Search results for "Cyberpsychology"
showing 6 items of 6 documents
The Role of Social Media in Societal Change : Cases in Finland of Fifth Estate Activity on Facebook
2015
The Internet can be used to reconfigure access to information and people in ways that can support networked individuals and enhance their relative communicative power vis-à-vis other individuals and institutions, such as by supporting collective action, sourcing of information, and whistle blowing. The societal and political significance of the Internet is a matter of academic debate, with some studies suggesting a powerful role in creating a “Fifth Estate,” and other studies challenging such claims. Research on this issue has not yet comprehensively focused on social network sites and those operating in a very liberal-democratic context. Based on an embedded case study of Facebook use in …
Issues of Ethics and Methods in Studying Social Media
2016
The Editorial raises some challenging ethical and methodological aspects of Internet based research (such as protection of informational privacy, informed consent, general ethical guidelines vs case-based approach), which are further discussed in the five articles of this special issue.
An investigation of Facebook users' implicit associations between Facebook, sexual and prosocial behavior.
2018
Abstract Despite growing research on online social networking, implicit associations of Facebook users have been largely understudied. In Study 1, we used the Single-Target Implicit Association Test (ST-IAT; Karpinski and Steinman, 2006) in order to assess implicit associations between Facebook and two evolutionary relevant constructs: sexual and prosocial behavior. Additionally, we controlled for the role of participant's relationship status as a potential moderator of Facebook implicit associations. In Study 2, we extended these findings and explored the relationship between implicit and explicit associations towards Facebook. Across two studies, we found that Facebook is more strongly as…
Appetizer or main dish? Explaining the use of Facebook news posts as a substitute for other news sources
2019
An increasing number of, especially younger, users use Facebook as their primary source for news about political and societal issues. At the same time, research suggests that Facebook use contributes to societal knowledge gaps. Against this background, we investigate the antecedents of using Facebook as a substitute for other news sources. We argue that exposure to news posts on Facebook increases the feeling of being well-informed, regardless of actual knowledge acquisition. This might lead users, especially those with a low need for cognition (NfC), to use Facebook as a substitute for other news sources. We test these assumptions with an online survey (n=390) of German Internet users. Res…
Facebook’s Emotional Contagion Experiment as a Challenge to Research Ethics
2016
This article analyzes the ethical discussion focusing on the Facebook emotional contagion experiment published by the <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em> in 2014. The massive-scale experiment manipulated the News Feeds of a large amount of Facebook users and was successful in proving that emotional contagion happens also in online environments. However, the experiment caused ethical concerns within and outside academia mainly for two intertwined reasons, the first revolving around the idea of research as manipulation, and the second focusing on the problematic definition of informed consent. The article concurs with recent research that the era of social med…
The social significance of the Facebook Like button
2015
In this paper we study social aspects of using the Like button for purposes of impression management, identity construction, and maintenance of social ties online. On the theoretical level our investigation combines Goffman’s notion of face-work with concepts of social network analysis, shedding light on what we dub ‘nano-level’ interaction and sociality on social networking sites. Our data come from a 2013 classroom survey in which 26 Finnish university students were asked about their motives for and ways of using the Like button. Our results show that though the Like button was designed to allow users to express their positive evaluations of the contents of Facebook posts, comments, and p…