scholarly journals “You never really know who’s looking”: Imagined surveillance across social media platforms

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Erin Duffy ◽  
Ngai Keung Chan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Privacy Settings ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Depth Interviews

Social media users are routinely counseled to cultivate their online personae with acumen and diligence. But universal prescriptions for impression management may prove for vexing for college students, who confront oft-conflicting codes of normative self-presentation in digital contexts. Against this backdrop, our research sought to examine the online self-presentation activities of emerging adults (18–24) across an expansive social media ecology that included Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Twitter. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 28 Fcollege-aged youth, we highlight how the imagined surveillance of various social actors steered their self-presentation practices in patterned ways. After exploring three distinct responses to imagined surveillance—including the use of privacy settings, self-monitoring, and pseudonymous accounts (including “Finstas,” or fake + Instagram)—we consider the wider implications of a cultural moment wherein users are socialized to anticipate the incessant monitoring of social institutions: family, educators, and above all, (future) employers.

scholarly journals Ephemerality in Social Media: Unpacking the Personal and Social Characteristics of Time Limit Users on WeChat Moments

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun Zhang ◽  
Hongyan Wang ◽  
Chuan Luo ◽  
Siyu Chen
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Time Limit ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Limit Setting ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Privacy Setting ◽  
Audience Size

Social media platforms increasingly give users the option of ephemerality through settings that delete or hide posted content after a set period of time. Many individuals apply these settings to manage their posting history and, in turn, reduce concerns about self-presentation. Despite the growing popularity of this feature, few studies have empirically explored it. This study examines the Time Limit setting on WeChat Moments as an example and investigates how users using the Time Limit setting differ from nonusers in terms of personal characteristics (demographics, personality traits, psychological factors, and previous behavioral patterns) and social characteristics (audience size and audience diversity). Compared with nonusers, users using Time Limit setting scored significantly higher on posting frequency and privacy setting use and scored significantly lower on audience size. We also examine how personal and social characteristics vary between user groups with different degrees of ephemerality (i.e., low, medium, or high). Our findings show that users using the Time Limit setting who scored higher on measures of life changes, self-monitoring, posting frequency, and audience size and lower on perceived stress were more likely to opt for the low (i.e., 6months) rather than the medium (i.e., 1month) or high (i.e., 3days) degree of ephemerality. Our work contributes to the understanding of ephemerality settings on social media platforms and provides insights that help practitioners design more effective platforms.

scholarly journals Everyone does it—differently: A window into emerging adults’ smartphone use

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nastasia Griffioen ◽  
Hanneke Scholten ◽  
Anna Lichtwarck-Aschoff ◽  
Marieke van Rooij ◽  
Isabela Granic
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Screen Time ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Health Indices ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Smartphone Use ◽  
User Centric ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstractConcerns regarding smartphones’ and social media’s impact on youth remain high amidst a growing realization that current research is not designed to confirm (or refute) such concerns. This study aims to answer fundamental questions regarding youths’ use of smartphones, by implementing a novel user-centric research method. The smartphone use of 114 emerging adults was recorded, followed by in-depth interviews that incorporated the recording and in-app information to help participants recall their behaviours, motivations, and feelings. Results indicate that smartphone use is indeed ubiquitous; 88 out of 114 participants started using their smartphone as soon as they were left alone. However, the findings of this study also demonstrate great diversity in smartphone use, in e.g. social media platforms used and motivations for using different apps. These results illustrate that it no longer seems sensible to refer to “screen time” as if it represents a homogeneous phenomenon across youth. Additionally, preliminary indications have been found of relationships between individual differences in mental health indices and variations in smartphone use. The current study provides new insights into youths’ smartphone use and its relationship with wellbeing.

scholarly journals From Youthful Experimentation to Professional Identity: Understanding Identity Transitions in Social Media

Young ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petter Bae Brandtzaeg ◽  
María-Ángeles Chaparro-Domínguez
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Experience Of Time ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Digital Footprints ◽  
Depth Interviews

The process of self-presentation is significantly complicated for people growing up with social media. Many individuals have time-stamped digital footprints in social media from early youth to adulthood. However, little is known about long-term consequences for these individuals, their experience of time and their identity transition from youthful experimentation to a professional identity in social media. Through 15 in-depth interviews, our study explores challenges concerning identity transition and impression management in social media for young adults who have recently entered working life as journalists. Our participants described how they curated their image and self-censored both their previous and current self-generated content in social media. We also find that many have actively opted for passive and peace-keeping self-presentation and use of social media or for turning their usage into private messaging platforms, masking their online identity. Some participants indicated they felt trapped by their own identity making in social media.

