it stigmatises and marginalises foreign nationals migrating to the United Kingdom, replicating social injustice. Several activist groups within the broader anti-racist movement are engaging in contemporary forms of video activism alongside protest action to resist and challenge these frames and framing processes.
This thesis makes the necessary four-way theoretical and methodological links between hegemony, qualitative frame analysis, video activism and knowledge production to explore the ways in which dominant framings of immigration are resisted by the broader anti-racist movement. Using a broad framework combining film theory/studies and cinematography, the analysis of the visual strategies employed by eight activist groups within this movement within video activist footage disseminated on YouTube and Facebook provides unique insights into the groups themselves, and the various stylistic, shot, angling, sound and editing strategies employed that open up opportunities for framing. A further qualitative, and discursive, frame analysis explores the various frames that are used by the groups through video activism itself; persecution, hardship, heroism, empowerment, incompetence and anti-racism; producing different new knowledges surrounding organisational knowledges of the movement (including collective identity), social injustice in general, dominant hegemonic narratives, and, most importantly, the struggles of migrants and refugees.
In doing so, it makes significant contribution to knowledge by proposing three unique typologies to demonstrate how the contemporary hegemonic post-truth narratives surrounding immigration can be, and are being, resisted in order to reinforce social justice.
... Constant monitoring can prevent the public from voicing their opinions and criticisms for fear of reprimanding (Penney, 2016;Stoycheff et al., 2019). Not only is online behavior affected by surveillance, but it also extends to the offline domain too, where individuals choose to play safe by being compliant, conformist, and submissive (Marder et al., 2016). This 'chilling effect' suppressed freedom of expression as one of the fundamental human rights protected by international law (Bernal, 2016). ...
Southeast Asia is home to about 8.5 percent of the world’s total population and 10 percent of its internet users, yet it is also home to 12.7 percent of the world’s social media users. The exponential growth in internet and social media utilization poses both opportunities and challenges towards democratization. This paper aims to examine how the digital sphere may or may not support inclusive and deliberative democracy in the region. Using elaboration on case studies from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, the current study is reflecting upon shared challenges and opportunities in preserving democracy amidst the rapid development of cyberspace as a mode of political communication. The findings suggest that digital space has been instrumental in harassing dissent or jailing opposition members in countries like the Philippines and Vietnam. On the other hand, the utilization of technology offers an opportunity that has prospects for nurturing deliberative and a more inclusive democracy for Indonesia and Malaysia. The study contributes to the wider conversation on democracy and the digital sphere in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries.
... Subjective norms are defined as an individual's perception of social pressure [20]. According to theory of Reasoned Action and theory of Planned Behavior, behavior is affected by subjective norms. ...
Initial purchase expectation disconfirmation does not necessarily reduce consumer repurchase intention on a knowledge payment platform. This paper constructs a moderated mediation model to explore the positive impact mechanism and boundary conditions of initial purchase expectation disconfirmation on repurchase intention. With 524 questionnaire surveys, this paper conducts empirical analysis. The main findings are as follows: First, initial purchase expectation disconfirmation positively affects consumer repurchase intention by stimulating the platform search effort. Second, three boundary conditions affect such a mediation mechanism: subjective norms, anticipated regret, and alternative attractiveness. Specifically, the higher the subjective norms and anticipated regret the consumer has, the stronger the stimulating effect of initial purchase expectation disconfirmation on platform search efforts. The higher the platform alternative attractiveness, the stronger the optimistic prediction of platform search efforts on the platform repurchase intention. The conclusion deepens the theoretical mechanism of how initial purchase expectation disconfirmation affects platform repurchase intention.
... People would presumably be less concerned with social approval in more private or anonymous environments. One small study showed that lack of privacy online can even influence behavior offline; people behaved in a more socially desirable way in real life when they believed that their actions might be posted on social media (Marder et al., 2016). A more extreme example of how lack of privacy and anonymity can increase socially desirable behavior was documented in the wake of the surveillance program implemented by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). ...
We evaluate how features of the digital environment free or constrain the self. Based on the current empirical literature, we argue that modern technological features, such as predictive algorithms and tracking tools, pose four potential obstacles to the freedom of the self: lack of privacy and anonymity, (dis)embodiment and entrenchment of social hierarchy, changes to memory and cognition, and behavioral reinforcement coupled with reduced randomness. Comparing these constraints on the self to the freedom promised by earlier digital environments suggests that digital reality can be designed in more freeing ways. We describe how people reassert personal agency in the face of the digital environment’s constraints and provide avenues for future research regarding technology’s influence on the self.
... A top-down thematic analysis was employed (Braun & Clarke, 2006). This analytical technique is often used within qualitative studies when the overall research project is predominately quantitative (see Marder, Joinson, Shankar, & Houghton, 2016). ...
Social media influencers (SMIs) offer a unique form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), disclosing personal information (e.g., daily routines, major life events) as part of their pitch when promoting products. To date, no research has explored if, and how, social self-disclosure impacts the way recipients respond to promotions and the influencer themselves. Through four studies deploying a mixed method design (total N = 888), we redress this knowledge gap. We find that increased depth and breadth in social self-disclosure is viewed as inappropriate, reducing trust and purchase intent. We further validate appropriateness as the critical mediator in understanding the impact of self-disclosure within this marketing context. We also establish that the context of the post (sponsored vs non-sponsored) and the audiences’ social media usage intensity together act as a boundary condition to the effects of high self-disclosure by SMI’s.
... Hence, higher levels of publicness on these sites would represent the collapse of interaction context across diverse audiences, which may lead socially anxious individuals to experience higher challenges for impression and privacy management (Alkis et al., 2017;Gil-Lopez et al., 2018;Vitak, 2012). In turn, these concerns may result in more safety strategies, such as inhibiting self-expression (Green et al., 2016;Luo et al., 2019;Marder et al., 2016a). Evidence from a two-wave panel suggests that individuals with higher fear of social isolation are more likely to inhibit their expressive behaviors on SNSs; this tendency was stronger when their network had a higher level of publicness (H.-T. ...
Though socially anxious individuals tend to seek safety, little is known about whether this relationship depends on context, including the affordances of social networking sites (SNSs) to provide anonymity and publicness, and whether safety-seeking can be explained by impression management, privacy calculus or both. Based on the psychobiological model of social anxiety, we conducted two studies (Study 1: N = 103, Study 2: N = 1,184) to examine the contextual dependence of safety-seeking behaviors and to disentangle which types of concerns mediate the effect of social anxiety on safety-seeking behaviors. Results indicated that socially anxious individuals tend to seek safety on SNSs, and this tendency is stronger in less anonymous SNSs. Both evaluative concerns and privacy concerns mediate the relation between social anxiety and safety-seeking behaviors, while the indirect effect of evaluative concerns is stronger than that of privacy. Publicness of an SNS strengthened these indirect effects. These findings highlight the importance of safety perceptions in different online environments, and thereby enrich the literature related to social anxiety and social media use.
... As such, if a researcher is interested in examining how individuals are affected by social desirability biases when interacting online, a platform like Facebook (with high networked information access) is likely to be a more appropriate context of study than a platform like YouTube. When posting on Facebook, users are likely to be much more aware of the fact that friends and family will have access to what they post, thus encompassing the multiple audience problem and potential "chilling" effects (Marder et al., 2012(Marder et al., , 2016. ...
The internet is often viewed as the source of a myriad of benefits and harms. However, there are problems with using this notion of "the internet" and other high-level concepts to explain the influence of communicating via everyday networked technologies on people and society. Here, we argue that research on social influence in computer-mediated communication (CMC) requires increased precision around how and why specific features of networked technologies interact with and impact psychological processes and outcomes. By reviewing research on the affordances of networked technologies, we demonstrate how the relationship between features of "the internet" and "online behaviour" can be determined by both the affordances of the environment and the psychology of the user and community. To achieve advances in this field, we argue that psychological science must provide nuanced and precise conceptualisations, operationalisations, and measurements of "internet use" and "online behaviour". We provide a template for how future research can become more systematic by examining how and why variables associated with the individual user, networked technologies, and the online community interact and intersect. If adopted, psychological science will be able to make more meaningful predictions about online and offline outcomes associated with communicating via networked technologies.
