Category Archives: Social Media

I posted some time ago a post on this blog with reasons why people aren’t on Facebook. This new study by researchers at Cornell suggests that “non-use” of the social networking site is fairly common — a third of Facebook users take breaks from the site by deactivating their account, and one in 10 completely quit.

I do have some reserve with this research as the respons is fairly small: 410 people who responded to an online questionnaire. I do think this approach may possibly caused a higher anti-Facebook result.

From the press release:

Of 410 people who responded to an online questionnaire, 46 reported that they had deleted their Facebook account. More than 90 percent said they were happy with their decision, and most stayed away. Others were not able to completely cut themselves off, but nonetheless reported taking breaks from using the social networking site.

More than one-quarter of respondents (110) reported deactivating their account, which hides everything they have done on Facebook but retains the data and allows them to reactivate at any time. Two-thirds of deactivators reported being happy with their decision; one-third subsequently returned to Facebook.

A few respondents reported using other creative means to limit their use of the site, according to the study’s lead author, Eric P. S. Baumer, a postdoctoral associate in communication at Cornell. The study will be presented on Thursday, May 2, at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Paris, France.

“Several participants asked their significant other or spouse to change their password, only allowing them to log in on a limited basis,” Baumer said. “One participant described redirecting all email from Facebook to an email address that he never checked. Others installed browser plugins that blocked them from visiting the site.”

The motivations for leaving were varied, from concerns about privacy and data misuse, to problems with productivity and addiction. Some respondents said they were tired of engaging in shallow or banal social interactions. Others left or suspended activity to avoid being friended by a boss, a student or former romantic partners, Baumer said.

“In some cases, people reported feeling pressured to leave based on an institutional status, such as being a military officer or parolee,” he added.

There were also 75 people in the survey who reported never having an account.

“While some respondents reported simply not having a use for the site, others provided elaborate lists of reasons they would not join,” Baumer said. “Some did not want to be on display or live ‘life in a global aquarium.’ We also observed a sense of rebelliousness and pride among those who resisted Facebook.”

While previous work has compared users and non-users of social networking sites, this study is one of the first to give a sense for the prevalence of non-use. It also provides some evidence that Facebook users who deactivate their account are more likely to know someone else who has also deactivated, and Baumer plans to further explore this potential network effect.

“Is it a good idea to post this on Facebook?” it’s a thought more people than you think have just before posting something on Facebook. Or having second thoughts right after posting something on your or somebody else’s wall, less uncommon than you might think. Carnegie Mellon PhD student Sauvik Das and Facebook’s Adam Kramer measured how many people typed more than five characters into Facebook content-input boxes, but than did not post them.

What I found interesting in this research is the idea that ‘the perceived audience’ plays an important role:

• posts are censored more frequently than comments,
• status updates and posts directed at groups are censored most frequently of all sharing use cases investigated in this research.

I found this research through a post on Mashable and they cite earlier research with a small group of users that found five reasons people chose not to share what they’d written (something that wasn’t part of this research):

• aversion to sparking an argument or other discussion,
• concern their post would offend or hurt someone,
• felt their post was boring or repetitive,
• decided the content undermined their desired self-presentation
• or were just unable to post due to a technological or other constraint.

Abstract of the research that can be read freely here:

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.

Sexting was was added to the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary in August 2012 and could be described as ‘Involves sending sexually explicit messages and/or photographs, primarily between mobile phones using the SMS system.’ Sexting was first reported in 2005. 4% of mobile phone-owning teens claim to have sent sexually suggestive, nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves to someone else via a mobile device while 15% claim to have received such material from someone they know. This new research looks at a possible gender gap regarding sexting.

From the press release:

With contract cell phones and cheaper multimedia messaging services it is easier and cheaper than ever to share information, images and other data. Ran Wei of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina and Ven-Hwei Lo of the School of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, examined the effects of teen sexting that involves serious privacy and personal safety issues. One observer has suggested that the desire for risk-taking and sexual exploration among teens, coupled with a perpetual connection with peers via mobile telephony, creates a “perfect storm for sexting.”

The USC-Hong Kong team has now carried out a survey of 236 adolescents in the USA, the results of which reveal that teenagers believe sexting to cause more harm to other people than to themselves. Moreover, they also consider that sext messages subsequently posted to the Internet on social networking sites and elsewhere are more harmful than those messages that are shared en masse among a group of phone users. However, they also felt that consensual sexting between two people was less harmful.

The survey also revealed a strong gender gap with regards to third-person perception of sexting: both males and females believed other females were more harmed by sexting. This perception of girls, not boys, as the victims of sexting is perhaps a common theme in sexual culture and predates telecommunications by several centuries if not longer I’d say. The survey did reveal that this gender gap meant many respondents were willing to support restrictions on sexting, but those who participated in this activity were less keen on the application of restrictions.

Abstract of the research paper:

Sexting among teen mobile phone users is on the rise. This study examines adolescent mobile phone users’ perceptions of the harmful effect of consensual sexting between two people in a romantic relationship, mass-circulated sexting, and sexting posted on the internet. Results of a survey of 236 US adolescents showed that respondents believed sexting to have a greater harm on others than on themselves. Furthermore, the respondents perceived sexting messages posted to the internet as more harmful than mass-circulated sexting, which in turn were more harmful than consensual sexting between two people. Additionally, we found a gendered effect of the third-person perception of sexting – both males and females believed other females were more harmed by sexting. This perception of girls, not boys, as the victims of sexting predicts willingness to support restrictions on sexting. On the other hand, the more respondents sexted, the less willing they were to support such restrictions.

Comments on internet can be harsh and new research at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, UW-Madison science communication researcher Dominique Brossard reported the results of a study showing the tone of blog comments alone can influence the perception of risk posed by nanotechnology, the science of manipulating materials at the smallest scales.

From the press release:

The research sampled a representative cross section of 2,338 Americans in an online experiment, where the civility of blog comments was manipulated. For example, introducing name calling into commentary tacked onto an otherwise balanced newspaper blog post, the study showed, could elicit either lower or higher perceptions of risk, depending on one’s predisposition to the science of nanotechnology.

“It seems we don’t really have a clear social norm about what is expected online,” says Brossard, a UW-Madison professor of Life Science Communication, contrasting online forums with public meetings where prescribed decorum helps keep discussion civil. “In the case of blog postings, it’s the Wild West.”

For rapidly developing nanotechnology, a technology already built into more than 1,300 consumer products, exposure to uncivil online comments is one of several variables that can directly influence the perception of risk associated with it.

Highly religious readers, the study revealed, were more likely to see nanotechnology as risky when exposed to rude comments compared to less religious readers, Brossard notes.

“Blogs have been a part of the new media landscape for quite some time now, but our study is the first to look at the potential effects blog comments have on public perceptions of science,” says Brossard.

While the tone of blog comments can have an impact, simple disagreement in posts can also sway perception: “Overt disagreement adds another layer. It influences the conversation,” she explains.

UW-Madison Life Sciences Communication Professor Dietram Scheufele, another of the study’s co-authors, notes that the Web is a primary destination for people looking for detailed information and discussion on aspects of science and technology. Because of that trend, “studies of online media are becoming increasingly important, but understanding the online information environment is particularly important for issues of science and technology.”

The research will be published in Journal of Computer Mediated Communication but isn’t online yet when writing this post.