scholarly journals The Nested Precarities of Creative Labor on Social Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110213
Author(s):  
Brooke Erin Duffy ◽  
Annika Pinch ◽  
Shruti Sannon ◽  
Megan Sawey
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Ecological Model ◽  
Creative Economy ◽  
Cultural Industries ◽  
Professional Success ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Media ◽  
Depth Interviews

While metrics have long played an important, albeit fraught, role in the media and cultural industries, quantified indices of online visibility—likes, favorites, subscribers, and shares—have been indelibly cast as routes to professional success and status in the digital creative economy. Against this backdrop, this study sought to examine how creative laborers’ pursuit of social media visibility impacts their processes and products. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 30 aspiring and professional content creators on a range of social media platforms—Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, and Twitter—we contend that their experiences are not only shaped by the promise of visibility, but also by its precarity. As such, we present a framework for assessing the volatile nature of visibility in platformized creative labor, which includes unpredictability across three levels: (1) markets, (2) industries, and (3) platform features and algorithms. After mapping out this ecological model of the nested precarities of visibility, we conclude by addressing both continuities with—and departures from—the earlier modes of instability that characterized cultural production, with a focus on the guiding logic of platform capitalism.

Social Media and Emotional Well-being: Pursuit of Happiness or Pleasure

2021 ◽  
pp. 1326365X2110037
Author(s):  
D. Guna Graciyal ◽  
Deepa Viswam
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Pursuit Of Happiness ◽  
Social Dysfunction ◽  
Combining Data ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Depth Interviews

Virtual engagement of lives has been made possible with the advent of social media. Almost 80% of the day are spent virtually on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, etc. Usage of social media to connect to and communicate with the ones we care about is always healthy, termed as social networking. Social dysfunction occurs when the constant communication leads to the point where our real or offline life gets replaced by virtual or online life. There is a slight boundary between social networking and social dysfunction. When social networking is advantageous, social dysfunction affects emotional well-being. When emotional well-being is affected, many users experience a compulsion to dissociate from the real world as they find virtual world, full of fantasy and enjoyment. When the Internet was created, perhaps no one was aware of its potential. More than the convenience for sharing of information it has brought the world so close to crumbling the geographical boundaries. The more people-to-people communication is, the more is the strengthening of relationships, bonds grow stronger with ‘more’ social media platforms. Being on ‘more’ social media platforms has become a benchmark for living amidst the younger generation. Either as an activity of happiness or as an activity of pleasure, users tend to use social media at varying levels. This paper aims to conceptualize the the intricacies of social media in young lives and to discern whether their association is happiness or pleasure activity. The research method of this paper has a mixed-methods research design combining data from structured survey with information outputs from in-depth interviews.

scholarly journals Explaining Donation Behavior in Medical Crowdfunding in Social Media

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402110145
Author(s):  
Zhengwei Huang ◽  
Jing Ouyang ◽  
Xiaohong Huang ◽  
Yanni Yang ◽  
Ling Lin
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Interpersonal Relationship ◽  
Elaboration Likelihood ◽  
Perceived Trust ◽  
Likelihood Model ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Perceived Behavior Control ◽  
Donation Behavior ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Social Media Network

Medical crowdfunding in social media is growing to be a convenient, accessible, and secure manner to cover medical expenses. It differs from traditional donation initiatives and medical crowdfunding on non-social media platforms in that projects are disseminated via social media network and among acquaintances. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews on donation behaviors of 52 respondents, this study uses grounded theory to extract seven main categories that affect medical crowdfunding donation behavior in social media, namely interpersonal relationship, reciprocity of helping, attitude toward donation, perceived behavior control, perceived trust, project information, and characteristics of patients. In the spirit of Elaboration Likelihood Model, we develop a theoretical framework that the seven factors influence donation behavior in medical crowdfunding in social media via a central and a peripheral route.

Physical Distancing and Social Media Use in Emerging and Older Adults During COVID-19: Large Scale Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Survey Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thabo J van Woudenberg ◽  
Roy Hendrikx ◽  
Moniek Buijzen ◽  
Julia CM van Weert ◽  
Bas van den Putte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Emerging Adults ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Longitudinal Survey ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Random Intercept ◽  
Social Media Platforms