... Specifically, social media is mostly asynchronous (i.e., there is time lapse due to the time taken to construct messages, though videoconferencing is an exception), permanent (i.e., texts and other content is stored or can be recorded), public (i.e., usually accessible by large audiences), almost universally available (i.e., can be shared regardless of physical location), lacks certain cues (i.e., physical cues such as gesture may be absent), quantifiable (i.e., use of social metrics, such as likes), and visual (i.e., use of photographs and videos). According to proponents of the transformation framework, these aspects of social media communication can have an impact in five key ways: changing the frequency and/or immediacy of experiences (e.g., frequency may be higher, leading to increased friendship quality and well-being; e.g., Burke & Kraut, 2016); amplifying experiences and demands (e.g., being available all the time elicits feelings of pressure or guilt to be available online and to respond to communication; Fox & Moreland, 2015); altering the qualitative nature of interactions (e.g., misinterpretation of information in online conversations leading to higher levels of social anxiety; Kingsbury & Coplan, 2016); facilitating new opportunities for compensatory behaviours (e.g., higher self-esteem in shy or introverted adolescents interacting with exclusively online friends; van Zalk et al., 2014), and; creating entirely novel behaviours (e. g., adolescents adjusting their offline behaviours to avoid a negative self-image presentation to their online audience through statements, pictures, or videos; Marder et al., 2016). ...
In adolescence, smartphone use in general and social media use in particular has often been associated with negative effects, such as higher anxiety levels and body dissatisfaction. Other outcomes – such as fundamental cognitive abilities and skills (e.g., intelligence, information processing, spatial perception) – have rarely been the focus of research. Here, we analysed data from a large sample of adolescents (12–16 years; N > 12,000) who performed a series of psychometric tests ranging from intelligence, spatial perception, and information processing, to practical numeracy, and compared their test results with their social media usage (average active and passive time per day, problematic social media use). We additionally applied a random-forest model approach, useful for designs with many predictors and expected small effect sizes. Almost all associations did not outperform known age- and sex-differences on social media use; that is, effect sizes were small-to-tiny and had low importance in the random-forest analyses compared to dominant demographic effects. Negative effects of social media use may have been overstated in past research, at least in samples with adolescents.
... Sharing too little may send signals that undermine closeness between coworkers. Some employees ignore (or accept only with access restrictions) connection requests that make them uncomfortable, because of fears related to privacy invasion (boyd, 2007;Lewis et al., 2008), interpersonal surveillance (Marder et al., 2016;Trottier, 2012), discrimination (Miller & Mundey, 2015), and even harassment by certain coworkers (Chauhan, 2017). However, refusing to connect can create relational distance (Landers & Callan, 2014). ...
Individuals are increasingly connected with their coworkers on personal and professional social network sites (SNS) (e.g., Facebook), with consequences for workplace relationships. Drawing on SNS research and on social identity and boundary management theory, we surveyed 202 employees and found that coworkers’ friendship acts (e.g., liking, commenting) were positively associated with closeness to coworkers when coworkers were similar in age to or older than the respondent and were positively associated with organizational citizenship behaviors towards coworkers (OCBI) when coworkers were similar in age. Conversely, harmful behaviors from coworkers (e.g., disparaging comments) were negatively associated with closeness when coworkers were older than the respondent, and with OCBI when coworkers were older than the respondent and coworkers’ friendship acts were high. Preferences for work-life segmentation moderated the relationship between coworkers’ friendship acts and OCBI (but not closeness) such that the positive relationship was stronger when the respondent had low (vs. high) preferences for segmentation. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this study and propose an agenda for future research.
... According to Marder et al. (2016), social media can be described as an arena of surveillance, holding the potential of the manager controlling employees and potential employees, but it can also be understood the other way around, thus constructing social media as an ambiguous arena, adding to previous claims of information-and communication technology as a 'double-edged sword' of control (Cortini 2009, p. 301). Even though relationships established through two-way communication over the internet can be understood as essentially democratic (Blood 2003;Morsing & Schultz 2006), issues related to power are still very present. ...
Given how social media are commonly used in contemporary Nordic countries, social media platforms are emerging as crucial for relational work between employers, employees, and potential employees. By means of a discursive psychology approach, this study investigates employers’ constructs of relational work on social media through the use of two interpretative repertoires: the repertoire of loss of control and the repertoire of ever-presence. The consequences of these interpretative repertoires are a masking of power relations, especially between employers and young employees in precarious labor market positions and those with limited digital knowledge or financial means. Further, the positioning of social media as part of a private sphere of life means the invasion of not only employees’, but also managers’ private time and persona. The result of this study hence calls for the need to understand relational work on social media as part of normative managerial work.
... As college life moves online, there is a noted rise in students experiencing online harassment and cyberbullying (V. L. Byrne, 2020aByrne, , 2020bWashington, 2015), which has been found to relate to significant academic, psychological, and psychosocial repercussions (e.g., Duggan, 2017;Juvonen & Gross, 2008;Marder et al., 2016;Varjas et al., 2009), as well as chilling of future online social engagement (Alipan et al., 2018). While existing research has documented the scope and impact of first-hand victimization (e.g., V. L. Byrne, 2020b), current research on undergraduates fails to identify the scope and impact of secondary victimization experiences, such as witnessing a friend being harassed online, cyberbullied, or cyberstalked. ...
Online harassment is a growing concern in higher education with evident social,
psychological, and academic repercussions. While students’ victimization
experiences are well documented, the existing research fails to address the extent
to which students witness online harassment or how they cope with the, possible,
secondary trauma. This paper presents findings from 571 undergraduate
students’ survey responses. Findings suggest that witnessing online harassment is
increasingly common and can result in the adoption of defensive online
behaviors.
... In other cases, informants stated that they would alter their behaviours if they were observable by other users, akin to the mechanisms known from self-monitoring theory (Snyder, 1987). Here, the prospect of having other users observe one's behaviour creates a 'chilling effect' (Marder et al., 2016) that might lead users to modify their behaviours to match the expectations of the observers or to perform impression management (Leary et al., 1990). While such modified or 'curated' behaviours are an expected consequence, when viewed in the light of self-representation theory, it is an important nuance to bring to the field of eWOB. ...
The opinions and behaviours of others are recognised as powerful mechanisms for social influence in the digital sphere. The former, often referred to as electronic word of mouth (eWOM), is a thoroughly researched topic in the Information Systems literature. Conversely, the digital display of users' behaviours (e.g., number of past purchases) is less well understood despite the widespread adoption of this practice on digital platforms. Quantitative research has explored this interesting domain and found that observing others' behaviours entice observers to follow suit, but has left unaddressed the question of what sensemaking users derive from behavioural information. This is problematic as behavioural information is more open to interpretation compared to eWOM. In this article, we adopt the concept of electronic word of behaviour (eWOB) to denote such behavioural information. Through the lens of basic psychological needs theory and the qualitative means‐end chain approach, we expose how eWOB is interpreted and used by users of a digital platform, the music service Spotify. We find that eWOB leads to satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for relatedness and competence when observing others' behaviours. We also show how exposure to one's own past behaviours can yield a positive sense of self when presented in meaningful and private manners, but that it can also negatively impact users when their needs for autonomy and competence are not heeded by the digital platform. Finally, based on our empirical findings we offer a set of design implications for how digital platforms can optimise the use of eWOB.
... personal websites, social networking) are widely accepted to be valuable tools for gathering information about a person (Brown & Vaughn, 2011;Kim et al., 2014) and forming impressions about them (Aresta et al., 2015;Utz, 2010;Weisbuch et al., 2009). Social media profiles have been hailed as a foremost space for impression management (Marder et al., 2016). Information presented in online profiles aims to promote positive perceptions and represent 'highlight reels' of one's accomplishments and experiences (Vogel & Rose, 2017). ...
PhD students are allocated to supervisors in several ways. In Business Schools, the most dominant allocation method is student-led selection. In many cases, this requires students to approach and petition potential supervisors before having had any previous communications with them. Though, given that supervisors possess similar credentials, what evaluation process do students undertake when considering them? To date, research to understand this process is absent. Through the theoretical frame of impression management and the use of in-depth interviews (n = 19), we address this gap. Specifically, we examine how warmth and competence perceptions (i.e. The Big Two impressions) shape supervisor selection. Further, we provide understanding of the role academic staff profiles play in this process. We contribute first, a hierarchy of determinants for supervisor choice in ascending order of importance; gatekeeping attributes, competence, and warmth. Second, we provide a typology of stereotypical supervisors (The Guru, The Friend, The Machine, The Dud) based on informational cues from their profiles (i.e. high competence supervisors as colder, and high warmth staff as less competent). Third, we present a critical understanding of the opportunities and challenges of self-presentation through staff profiles. Finally, we offer specific advice for mobilising impression management tactics in these profiles to best appeal to PhD applicants.
... This anxiety over relatability can produce a 'chilling effect' on social media (Marder et al. 2016a), whereby users show a reduced capacity for self-expression when they are aware of the visibility of their activity. One Leeds DIY practitioner expressed a similar kind of wariness: ...
The emergence of social media in the early 21st century promised to facilitate new "DIY" cultural approaches, emphasizing participation and democratization. However, in recent years these platforms have been criticized as domineering and exploitative. For DIY musicians in scenes with lengthy histories of cultural resistance, is social media a powerful emancipatory and democratizing tool, or a new corporate antagonist to be resisted?
