Measuring Twitter Use: Validating Survey-Based Measures

2019 ◽  
pp. 089443931989624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Henderson ◽  
Ke Jiang ◽  
Martin Johnson ◽  
Lance Porter
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
User Characteristics ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Important Challenge ◽  
Twitter Activity ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Observed Behavior

An important challenge for research on social media use is to relate users’ activity on these platforms to user characteristics such as demographics. Surveys allow researchers to measure these characteristics but may be subject to measurement error in self-reported social media use. We compare survey responses to observed behavior in order to assess the validity of self-reported frequency of posting to Twitter, retweeting content, sharing photos, sharing videos, and sending direct messages. Additionally, we examine correlations between self-reported and observed behavior across a range of time frames, from 1 month to 114 months before the survey. We find variation in the quality of self-reports across types of Twitter activity. We also find that self-reports about posting and retweeting tend to reflect recent activity, while self-reports about other activities tend to reflect behavior over a longer span. Furthermore, we find that two characteristics of experience with the platform—the length of time that a person has been active on Twitter and how much their activity on the platform changes over time—predict individual-level discrepancies between survey response and observed behavior, but these discrepancies cancel out when averaged across individuals. Nevertheless, other sources of bias remain. Taken together, our results indicate that while surveys are quite useful for collecting characteristics of social media users, relying on self-reported social media behavior distorts inferential results from what is found when relying on observed social media behavior.

scholarly journals 140 Characters of Intoxication: Exploring the Prevalence of Alcohol-Related Tweets and Predicting Their Virality

SAGE Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401880313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saleem Alhabash ◽  
Courtland VanDam ◽  
Pang-Ning Tan ◽  
Sandi W. Smith ◽  
Gregory Viken ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Past Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Excessive Drinking ◽  
User Characteristics ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Widespread Phenomenon

Past research has suggested an associative relationship between social media use and alcohol consumption, especially among the younger generations. The current study takes a generalizable approach to examining the prevalence of posting about alcohol on a popular social media platform, Twitter, as well as examining the predictors of a tweet’s virality. We content-analyzed more than 47.5 million tweets that were posted in March 2015 to explore the prevalence of alcohol-related references, and how alcohol-related references, tweet features (e.g., inclusion of hashtags, pictures, etc.), and user characteristics (e.g., number of followers) contribute to the tweet’s virality. Our findings showed that during March 2015, about two of every 100 tweets in the United States were alcohol-related; whereas the majority of those referenced intoxication. In addition to tweet features and user characteristics, the prevalence of alcohol-related references in a tweet positively predicted the number of likes it received, yet negatively predicted the number of retweets. Given prior evidence supporting the association between social media use and alcohol consumption, the prevalence of alcohol references in tweets and how that contributes to their virality offers insights into the widespread phenomenon of glorifying alcohol use and excessive drinking via social media, pointing to potential negative health consequences.

A Panel Study on the Effects of Social Media Use and Internet Connectedness on Academic Performance and Social Support

2018 ◽  
pp. 778-793
Author(s):  
Louis Leung
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Perceived Social Support ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Change ◽  
Facebook Use

Using a longitudinal panel study approach, this research examined the effects of social media use and internet connectedness on academic performance and on perceived social support. Results showed that, after controlling demographics and overall grades at Time 1, individual-level change in overall grades over the year that followed was attributable to Facebook, blogs, and online game use but not to internet connectedness. Results suggest that heavy Facebook use has a positive effect on overall grades, while heavy use of blogs and online games leads to grade impairment. In the case of academic competence and perceived social support, individual-level change over the year that followed was only attributable to Facebook use. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

A Panel Study on the Effects of Social Media Use and Internet Connectedness on Academic Performance and Social Support

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Leung
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Perceived Social Support ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Change ◽  
Facebook Use

Using a longitudinal panel study approach, this research examined the effects of social media use and internet connectedness on academic performance and on perceived social support. Results showed that, after controlling demographics and overall grades at Time 1, individual-level change in overall grades over the year that followed was attributable to Facebook, blogs, and online game use but not to internet connectedness. Results suggest that heavy Facebook use has a positive effect on overall grades, while heavy use of blogs and online games leads to grade impairment. In the case of academic competence and perceived social support, individual-level change over the year that followed was only attributable to Facebook use. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

scholarly journals Objective, subjective, and accurate reporting of social media use: No evidence that daily social media use correlates with personality traits, motivational states, or well-being

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Johannes ◽  
Thuy-vy Thi Nguyen ◽  
Netta Weinstein ◽  
Andrew K Przybylski
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Measurement Error ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Motivational States ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Lively Debate

There is a lively debate on the effects of social media use, shaped by self-reported measurements of social media use. However, self-reports have been shown to suffer from low accuracy compared to logged measures of social media use. Even though it is unclear how problematic that measurement error is for our inferences, many scholars call for the exclusive use of ‘objective’ measures. But if measurement error is not systematic, self-reports will still be informative. In contrast, if there is systematic error, associations between social media use and other variables, including well-being, are likely biased. Here, we report an exploratory five day experience sampling study among 96 participants (435 observations) to understand factors that could relate to low accuracy. First, we asked what stable individual differences are related to low accuracy. Second, we explored what daily states relate to accuracy. Third, we explored whether accuracy relates to well-being. Although we did find evidence for a systematic tendency to overestimate social media use, neither individual differences nor daily states were related to that tendency. Accuracy was also unrelated to well-being. Our results suggest that blindly calling for objective measures foregoes a responsibility to understand measurement error in social media use first.