BACKGROUND Although emerging adults play a role in the spread of COVID-19, they are less likely to develop severe symptoms after infection. Emerging adults’ relatively high use of social media as source of information raises concerns regarding COVID-19 related behavioral compliance (i.e., physical distancing) in this age group. OBJECTIVE Therefore, the current study investigated physical distancing in emerging adults in comparison to older adults and looked at the role of using social media for COVID-19 news and information in this regard. In addition, this study explored the relation between physical distancing and different social media platforms and sources. METHODS Secondary data of a large-scale national longitudinal survey (N = 123,848, 34.% male) between April and November 2020 were used. Participants indicated, ranging for one to eight waves, how often they were successful in keeping 1.5 meters distance on a 7-point Likert scale. Participants between 18 and 24 years old were considered young adults and older participants were identified as older adults. Also, a dummy variable was created to indicate per wave whether participants used social media for COVID-19 news and information. A subset received follow-up questions asking participants to indicate which platforms they have used and what sources of news and information they had seen on social media. All preregistered hypotheses were tested with Linear Mixed-Effects Models and Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models. RESULTS Emerging adults reported less physical distancing behaviors than older adults (b = -.08, t(86213.83) = -26.79, p < .001). Also, emerging adults were more likely to use social media for COVID-19 news and information (b = 2.48, SE = .11, Wald = 23.66, p = <.001), which mediated the association with physical distancing, but only to a small extend (indirect effect: b = -0.03, 95% CI = [-0.04; -0.02]). Opposed to our hypothesis, the longitudinal Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model showed no evidence that physical distancing was predicted by social media use of the previous wave. However, we did find evidence that using social media affected subsequent physical distancing behavior. Moreover, additional analyses showed that most social media platforms (i.e., YouTube, Facebook and Instagram) and interpersonal communication showed negative associations with physical distancing while others platforms (i.e. LinkedIn and Twitter) and Governmental messages showed no to a slightly positive associations with physical distancing. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, we should be vigilant for physical distancing of emerging adults, but this study give no reason the to worry about the role of social media for COVID-19 news and information. However, as some social media platforms and sources showed negative associations, future studies should more carefully look into these factors to better understand the associations between social media use for news and information, and behavioral interventions in times of crisis.

Older and Younger Job Seekers' Impression Management on LinkedIn

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-74
Author(s):  
Franciska Krings ◽  
Irina Gioaba ◽  
Michèle Kaufmann ◽  
Sabine Sczesny ◽  
Leslie Zebrowitz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Impression Management ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Job Seekers ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Job Offers ◽  
Research Show

Abstract. The use of social networking sites such as LinkedIn in recruitment is ubiquitous. This practice may hold risks for older job seekers. Not having grown up using the internet and having learned how to use social media only in middle adulthood may render them less versed in online self-presentation than younger job seekers. Results of this research show some differences and many similarities between younger and older job seekers' impression management on their LinkedIn profiles. Nevertheless, independent of their impression management efforts, older job seekers received fewer job offers than younger job seekers. Only using a profile photo with a younger appearance reduced this bias. Implications for the role of job seeker age in online impression management and recruitment are discussed.

scholarly journals Confronting the digital mob: Press coverage of online justice seeking

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 597-612
Author(s):  
Daniel Trottier
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The Press ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Uk

This article offers an exploratory account of press coverage of digitally mediated vigilantism. It considers how the UK press renders these events visible in a sustained and meaningful way. News reports and editorials add visibility to these events, and also make them more tangible when integrating content from social media platforms. In doing so, this coverage directs attention to a range of social actors, who may be perceived as responsible for these kinds of developments. In considering how other social actors are presented in relation to digital vigilantism, this study focusses on press accounts of those either initiating or being targeted by online denunciations, and also on a broader and often amorphous range of spectators to such events, often referred to as ‘internet mobs’. Relatedly, this article explores how specific practices related to digital vigilantism such as denunciation are expressed in press coverage, as well as coverage of motivations by the public to either participate or facilitate such practices. Reflecting on how the press represent mediated denunciation will illustrate not only how tabloids and broadsheets frame such practices, but also how they take advantage of connective and data-generating affordances associated with social platforms.

Social Media Usage among University Students in Malaysia

2013 ◽  
pp. 244-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norsiah Abdul Hamid ◽  
Mohd Sobhi Ishak ◽  
Syamsul Anuar Ismail ◽  
Siti Syamsul Nurin Mohmad Yazam
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
Virtual Self ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Social media are playing an increasing role in today’s living. The social media platforms allow users to search, create, share, collaborate, and organise contents among them, and at the same time provide virtual self-presentation and self-disclosure of oneself. Social media were also claimed to give implications to human beings with regards to personality, yet these variables have not much been emphasised in previous studies. Thus, it is important to highlight the implications of social media on users’ personality. Given the issues and challenges faced by the country in profiling the adoption of social media and its implications in view of the perspective of personality, it is timely and significantly important to undertake this research in Malaysia. The objective of this chapter is to discuss a research conducted recently to determine the relationships between social media and personality traits. The specific objectives of this study are to identify the profile of social media adoption among students in Malaysia, including duration, frequency of use, purpose, and person/s that introduced the social media, and to determine the relationships between social media and personality traits.

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