DIY Music explores the significant challenges faced by artists navigating this fraught cultural landscape. How do anti-commercial musicians operate in the competitive, attention-seeking world of social media? How do they deal with a new abundance of data and metrics? How do they present their activity as "cultural resistance"? This book shows that a platform-enabled DIY approach is now the norm for a wide array of cultural practitioners; this "DIY-as-default" landscape threatens to depoliticize the call to "do-it-yourself."
... A top-down thematic analysis was employed (Braun & Clarke, 2006). This analytical technique is often used within qualitative studies when the overall research project is predominately quantitative (see Marder, Joinson, Shankar, & Houghton, 2016). ...
Today, social media influencers (SMI) are key marketing agents, core to a brands digital strategy. Current knowledge on personal self-disclosure by marketing agents assert that such disclosure is detrimental to brands and should be avoided (Jacobs et al. 2001; Andersson et al. 2016). Influencers challenge this status quo, as self-disclosure is known to be central to their success. The aim of the present research is to provide the first understanding of the role of self-disclosure by SMI on consumer behaviour.
... In other cases, informants stated that they would alter their behaviours if they were observable by other users, akin to the mechanisms known from self-monitoring theory (Snyder, 1987). Here, the prospect of having other users observe one's behaviour creates a 'chilling effect' (Marder et al., 2016) that might lead users to modify their behaviours to match the expectations of the observers or to perform impression management (Leary et al., 1990). While such modified or 'curated' behaviours are an expected consequence, when viewed in the light of self-representation theory, it is an important nuance to bring to the field of eWOB. ...
... And I felt like I couldn't post it and I felt like that was frustrating. " This hesitancy and, ultimately, assimilation of platform standards through self-censorship can have, as we show, a chilling effect on behavior [99,115]. Sasha, following the ban of an Instagram account, created a new account where she posted content that was "still in the same arena, just not as intense. ...
For individuals with mental illness, social media platforms are considered spaces for sharing and connection. However, not all expressions of mental illness are treated equally on these platforms. Different aggregates of human and technical control are used to report and ban content, accounts, and communities. Through two years of digital ethnography, including online observation and interviews, with people with eating disorders, we examine the experience of content moderation. We use a constructivist grounded theory approach to analysis that shows how practices of moderation across different platforms have particular consequences for members of marginalized groups, who are pressured to conform and compelled to resist. Above all, we argue that platform moderation is enmeshed with wider processes of conformity to specific versions of mental illness. Practices of moderation reassert certain bodies and experiences as 'normal' and valued, while rejecting others. At the same time, navigating and resisting these normative pressures further inscribes the marginal status of certain individuals. We discuss changes to the ways that platforms handle content related to eating disorders by drawing on the concept of multiplicity to inform design.
... However, work that has explored the nuanced ways young people manage and edit their social media personas gives cause for concern. The 'Chilling Effect' describes the phenomenon of people constraining how they present themselves online due to peer surveillance on social media (Marder, Joinson, Shankar, & Houghton, 2016). Further, the 'extended Chilling Effect' applies offline, with the threat of surveillance constraining self presentation in the real world also. ...
The move to university can be difficult for students- a transition often characterised by a risk of loneliness and poor mental health. Previous work highlights the important role social media can play in this transition. We report findings from a large-scale survey of 510 first year undergraduates across the UK, identifying factors that predict student loneliness, and exploring their social media use. Higher levels of social capital, induction satisfaction, and sense of community are significantly associated with lower levels of loneliness. Conversely, those reporting a more ‘liminal self’- the desire to edit and reinvent yourself online - experience greater loneliness- with an indirect relationship between online social information seeking and loneliness, through social capital. We surmise that being ‘true to yourself’ online is important when starting university, and that social media can be a useful tool in facilitating offline relationships and maintaining ties to old friends.
... Tie strength with peers refers to the degree that a person is eager to associate with peers on social network sites, whether close or distant colleagues (Wang et al., 2012). Strong ties on social media leads to the transfer of more helpful information and therefore has larger impact on receivers than do weak ties (Huszti, Dávid & Vajda, 2013;Marder, Joinson, Shankar & Houghton, 2016). On the other hand, Identification with the peer group refers to a situation when a person develops we-intentions and wants to maintain a positive, self-defining relationship with a group, values relationships with the community, and is willing to engage in community activities (Rodríguez-González, Ruiz & Pujadas, 2015;Brundidge, Baek, Johnson, & Williams, 2013;Gromark & Schliesmann 2010). ...
Facebook has become the main platform for young adults to sustain their social presence as well as expand their social networks. The impact of social media on youth decision-making has attracted much attention in research and academia. The research setting was at University of Fort Hare, a university located in South Africa. Before and during a student representative council (SRC) election at the university, the six student parties contesting for the leadership office utilised Facebook in communicating and marketing their campaign messages to fellow students. This research therefore empirically investigated how Facebook influenced university students' intention to vote and elect an SRC for the institution. The survey methodology was adopted in collecting data and non-probability sampling, a form of convenience sampling was utilised in selection of suitable participants for the study. A total of 381 students participated in the study responding to questions examining potential drivers of selection of a particular student representative party (SRP). A conceptual model was developed with Face-book constructs that included "medium credibility of Facebook", "peer communication on Facebook" and "user trust of Facebook" among other factors that influence students' choice of an (SRP). The main findings established that identification with peers was observed as having the most significant impact on youths' intention to vote for student representatives. Message credibility was found to have weak impact on student's intention to vote for a particular (SRC) candidate. Implications emerged from the findings and further research suggestions were provided.
... Rather than show realistic accounts, conscious of the public nature of their posts, workers edit, style and censor their posts for particular audiences and manage their impression to others (Marder et al., 2016c;Stibe et al., 2011;Zhang et al., 2014). Marder et al. (2016a), for example, suggest the most "powerful group" determines selfpresentation styles on social medialabelled the "strongest audience effect". Likewise, Zhang et al. (2010) report on the use of a proprietary microblogging service within an unnamed Fortune 500 company and conclude that workers engaged in virtual "impression management". ...
Purpose
Informed by social representation theory, the study aims to explore how marketing workers represent their activities on social media.
Design/methodology/approach
A naturalistic data set of 17,553 messages posted on Twitter by advertising workers was collected. A sample of over 1,000 unique messages from this data set, incorporating all external links and images, was analysed inductively using structured thematic analysis.
Findings
Advertising workers represent marketing work as a series of fun yet constrained activities involving relationships with clients and colleagues. They engage in cognitive polyphasia by evaluating these productive differences in both a positive and negative light.
Research limitations/implications
The study marks a novel use of social representation theory and innovative social media analysis. Further research should explore these relations in greater depth by considering the networks that marketing workers create on social media and establish how, when and why marketing workers turn to social media in their everyday activities.
Practical implications
Marketing workers choose to represent aspects of their work to one another, using social media. Marketing managers should support such activities and consider social media as a way to understand the lives and experiences of marketing workers.
Originality/value
Marketing researchers have embraced digital media as a route to understanding consumers. This study demonstrates the value of analysing digital media to develop an understanding of marketing work. It sheds new light on the ways marketing workers create social relationships and enables marketing managers to understand and observe the social aspects of effective marketing.
The availability of online data has altered the role of social media. By offering targeted online advertising, that is, persuasive messages tailored to user groups, political parties profit from large data profiles to send fine-grained advertising appeals to susceptible voters. This between-subject experiment ( N = 421) investigates the influence of targeted political advertising disclosures (targeting vs. no-targeting disclosure), political fit (high vs. low), and issue fit (high vs. low) on recipients’ party evaluation and chilling effect intentions. The mediating role of targeting knowledge (TK) and perceived manipulative intent (PMI), two dimensions of persuasion knowledge, are investigated. The findings show that disclosing a targeting strategy and a high political fit activated individuals’ TK, that is, their recognition that their data had been used to show the ads, which then increased the evaluation of the political party and individuals’ intentions to engage in future chilling effect behaviors. High political fit decreased individuals’ reflections about the appropriateness of the targeted political ads (i.e., PMI), which then increased party evaluation. Issue fit did not affect individuals’ persuasion knowledge.
The actions and inactions of intermediaries have resulted in both private and public harms. Public harms include the illicit influence of voting behavior through manipulation of public opinion, directly undermining democracy. Although the Supreme Court of India recognized such public harms that result from intermediary behavior, it did not go beyond the privacy framework in addressing these harms. Based on an analysis of Indian law, the article proposes a new normative category—constitutional harms—to refocus attention on a special class of public harms, thereby opening up the debate on new remedies to address such harms.