Less in-person social interaction with peers among U.S. adolescents in the 21st century and links to loneliness

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 1892-1913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean M. Twenge ◽  
Brian H. Spitzberg ◽  
W. Keith Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Extracurricular Activity ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Individual

In nationally representative samples of U.S. adolescents (age: 13–18) and entering college students, 1976–2017 ( N = 8.2 million), iGen adolescents in the 2010s (vs. previous generations) spent less time on in-person (face-to-face) social interaction with peers, including getting together or socializing with friends, going to parties, going out, dating, going to movies, and riding in cars for fun. College-bound high school seniors in 2016 (vs. the late 1980s) spent an hour less a day engaging in in-person social interaction, despite declines in paid work and little change in homework or extracurricular activity time. The results suggest that time displacement occurs at the cohort level, with in-person social interaction declining as digital media use increased, but not at the individual level, where in-person social interaction and social media use are positively correlated. Adolescents’ feelings of loneliness increased sharply after 2011. Adolescents low in in-person social interaction and high in social media use reported the most loneliness.

scholarly journals Social Media and Nurses: Insights for Promoting Health for Individual and Professional Use

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Jackson ◽  
Robert Fraser ◽  
Peter Ash
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Healthcare Organizations ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Nursing Health

Social media use can have a significant impact on the health of nurses, both at the individual level and in the workplace. There are positive and negative consequences of social media use for nurses, including potential health consequences. This article provides a brief overview of social media and then explores nursing health and social media and risks for nurses. Social media use also extends to healthcare organizations; with implications for consumers of healthcare delivery. A variety of emerging best practices can guide social media use for nurses. The authors also discuss suggestions for using social media carefully, and future directions for research.

scholarly journals Social Media Use and Depressive Symptoms—A Longitudinal Study from Early to Late Adolescence

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (16) ◽  
pp. 5921 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kati Puukko ◽  
Lauri Hietajärvi ◽  
Erika Maksniemi ◽  
Kimmo Alho ◽  
Katariina Salmela-Aro
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Late Adolescence ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Age Range ◽  
The Impact

An increasing number of studies have addressed how adolescents’ social media use is associated with depressive symptoms. However, few studies have examined whether these links occur longitudinally across adolescence when examined at the individual level of development. This study investigated the within-person effects between active social media use and depressive symptoms using a five-wave longitudinal dataset gathered from 2891 Finnish adolescents (42.7% male, age range 13–19 years). Sensitivity analysis was conducted, adjusting for gender and family financial status. The results indicate that depressive symptoms predicted small increases in active social media use during both early and late adolescence, whereas no evidence of the reverse relationship was found. Yet, the associations were very small, statistically weak, and somewhat inconsistent over time. The results provide support for the growing notion that the previously reported direct links between social media use and depressive symptoms might be exaggerated. Based on these findings, we suggest that the impact of social media on adolescents’ well-being should be approached through methodological assumptions that focus on individual-level development.

Transnational Nonprofits’ Social Media Use: A Survey of Communications Professionals and an Analysis of Organizational Characteristics

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 849-870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyunjin Seo ◽  
Hong Tien Vu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Organizational Characteristics ◽  
Organizational Level ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
External Communication ◽  
Communication Goals ◽  
The Individual

In response to rapid changes in the communication environment, nonprofits are increasingly relying on digital technologies to achieve their communication goals. We examine factors influencing nonprofits’ digital-based external communication based on a survey of communications directors at transnational nonprofits, with an analysis of each organization’s characteristics as described on its Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990 and website. Our results show that, at the organizational level, nonprofits with stronger leadership support concerning social media activities were more likely to use different digital platforms and value more various functions of social media for external communication as compared with those lacking such support. At the individual level, communications directors’ perceived ease of social media use and time in their current position significantly influenced their emphasis on different functions of social media. This research fills a gap in the literature by analyzing both organizational characteristics and individual communications director’s attributes in assessing nonprofits’ social media use.

Can country-level changes in internet use, social media use and online gaming explain the decline in drinking among adolescents?: A multilevel analysis of ESPAD data from 2003 to 2019.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geir Scott Brunborg ◽  
Elin Kristin Bye ◽  
Torleif Halkjelsvik
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Population Level ◽  
Online Gaming ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Adolescent Drinking ◽  
Country Level

Objectives: The decline in adolescent drinking in the past two decades has coincided with substantial changes in the use of digital media. This suggests that certain types of digital media use may have replaced drinking among adolescents. We hypothesized negative associations between adolescent drinking and country-level changes in frequency of internet use and the more specific activities social media use and online gaming.Design: Multilevel analysis of repeated cross-sectional school surveys. Setting: Europe.Participants: The data comprised five waves of data from the European School Survey Project for Alcohol and Drugs (ESPAD) from 2003 – 2019. The survey included responses from 537,142 adolescents aged 15-16 from a total of 51 countries/geographical areas. Analysis: Past 30 days’ binge drinking and drinking frequency were regressed on general internet use, social media use and online gaming, according to three different levels of analysis (countries, within-country changes, individuals). Sensitivity analyses adjusted for family characteristics and other leisure activities. Results. We found evidence against the hypothesized negative associations between changes in population level drinking and population level internet use and online gaming. Results for social media were inconclusive. At the individual level, all digital media use variables were positively associated with drinking.Conclusions: It is unlikely that country-level increases in internet use and online gaming have replaced drinking among adolescents. The potential role of social media requires further studies. The results underline the important difference between population-level and individual-level effects in explaining changes in adolescent drinking patterns.

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