Chapter 1 introduces readers to scholarship on privacy and surveillance. It discusses conceptions of privacy in China and the West and provides a succinct review of scholarship on reciprocal, commercial, and state surveillance. It follows by discussing the implications of surveillance and how citizens in China and the West perceive privacy and surveillance.
Digital surveillance is a daily and all-encompassing reality of life in China. This book explores how Chinese citizens make sense of digital surveillance and live with it. It investigates their imaginaries about surveillance and privacy from within the Chinese socio-political system.
Based on in-depth qualitative research interviews, detailed diary notes, and extensive documentation, Ariane Ollier-Malaterre attempts to ‘de-Westernise’ the internet and surveillance literature. She shows how the research participants weave a cohesive system of anguishing narratives on China’s moral shortcomings and redeeming narratives on the government and technology as civilising forces. Although many participants cast digital surveillance as indispensable in China, their misgivings, objections, and the mental tactics they employ to dissociate themselves from surveillance convey the mental and emotional weight associated with such surveillance exposure.
The book is intended for academics and students in internet, surveillance, and Chinese studies, and those working on China in disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, social psychology, psychology, communication, computer sciences, contemporary history, and political sciences. The lay public interested in the implications of technology in daily life or in contemporary China will find it accessible as it synthesises the work of sinologists and offers many interview excerpts.
Many adolescents face pressure when it comes to securing social media attention in the form of views, comments and/or likes on their posted content. The purpose of this study was to examine how this pressure impacts adolescents’ current relationships with friends in addition to their mental health over time. Participants were Canadian adolescents (Time 1 n = 345; Mage = 17.29; 80.6% female) who reported on their felt pressure to gain social media attention, friendship closeness and internalizing symptoms in 3 surveys approximately 4 months apart (from August 2020 to June 2021). We used latent curve modeling with structured residuals (LCM-SR) to model the lagged relations between the aforementioned variables, while also controlling for time spent on social media and number of likes received. LCM-SR builds on multivariate latent curve modeling and autoregressive latent trajectory and allows for the simultaneous testing of between- and within-person stability and change over time. In line with our first hypothesis, results demonstrated that at time points when adolescents experienced more pressure to gain social media attention than usual, their friendship closeness decreased at the next time point. Social media pressure was not a significant predictor of internalizing symptoms, however. Results emphasize the importance of teasing apart within- and between-person effects when examining impacts of adolescent social media use. They also highlight the importance of targeting felt pressures to gain social media attention in order to support healthy adolescent relationships.
Given the urgent need to address plastic pollution, fashion companies are implementing diverse strategies to reduce plastic in their production processes. To communicate their commitment to plastic waste reduction, companies have started including symbols on their products (i.e., sustainability cues). However, the effect of these symbols on consumer behaviour remains unclear. Thus, through a mixed method involving three focus groups and two online experiments, we investigate the effect of sustainability cues on consumers' preferences. Our findings show that including sustainability cues on a product is not always an effective business strategy. Hence, we expand the ongoing debate on the effects of environmental strategies, offering new insights into consumers' perceptions of sustainability cues and demonstrating the importance of perceived proximity and environmental concern in enhancing or reducing buying intentions towards sustainable products. For fashion companies, we reveal if and how sustainability cues can represent a competitive leverage prompting environmentally friendly purchases.
This chapter lays the foundation for a framework of authenticity in social media practices based on theories of performativity. It also describes how posting on social media carries with it intention and visibility, meaning it could be framed as a form of performance. Rather than seeing authenticity as a consistent mode of presentation, the proposition is that if authenticity is performative then it is an interval, which is temporal and deconstructive, and that it reveals what Derrida (Speech and Phenomena: and Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs (David Allison, Trans.). Northwestern University Press, 1973) described as ‘the trace’. As a result, there is affective transference and a ‘doing’ as a result of the revelation of the authentic trace.
Due to their audiovisual anonymity and asynchronicity, social media have the potential to enhance self-disclosure, and thereby facilitate closeness among existing friends. In this chapter, the author highlights findings relating to the beneficial social connectedness outcomes that can be linked to online self-disclosure, synthesizes relevant literature that addresses who reaps the most benefits from online self-disclosure, and makes suggestions to direct future research in this area. Theoretical perspectives are identified throughout the chapter that are relevant to understanding the benefits of online self-disclosure, the relation between personal characteristics as predictors of online self-disclosure, and moderating factors of the effect of online self-disclosure on social connectedness. Empirical findings support both social compensation and social enhancement perspectives.
Substance use, aggression/violence, delinquency, and risky sexual behaviors emerge and peak during adolescence, as teens enter new social and digital ecologies. This chapter reviews the literature on the co-occurrence and mutual influences between adolescent digital media use and engagement in online and offline health risk behaviors, with attentions to the mechanisms underlying these associations. Research suggests the quantity of time adolescents spend online is less important than the quality of how they spend that time, and that many well-documented peer influence processes (first studied in face-to-face peer interactions) are also emerging in online spaces. Shared vulnerabilities, peer selection, peer socialization, and identity development are important mechanisms helping us understand why adolescents engage in online and offline risk taking (and thus potential targets of interventions to reduce risk processes). This chapter highlights directions for future research, emphasizing longitudinal and experimental designs to improve causal inference and testing directionality of effects.
This study builds on previous surveillance and censorship research that has uncovered the chilling effects of these online technologies. It tests the assumption that political chilling occurs through affective heuristics. By manipulating an online privacy policy to include the presence of either website cookies, as a means of surveillance, or content moderation, as a form of censorship, this research indicates that both website features activate negative affect, but only surveillance engenders problematic chilling effects. The additional presence of U.S. national security justifications accompanying the website cookies or content moderation suppressed some feelings of fear, but did not reduce political chilling. These findings prompt a discussion of how website and application cookies impact expression in digital spaces.
Araştırma, UNWTO (2019) verilerine göre Dünya’nın en çok turist alan ilk on ülkesinin destinasyon pazarlama sürecinde resmi web sitelerini gastronomi turizmi açısından değerlendirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu amaç doğrultusunda araştırmada nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden doküman inceleme tekniği kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın kapsamını dünyanın en çok turist alan ilk on ülkesinin resmi web sitelerinde yer alan gastronomi turizmine yönelik pazarlama ve tanıtım çalışmaları oluşturmaktadır. Bu kapsamda veriler, 1 Aralık 2020 ile 10 Ocak 2021 tarihleri arasında ilgili ülkelerin İngilizce dilindeki resmi turizm web sitelerinden metin, fotoğraf ve video şeklinde toplanmıştır. Elde edilen verilere içerik analizi uygulanmıştır. Analiz sonuçları incelenen ülkelerin tamamının gastronomiyle ilgili bir sayfası veya kategorisi bulunduğunu, bazı ülkelerin ciddi eksiklikleri olmasına rağmen genel olarak değerlendirildiğinde dünyanın en çok turist ağırlayan ilk on ülkesinin destinasyon pazarlama sürecinde resmi web sitelerinde gastronomi turizmine yönelik tanıtım ve pazarlama çalışmaları yaptıklarını göstermektedir.
Concertive control (CC) theory has primarily been applied to traditional offline, work-based, closed membership teams. New organizational forms such as online communities have opened up additional sites in which CC processes may operate. This article makes several contributions to CC theory and research. First, it increases the applicability of CC theory by extending it from offline to online, work to non-work, and closed to open membership contexts. Second, it increases our understanding of CC processes by elaborating on three mechanisms of CC (group autonomy, group identification, and generative discipline) and how they operate differently in online work/non-work and closed/open contexts. Third, it develops propositions about how these mechanisms interact with three prominent media affordances (visibility, persistence and editability) within those contexts. Extending CC theory to online communities helps to explain individuals’ responses to normative group pressures online, which is highly relevant in our increasingly culturally and politically polarized society.
31 Aralık 2019 tarihinde ilk kez Çin’in Wuhan kentinde ortaya çıkan daha sonra Dünya Sağlık Örgütü (DSÖ) tarafından salgın olarak ilan edilen Covid-19 ile birlikte üniversitelerdeki eğitim ve öğretim faaliyetleri kesintiye uğramıştır. Üniversitelerin ani bir şekilde kapanmasıyla birlikte eğitim kurumları uzaktan eğitim sistemlerine yönelmiştir. Bu nedenle, geleneksel eğitimden çevrim içi derslere geçiş yapılmıştır. Bu araştırma, Covid-19 salgını sürecinde turizm eğitimi alan lisans öğrencilerinin çevrim içi öğrenmeye hazırbulunuşluk düzeylerini belirlemeyi ve demografik özellikleri arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Veriler, online anket tekniğiyle elde edilmiştir. Araştırmada ilişkisel tarama modeli kullanılmıştır. Anket tekniğiyle toplanan verilerin analizinde, SPSS programı ile yüzde, frekans, t-testi ve varyans analizlerinden yararlanılmıştır. Araştırma bulgularına göre; lisans öğrencilerinin çevrim içi iletişim öz yeterliği ve öğrenen kontrolü yüksek; bilgisayar öz yeterliği ve kendi kendine öğrenme orta düzeyde ve e-öğrenmeye yönelik motivasyon faktörü ise düşük olarak bulunmuştur. Araştırma bulguları, lisans öğrencilerinin çevrim içi öğrenmeye hazır olduklarını göstermektedir. Covid-19 salgını sürecinde Türkiye’de çevrim içi eğitimlerin niceliğinin ve niteliğinin artırılması yönünde iyileştirmeler yapılması gerekmektedir.
Bu çalışmanın amacı, kültürel miras turizmi amacıyla kültürel miras alanlarını ziyaret eden turistlerin memnuniyeti ve hizmet kalitesi ile alanı tekrar ziyaret etme niyeti arasındaki ilişkiyi araştırmaktır. Bu amaçla, 2019 yılı Ağustos ayında Bergama kültürel miras alanlarını ziyarete gelen toplam 400 yerli ve yabancı turiste anket tekniği uygulanarak araştırmanın verileri elde edilmiştir. Çalışmada, turist memnuniyeti ve hizmet kalitesinin, turistlerin kültürel miras alanını tekrar ziyaret etme niyeti ile arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemeye yönelik hipotezler geliştirilmiştir. Geliştirilen hipotezlerin analizinde iki yönlü ki-kare bağımsızlık testinden faydalanılmıştır. Çalışmanın bulguları değerlendirildiğinde,
turistlerin harcadığı masraflara ve zamana göre memnuniyetin kültürel miras alanını tekrar ziyaret etme niyeti ile ilişkisi olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Diğer bir bulgu da hizmet kalitesi ile kültürel miras alanını tekrar ziyaret etme niyeti arasında ilişkinin bulunmasıdır. Sonuç olarak, turistlerin tekrar ziyaret etme niyeti ile istatistiksel olarak anlamlı ilişkisi bulunan turist memnuniyetinin ve hizmet kalitesinin sağlanması, turistik destinasyon olan kültürel miras alanlarının temel amaçlar arasında olmalıdır.
Individuals change and adapt their behavior according to their social situation (e.g., transitioning from work to home). However, how does this shape shifting of self-presentations and identity translate into various online platforms? This exploratory study utilizes a novel and mixed methodological approach to better understand user behavior across social media platforms. We interviewed 22 participants and employed a repertory grid technique to reveal deeper similarities and differences in behavior across various online platforms. We found that users had a variety of strategies for managing multiple audiences across multiple platforms. Almost all participants actively separated their professional (e.g., LinkedIn) and social (e.g., Facebook or Instagram) oriented platforms typically by self-censorship of posts rather than utilizing audience management tools. Via the repertory grid technique, we revealed a number of more subtle nuances of how participants reflect on how and why they maintain a number of social media identities.
The Panopticon is a popular metaphor in discussions about mass surveillance. Drawing on deterrence theory and chilling effects, we provide two empirical tests of this analogy to examine whether perceptions of online government surveillance suppress or entirely eradicate an array of sensitive online activities. Study 1 indicates that surveillance significantly deters individuals’ intentions to engage in illegal offenses, an effect that extends to political, but not privacy-protective behaviors. Study 2 retests the pervasiveness of this effect with a sample of Muslims who reside in the United States. Results indicate that restrictive chilling effects are not specific to any one online population, experimental stimuli, or political context. Implications for US political and social systems are discussed.
Due to their audiovisual anonymity and asynchronicity, social media have the potential to enhance self-disclosure, and thereby facilitate closeness among existing friends. In this chapter, the author highlights findings relating to the beneficial social connectedness outcomes that can be linked to online self-disclosure, synthesizes relevant literature that addresses who reaps the most benefits from online self-disclosure, and makes suggestions to direct future research in this area. Theoretical perspectives are identified throughout the chapter that are relevant to understanding the benefits of online self-disclosure, the relation between personal characteristics as predictors of online self-disclosure, and moderating factors of the effect of online self-disclosure on social connectedness. Empirical findings support both social compensation and social enhancement perspectives.
People create profiles on social network sites and Twitter accounts against the background of an audience. This paper argues that closely examining content created by others and looking at one's own content through other people's eyes, a common part of social media use, should be framed as social surveillance. While social surveillance is distinguished from traditional surveillance along three axes (power, hierarchy, and reciprocity), its effects and behavior modification is common to traditional surveillance. Drawing on ethnographic studies of United States populations, I look at social surveillance, how it is practiced, and its impact on people who engage in it. I use Foucault's concept of capillaries of power to demonstrate that social surveillance assumes the power differentials evident in everyday interactions rather than the hierarchical power relationships assumed in much of the surveillance literature. Social media involves a collapse of social contexts and social roles, complicating boundary work but facilitating social surveillance. Individuals strategically reveal, disclose and conceal personal information to create connections with others and tend social boundaries. These processes are normal parts of day-to-day life in communities that are highly connected through social media.
Self-disclosure is popular on social network site (SNS). However, teenagers’ self-disclosure behavior and their regret of posting, a negative emotional experience, have been seldom studied. Using data from a nationally representative survey, this study tries to investigate teenagers’ self-disclosure and regret of posting on SNS. We further examine how demographic variables, SNS use, different types of “friends”, trust, and privacy control behavior relate to self-disclosure and regret of posting. We find that though teenagers reveal moderately high level of personal information on SNS, they do not disclose all types of personal information equally. Results also show that male and older teens disclose more personal information. Frequent SNS use, large SNS network size, and having strangers in SNS friend list increase both self-disclosure and posting regret. Setting SNS profile private is related to lower level of self-disclosure. Implications for privacy design of SNS are discussed.
Evidence suggests that compliance with accessibility standards does not always guarantee a satisfying user experience on the Web. The literature indicates that addressing the expectations users have about online content and functionalities is crucial to bridge this gap. We examine the role played by subjectiveness, experience and, particularly, expectations on how users experience the accessibility on the Web. To do so, 11 blind participants were enquired through interviews and questionnaires about 12 tasks they completed in four websites. Thematic analysis on the transcriptions reveals that expectations are often built up on previous experiences and preconceived ideas. Particularly, the content which is explicitly labelled as accessible arises the curiosity and creates high expectations about the accessibility of the website. We also find that, in addition to unmet expectations, prejudices on branding issues and the memories evoked by past experiences or emotional bonds does not only affect the way in which users perceive and experience accessibility, but also the overall user experience. Identifying the nature of expectations is key (i) to formalise more exhaustive user testing protocols and (ii) to complement and complete existing accessibility guidelines.
Social networking services (SNSs) such as Facebook or Twitter have experienced an explosive growth during the few past years. Millions of users have created their profiles on these services because they experience great benefits in terms of friendship. SNSs can help people to maintain their friendships, organize their social lives, start new friendships, or meet others that share their hobbies and interests. However, all these benefits can be eclipsed by the privacy hazards that affect people in SNSs. People expose intimate information of their lives on SNSs, and this information affects the way others think about them. It is crucial that users be able to control how their information is distributed through the SNSs and decide who can access it. This paper presents a list of privacy threats that can affect SNS users, and what requirements privacy mechanisms should fulfill to prevent this threats. Then, we review current approaches and analyze to what extent they cover the requirements.
This paper examines how firm investments in technology-based employee monitoring impact both misconduct and productivity. We use unique and detailed theft and sales data from 392 restaurant locations from five firms that adopt a theft monitoring information technology (IT) product. We use difference-in-differences models with staggered adoption dates to estimate the treatment effect of IT monitoring on theft and productivity. We find significant treatment effects in reduced theft and improved productivity that appear to be primarily driven by changed worker behavior rather than worker turnover. We examine four mechanisms that may drive this productivity result: economic and cognitive multitasking, fairness-based motivation, and perceived increases of general oversight. The observed productivity results represent substantial financial benefits to both firms and the legitimate tip-based earnings of workers. Our results suggest that employee misconduct is not solely a function of individual differences in ethics or morality, but can also be influenced by managerial policies that can benefit both firms and employees.
This paper was accepted by Serguei Netessine, operations management.
This study explores how norms on social network sites evolve over time and how violations of these norms impact individuals’ self-presentational and relationship goals. Employing Expectancy Violations Theory (Burgoon, 1978) as a guiding framework, results from a series of focus groups suggest that both the content of the violation and the users’ relationship to the violator impact how individuals react to negative violations. Specifically, acquaintances who engage in minor negative violations are ignored or hidden, while larger infractions (that could negatively impact the individual) result in deletion of the offending content and – in extreme cases – termination of the Facebook friendship. Negative violations from close friends (that did not impact participants’ goals) resulted in confrontations, while similar violations from acquaintances were often ignored by participants in an effort to ‘keep the peace.’ Furthermore, positive violations were more likely to arise from acquaintances than close friends.
The present research seeks to extend existing theory on self-disclosure to the online arena in higher educational institutions and contribute to the knowledge base and understanding about the use of a popular social networking site (SNS), Facebook, by college students. We conducted a non-experimental study to investigate how university students (N = 463) use Facebook, and examined the roles that personality and culture play in disclosure of information in online SNS-based environments. Results showed that individuals do disclose differently online vs. in-person, and that both culture and personality matter. Specifically, it was found that collectivistic individuals low on extraversion and interacting in an online environment disclosed the least honest and the most audience-relevant information, as compared to others. Exploratory analyses also indicate that students use sites such as Facebook primarily to maintain existing personal relationships and selectively used privacy settings to control their self-presentation on SNSs. The findings of this study offer insight into understanding college students’ self-disclosure on SNS, add to the literature on personality and self-disclosure, and shape future directions for research and practice on online self-presentation.
Forty heterosexual undergraduate students (24 females, 16 males) who were currently in a romantic relationship filled out a modified version of The Facebook Jealousy questionnaire (Muise, Christofides, & Desmarais, 2009). The questionnaire was filled out twice, once with the participant’s own personal responses, and a second time with what each participant imagined that his/her romantic partner’s responses would be like. The data indicated that females were more prone to Facebook-evoked feelings of jealousy and to jealousy-motivated behavior than males. Males accurately predicted these sex differences in response to the jealousy scale, but females seemed unaware that their male partners would be less jealous than themselves.
The authors examined ought, ideal, and feared self-discrepancies as predictors of agitation- and dejection-related affects. Overall, discrepancy from feared selves predicted anxiety and guilt, preempting the role of discrepancies from ought selves; ideal and feared discrepancies both predicted depression. Further analyses revealed interactions between actual-ought and actual-feared discrepancies in predicting anxiety and guilt. Among participants who were relatively near their feared selves, discrepancies from ought selves were unrelated to these affects. In contrast, among those whose feared selves were more distant, ought discrepancies did predict agitation-related affect, consistent with self-discrepancy theory. Discussion centers on a view in which an avoidance motive (feared self) dominates anxiety and guilt if the feared element is nearby but in which an associated approach motive (ought self) dominates anxiety and guilt if the feared element is more remote.
This chapter challenges traditional models of deindividuation. These are based on the assumption that such factors as immersion in a group and anonymity lead to a loss of selfhood and hence of control over behaviour. We argue that such models depend upon an individualistic conception of the self, viewed as a unitary construct referring to that which makes individuals unique. This is rejected in favour of the idea that self can be defined at various different levels including the categorical self as well as the personal self. Hence a social identity model of deindividuation (SIDE) is outlined. Evidence is presented to show that deindividuation manipulations gain effect, firstly, through the ways in which they affect the salience of social identity (and hence conformity to categorical norms) and, secondly, through their effects upon strategic considerations relating to the expression of social identities. We conclude that the classic deindividuation paradigm of anonymity within a social group, far from leading to uncontrolled behaviour, maximizes the opportunity of group members to give full voice to their collective identities.
Social media technologies collapse multiple audiences into single contexts, making it difficult for people to use the same techniques online that they do to handle multiplicity in face-to-face conversation. This paper investigates how content producers navigate 'imagined audiences' on Twitter. We talked to participants with different types of followings to understand their techniques, including targeting multiple audiences, concealing subjects, and maintaining authenticity. For some, the techniques of audience management resemble those of 'micro-celebrity' and personal branding, representing strategic self-commodification. Our model of the networked audience assumes a many-to-many communication through which individuals conceptualize an imagined audience evoked through their tweets.
The problem of conflicting social spheres occurs when communications are simultaneously visible to multiple audiences within a social network, as commonly occurs on social network sites (SNS). In this environment users may suffer from social anxiety as they worry that communications seen as negative by certain audiences may be shared with those same groups. This issue rests on four assumptions: (1) that a social network encompasses a variety of social spheres, (2) that users believe they are being watched by these spheres, (3) that the social spheres differ in the norms, standards and expectations they hold about an individual and (4) that users largely do not employ measures to separate communications to different spheres. The present research aims to provide evidence for these assumptions. Self-discrepancy theory (SDT) [1] is used as a lens to view social norms, and as a novel way of understanding social spheres. Moreover, the research investigates any link between the magnitude of ought self-discrepancies and the social anxiety felt between relational dyads. An online survey with 313 participants offers strong support for these assumptions and provides evidence of a significant association between the magnitude of negative ought-other discrepancies and anxiety within dyads. This evidence strengthens the argument that SNS can cause anxiety and tension in social relations.
Thematic analysis is a poorly demarcated, rarely acknowledged, yet widely used qualitative analytic method within psychology. In this paper, we argue that it offers an accessible and theoretically flexible approach to analysing qualitative data. We outline what thematic analysis is, locating it in relation to other qualitative analytic methods that search for themes or patterns, and in relation to different epistemological and ontological positions. We then provide clear guidelines to those wanting to start thematic analysis, or conduct it in a more deliberate and rigorous way, and consider potential pitfalls in conducting thematic analysis. Finally, we outline the disadvantages and advantages of thematic analysis. We conclude by advocating thematic analysis as a useful and flexible method for qualitative research in and beyond psychology.
A survey on 143 university students was conducted to examine what motives young adults have for Facebook use, which of those motives were endorsed more than the others, and how those motives were related to the tendency of expressing one’s “true self” through Facebook use. According to the results, primary motive for Facebook use was to maintain long-distance relationships. This motive was followed by game-playing/entertainment, active forms of photo-related activities, organizing social activities, passive observations, establishing new friendships, and initiating and/or terminating romantic relationships. Another interesting result was that individuals’ tendency for expressing one’s true self on the Net had an influence on their Facebook use motives: The ones with high tendency to express their true self on the Internet reported to use Facebook for establishing new friendships and for initiating/terminating romantic relationships more than the individuals’ with low and medium levels of the same tendency did.
The use of single-item measures has been encouraged by several authors asserting that single-item measures are appropriate and can substitute multiple-item measures in many cases. This study focuses on the characteristics of single-item measures in Likert scale format. There are two motives behind it: first, the Likert scale has been called problematic and its usage discouraged by the very proponents of single-item measures; and second, the reverse wording of Likert items has led to many problems with multiple-item measures. Because the Likert scale is one of the most used scales in marketing and management, and more researchers may decide to use single-item measures in Likert scale format, it becomes necessary to answer the question if it is usable or not. This research scrutinizes the characteristics of the Likert scale in a positive-negative continuum: from positive to negative with different levels of intensities. Based on collected sample data for three popular computer brands, the main conclusion is that only positively worded Likert items with a fairly high level of intensity should be used as single-item measures. The supporting empirical evidence includes: (1) positively and negatively worded items are not true opposites, (2) items with reversed scores inflate means, (3) items with neutral intensity have unique conceptual meaning, (4) dependent variables are predicted best by independent variables with similar intensity and (5) negatively worded items contain a method factor that limits their ability to capture the measured concept. The results also suggest that the effect of the method factor is expressed more when respondents are not familiar with the object of the measured concept. The findings in this study provide guidelines for the practical use of measures in Likert format. Scales in other formats should undergo similar scrutiny.
Social network sites (SNSs) are commonly used to maintain existing relationships and form connections with new contacts. Recently, concerns of have been expressed over the way these Web-based technologies are used. Estimates suggest that people are increasingly using SNSs for engaging in the surveillance of others. Given the relatively high rates of prevalence, it can be argued that SNSs have been reinvented into a tool for interpersonal surveillance along with their social networking capabilities. This article expands on the concept of interpersonal electronic surveillance and applies it in the specific context of romantic partners’ use of SNSs. The relationships between surveillance over SNSs and demographic, relational, and Internet use and efficacy variables are studied. The findings reveal that interpersonal surveillance over SNSs is influenced by age, the time individuals spend on their partners’ profiles, the integration of SNSs into daily routines, and Internet self-efficacy.
Different methods of inducing self-awareness have generally been assumed to be interchangeable. The present paper argues that the two most widely used manipulations of self-awareness—audiences and mirrors—differ in an important way: specifically, audiences increase focus on the public aspects of the self, whereas mirrors focus attention on the private aspects of the self. It is further argued that the standards that are used to regulate behavior depend upon which of these self-aspects is taken as the object of attention. Attention to the private self may result in behavior that reflects personal attitudes; attention to the public self may cause behavior to become more consistent with societal expectations. This reasoning was tested in two studies in which subjects served as “teachers” in an aggression paradigm. Each subject in Experiment 1 opposed the use of punishment in learing, but felt that other people favored it. Compared to the control condition, the presence of a mirror led to decreased levels of shock, and the presence of an evaluative audience led to increased levels of shock. Experiment 2 made use of subjects who favored the use of punishment but felt that others were against its use. Compared to the control group, the presence of a mirror led to increased levels of shock whereas the presence of an evaluative audience led to decreased levels of shock. Taken together, these findings indicate that self-awareness manipulations need to be chosen according to the aspect of self that is to be the object of self-attention. Discussion centers on the implications of the public-private distinction.
Using data from a popular online social network site, this paper explores the relationship between profile structure (namely, which fields are completed) and number of friends, giving designers insight into the importance of the profile and how it works to encourage connections and articulated relationships between users. We describe a theoretical framework that draws on aspects of signaling theory, common ground theory, and transaction costs theory to generate an understanding of why certain profile fields may be more predictive of friendship articulation on the site. Using a dataset consisting of 30,773 Facebook profiles, we determine which profile elements are most likely to predict friendship links and discuss the theoretical and design implications of our findings.
Individuals communicate and form relationships through Internet social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace. We study risk taking, trust, and privacy concerns with regard to social networking websites among 205 college students using both reliable scales and behavior. Individuals with profiles on social networking websites have greater risk taking attitudes than those who do not; greater risk taking attitudes exist among men than women. Facebook has a greater sense of trust than MySpace. General privacy concerns and identity information disclosure concerns are of greater concern to women than men. Greater percentages of men than women display their phone numbers and home addresses on social networking websites. Social networking websites should inform potential users that risk taking and privacy concerns are potentially relevant and important concerns before individuals sign-up and create social networking websites.
The critical literature on commercial monitoring and so-called “free labor” (Terranova, 2000) locates exploitation in realms beyond the workplace proper, noting the productivity of networked activity including the creation of user-generated-content and the profitability of commercial sites for social networking and communication. The changing context of productivity in these realms, however, requires further development of a critical concept of exploitation. This article defines exploitation as the extraction of unpaid, coerced, and alienated labor. It considers how such a definition might apply to various forms of unpaid but profit-generating online activity, arguing that commercial monitoring redoubles the conscious, intentional activity of users in ways that render it amenable to a critique of exploitation. Given the role of commercial monitoring in the emerging online economy, the paper emphasizes the importance of supplementing privacy critiques with approaches that identify the ways in which new forms of surveillance represent a form of power that seeks to manage and control consumer behavior.
Impression management, the process by which people control the impressions others form of them, plays an important role in interpersonal behavior. This article presents a 2-component model within which the literature regarding impression management is reviewed. This model conceptualizes impression management as being composed of 2 discrete processes. The 1st involves impression motivation-the degree to which people are motivated to control how others see them. Impression motivation is conceptualized as a function of 3 factors: the goal-relevance of the impressions one creates, the value of desired outcomes, and the discrepancy between current and desired images. The 2nd component involves impression construction. Five factors appear to determine the kinds of impressions people try to construct: the self-concept, desired and undesired identity images, role constraints, target's values, and current social image. The 2-component model provides coherence to the literature in the area, addresses controversial issues, and supplies a framework for future research regarding impression management.
This paper offers a theory of communication visibility based on a field study of the implementation of a new enterprise social networking site in a large financial services organization. The emerging theory suggests that once invisible communication occurring between others in the organization becomes visible for third parties, those third parties could improve their metaknowledge (i.e., knowledge of who knows what and who knows whom). Communication visibility, in this case made possible by the enterprise social networking site, leads to enhanced awareness of who knows what and whom through two interrelated mechanisms: message transparency and network translucence. Seeing the contents of other's messages helps third-party observers make inferences about coworkers' knowledge. Tangentially, seeing the structure of coworkers' communication networks helps third-party observers make inferences about those with whom coworkers regularly communicate. The emerging theory further suggests that enhanced metaknowledge can lead to more innovative products and services and less knowledge duplication if employees learn to work in new ways. By learning vicariously rather than through experience, workers can more effectively recombine existing ideas into new ideas and avoid duplicating work. Moreover, they can begin to proactively aggregate information perceived daily rather than engaging in reactive search after confronting a problem. I discuss the important implications of this emerging theory of communication visibility for work in the knowledge economy.
We report results from an exploratory analysis examining "last-minute" self-censorship, or content that is filtered after being written, on Facebook. We collected data from 3.9 million users over 17 days and associate self-censorship behavior with features describing users, their social graph, and the interactions between them. Our results indicate that 71% of users exhibited some level of last-minute self-censorship in the time period, and provide specific evidence supporting the theory that a user's "perceived audience" lies at the heart of the issue: posts are censored more frequently than comments, with status updates and posts directed at groups censored most frequently of all sharing use cases investigated. Furthermore, we find that: people with more boundaries to regulate censor more; males censor more posts than females and censor even more posts with mostly male friends than do females, but censor no more comments than females; people who exercise more control over their audience censor more content; and, users with more politically and age diverse friends censor less, in general. Copyright © 2013, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.
Privacy is of prime importance to many individuals when they attempt to develop online social relationships. Nonetheless, it has been observed that individuals' behavior is at times inconsistent with their privacy concerns, e.g., they disclose substantial private information in synchronous online social interactions, even though they are aware of the risks involved. Drawing on the hyperpersonal framework and the privacy calculus perspective, this paper elucidates the interesting roles of privacy concerns and social rewards in synchronous online social Interactions by examining the causes and the behavioral strategies that individuals utilize to protect their privacy. An empirical study involving 251 respondents was conducted in online chat rooms. Our results indicate that individuals utilize both self-disclosure and misrepresentation to protect their privacy and that social rewards help explain why individuals may not behave in accordance with their privacy concerns. In addition, we find that perceived anonymity of others and perceived intrusiveness affect both privacy concerns and social rewards. Our findings also suggest that higher perceived anonymity of self decreases individuals' privacy concerns, and higher perceived media richness increases social rewards. Generally, this study contributes to the information systems literature by integrating the hyperpersonal framework and the privacy calculus perspective to identify antecedents of privacy trade-off and predict individuals' behavior in synchronous online social interactions.
Facebook is the most popular social networking site (SNS) in the world. This study explored the methods individuals use to manage perceived invasions of privacy in the form of undesirable Facebook photos uploaded and tagged by other users. Limited previous research has focused solely on untagging, deletion request, privacy setting and face-to-face management methods. A series of qualitative focus group discussions identified these and further management methods, such as emailing or texting the uploader to request the removal of the image. An online quantitative questionnaire examined the relationship of the identified methods with age, gender and personality traits.
Untagging was the most frequently cited management method in both the focus group discussions and online questionnaire. Contrary to previous studies, the findings suggested that women were not more likely to untag than men. Younger Facebook users were found to be more likely to untag than older users but were not more likely to use Facebook management methods. Agreeable individuals were more likely to use direct management methods. On average participants chose three methods they would use to manage these undesirable impressions. Future research should investigate the influence of the photo content and the tagged user’s relationship with the uploader on the management of undesirable SNS photos.
Recent market studies reveal that augmented reality (AR) devices, such as smart glasses, will substantially influence the media landscape. Yet, little is known about the intended adoption of smart glasses, particularly: Who are the early adopters of such wearables? We contribute to the growing body of research that investigates the role of personality in predicting media usage by analyzing smart glasses, such as Google Glass or Microsoft Hololens. First, we integrate AR devices into the current evolution of media and technologies. Then, we draw on the Big Five Model of human personality and present the results from two studies that investigate the direct and moderating effects of human personality on the awareness and innovation adoption of smart glasses. Our results show that open and emotionally stable consumers tend to be more aware of Google Glass. Consumers who perceive the potential for high functional benefits and social conformity of smart glasses are more likely to adopt such wearables. The strength of these effects is moderated by consumers’ individual personality, particularly by their levels of openness to experience, extraversion and neuroticism. This article concludes with a discussion of theoretical and managerial implications for research on technology adoption, and with suggestions for avenues for future research.
The present research investigated how individual, interpersonal, and cultural variables influence positive self-presentation in online social networking. In particular, we examined the role of self-consciousness, actual-to-total Friends ratio, and culture in positive self-presentation on Facebook. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with college-age participants in the United States (n = 183) and South Korea (n = 137). Results showed that self-consciousness (public vs. private) and actual-to-total Friends ratio were not significantly associated with positive self-presentation on Facebook; however, culture showed a statistically significant association with positive self-presentation on Facebook, with the U.S. participants engaging in positive self-presentation on Facebook to a greater extent than the South Korean participants. More interestingly, culture significantly moderated the relationship between public self-consciousness and positive self-presentation as well as the relationship between actual-to-total Friends ratio and positive self-presentation. Specifically, positive self-presentation showed a significant positive association with public self-consciousness and a significant negative association with actual-to-total Friends ratio only among the South Korean participants and not among the U.S. participants. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding cross-cultural differences in self-presentation behaviors on social network sites were discussed.
This paper studies Facebook users’ learning-based attitude formation and the relationship between member attitude and self-disclosure. Through the theoretical lens of learning theories, we recognize the key antecedents to member attitude toward a social networking as stemming from classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning-related factors. In addition, we explore the underlying process through which member attitude affects self-disclosure extent and theorize the mediating role of site usage rate on the relationship between attitude and self-disclosure extent. Analysis of 822 survey data results provides strong support for the role of learning theories in explaining Facebook members’ attitude development. The results also confirm a significant, partial mediating effect of site usage rate. A series of post-hoc analyses on gender difference further reveal that attitude formation mechanisms remain constant between male and female Facebook users; gender difference exists on the association between attitude and self-disclosure extent and the association between site usage rate and self-disclosure extent; and the mediating effect of site usage rate exists in male user group only. Our research, therefore, contributes to the literature on social networking sites, as well as providing behavioral analysis useful to the service providers of these sites.
Business Research Methods contains new and revised chapters on quantitative methods and visual research, while cutting-edge material on inclusivity and bias in research, feminist perspectives, and decolonial and indigenous research is also introduced. The book is composed of four parts. The first part looks at the research process. It covers research strategies and designs, as well as ethics in business research and writing up business research. Part 2 looks at quantitative research and details the nature of quantitative research, sampling, structured interviewing, and questions. It also looks at secondary analysis and statistics. The next part is about qualitative research. This part examines ethnography, participant observation, interviewing, focus groups, language, and document data. The final part is about mixed methods of research.
The present study examined the link between neuroticism, extraversion, as well as presentation of the real, the ideal, and the false self on Facebook. Self-reports were collected from 261 young adults (ages 18–30) about personality, online self-presentation, and Facebook use. Level of extraversion was positively associated with Facebook activity level. A series of regression analyses revealed that young adults high in neuroticism reported presenting their ideal and false self on Facebook to a greater extent whereas those low in extraversion reported engaging in greater online self-exploratory behaviors. Findings suggest that young adults who are experiencing emotional instability may be strategic in their online self-presentation perhaps to seek reassurance, and those who have self-doubt further explore their self online.
A number of studies have examined the relationship between privacy concerns, perceived control over information, trust and online self-disclosure, highlighting different points of view to understand this connection. This paper intends to compare these different models of explanation for self-disclosure behaviors in online social networks. Three different hypotheses are verified, using mediation and moderation analyses. The results allow underling the effect of the interaction between privacy concerns and trust on online self-disclosure, along with the absence of a direct influence of privacy concerns on disclosure itself. The results suggest practical implications for online social network providers, most of all with regard to privacy policies in online environments.
From the Fourth Amendment to George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, our culture is full of warnings about state scrutiny of our lives. These warnings are commonplace, but they are rarely very specific. Other than the vague threat of an Orwellian dystopia, as a society we don’t really know why surveillance is bad, and why we should be wary of it. To the extent the answer has something to do with “privacy,” we lack an understanding of what “privacy” means in this context, and why it matters. Developments in government and corporate practices have made this problem more urgent. Although we have laws that protect us against government surveillance, secret government programs cannot be challenged until they are discovered. And even when they are, courts frequently dismiss challenges to such programs for lack of standing, under the theory that mere surveillance creates no tangible harms, as the Supreme Court did recently in the case of Clapper v. Amnesty International. We need a better account of the dangers of surveillance.This article offers such an account. Drawing on law, history, literature, and the work of scholars in the emerging interdisciplinary field of “surveillance studies,” I explain what those harms are and why they matter. At the level of theory, I explain when surveillance is particularly dangerous, and when it is not. Surveillance is harmful because it can chill the exercise of our civil liberties, especially our intellectual privacy. It ialso gives the watcher power over the watched, creating the the risk of a variety of other harms, such as discrimination, coercion, and the threat of selective enforcement, where critics of the government can be prosecuted or blackmailed for wrongdoing unrelated to the purpose of the surveillance.At a practical level, I propose a set of four principles that should guide the future development of surveillance law, allowing for a more appropriate balance between the costs and benefits of government surveillance. First, we must recognize that surveillance transcends the public-private divide. Even if we are ultimately more concerned with government surveillance, any solution must grapple with the complex relationships between government and corporate watchers. Second, we must recognize that secret surveillance is illegitimate, and prohibit the creation of any domestic surveillance programs whose existence is secret. Third, we should recognize that total surveillance is illegitimate and reject the idea that it is acceptable for the government to record all Internet activity without authorization. Fourth, we must recognize that surveillance is harmful. Surveillance menaces intellectual privacy and increases the risk of blackmail, coercion, and discrimination; accordingly, we must recognize surveillance as a harm in constitutional standing doctrine.
The study tested the predictions that (a) donors who believe that a third-party request on behalf of a recipient is known to the recipient will be more generous than donors who believe the recipient is unaware of the request, and (b) donors who believe a third-party requestor will monitor their compli ance will help more than will donors who believe monitoring to be impossible. Both predictions were supported.
Three experiments with 257 undergraduates investigated the effects of self-directed attention on dissonance reduction. Ss were induced to write counterattitudinal essays. In Exp I, mirror presence during either an attitude premeasure or the counterattitudinal behavior led to reduced attitude change. Exp II explored whether the discrepancy between present and prior research was due to the manner in which self-attention was manipulated. Ss were exposed either to a mirror or to a TV camera and were asked to report both their post-behavioral attitudes and their perceptions of their counterattitudinal behavior. Consistent with the results of the 1st study, Ss in the mirror condition again showed the least amount of attitude change. They did, however, reduce dissonance by altering their perceptions of their behavior. Consistent with prior findings, Ss in the camera condition tended to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, but did not distort their behavior. Exp III conceptually replicated these results by selecting Ss on the basis of their chronic levels of private and public self-consciousness. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Considers the conditions which cause the consciousness to focus on the self as an object. The theory that self-awareness has motivational properties deriving from social feedback is discussed and considered with relation to conformity, attitude-behavior discrepancies, and communication sets. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested the proposition, derived from the authors' (in press) differential self-awareness theory, that only 1 type of antecedent variable traditionally associated with deindividuation (attentional cues) and a single aspect of self-awareness (private) are involved in the deindividuation process. 48 male undergraduates were assigned to groups of 4 and were exposed to factorial combinations of attentional cues (internal vs external focus of attention) and accountability cues (potential accountability to authority figures and victims) and then allowed to aggress against a victim. As predicted, attentional cues affected private but not public self-awareness, whereas accountability cues altered public but not private self-attention. External attentional cues and low accountability cues disinhibited aggression relative to internal attentional cues and high accountability cues, respectively. Exposure to external attentional cues created an internal state of deindividuation, composed of reduced private self-awareness and altered experience, that mediated aggression. Two major types of collective aggression were identified: One category resulted from group members' assessments of the possibility of an authority figure's and the victim's surveillance of their attacks; the other category resulted from the decreased cognitive mediation of behavior evoked by the deindividuation process. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The internet has become an integral part of many people’s everyday lives. It is unclear what its role is in maintaining intimate offline relationships and whether the use of the internet might cause conflicts between partners about what constitutes acceptable online behavior. An online survey of 920 married couples in the UK who used the internet investigated whether partners have similar netiquettes. There were high levels of agreement between married partners about the unacceptability of online infidelities; similarly they agreed more than two random individuals about the acceptability of entertainment activities which, in excess, might be addictive. Partners further showed high correspondence in surveillance behavior. Women were more concerned about their own and their partner’s behavior and were more likely to monitor their partner’s online activities. These findings suggest that a netiquette is developed and consciously or subconsciously negotiated within intimate relationships. Nevertheless, traditional gender differences as regards risk perception still hold; women are more likely to problematies their own and their partners behaviors.
Early research on online self-presentation mostly focused on identity constructions in anonymous online environments. Such studies found that individuals tended to engage in role-play games and anti-normative behaviors in the online world. More recent studies have examined identity performance in less anonymous online settings such as Internet dating sites and reported different findings. The present study investigates identity construction on Facebook, a newly emerged nonymous online environment. Based on content analysis of 63 Facebook accounts, we find that the identities produced in this nonymous environment differ from those constructed in the anonymous online environments previously reported. Facebook users predominantly claim their identities implicitly rather than explicitly; they “show rather than tell” and stress group and consumer identities over personally narrated ones. The characteristics of such identities are described and the implications of this finding are discussed.