Social Media: Where We Stand, Where We’re HeadingJessica VitakUniversity of MarylandOctober 19, 2012jvitak@umd.edu / @jvitak

1

What is social media?

Social (adj): relating to human society and its members.

Media (n): storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data.

Takeaways:1. Social media is not a new phenomenon.

2

3

4

5

6

7

What is social media?Social (adj): relating to human society and its members.

Media (n): storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data.

Takeaways:1. Social media is not a new phenomenon.

2. Social media is facilitated through technology and evolves with technology.

8

Social Media Since 2000Key difference:

Publishing (Web 1.0) vs. Participation (Web 2.0)

9

Key Feature #1: User-Generated Content

10

11

12Unmasking Reddit’s Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the WebOctober 12, 2012

Key feature #2 Social bookmarking/Social tagging

13

14

15

Key Feature #3: Interaction Drives Communities

16

Social Network Sites Defined

All SNSs have three main features:

1) A uniquely identifiable profile

2) List of connections (e.g., “Facebook Friends”)

3) Users can consume, produce, and interact with content

Ellison & boyd (in press)

17

Who uses SNSs?

Sour

ce: M

adde

n &

Zic

khur

, 201

1. P

ew In

tern

et P

roje

ct.

18

SNS users are more likely to be:

• Women• Young

No statistically significant differences based on:

• Race• Income• Education• Geographic location

Source: Madden & Zickhur, 2011. Pew Internet Project.

19

Why do people use SNSs?

Joinson (2008)• Social connection• Shared identities• Viewing/sharing photos• Social investigation• Social network surfing• Status updating

Papacharissi & Mendelson (2011)• Expressive info seeking• Habitual pass time• Relaxing entertainment• Cool, new trend• Companionship• Professional achievement• Escape• Social interaction• Meet new people 20

What SNS users do: “Liking”

21

What SNS users do: Commenting

22

What SNS users do: Broadcasting

23

What SNS users do: Private Messages

24

Impression Management on SNSs

Impression Management: Sum of behaviors individuals engage in to either control or manipulate observers’ attributions of them

25

Negative effects of SNSs

Interactions on these sites are real.• USATODAY: Political spats on Facebook spill into real life

Assuming privacy is always a bad idea.• Eagles’ employee loses job after badmouthing team

decision on his Facebook page.• Bank intern fired after calling in sick & getting caught

through Facebook pictures.

26

Benefits to Using SNSs

Social Capital: original “friends with benefits” benefits derived from interactions with your social

network

BondingBridging

27

Bridging Social Capital

28

Bonding Social Capital

29

Recent ResearchDoes use of Facebook for political purposes have any tangible impact on participation?

Vitak et al. (2011)

• Study of undergrads use of Facebook in month prior to 2008 presidential election

• Those who were highly engaged in political activity on FB were highly engaged elsewhere

• Those who reported seeing their Friends post political content were more likely to be politically active 30

Recent Research

Positive Collaboration• Arrange group meeting• Ask for help• Manage group project

Negative Collaboration• Sharing homework answers• Sharing quiz/test answers

31

How do students use Facebook to collaborate on school work?Lampe et al. (2011)

Recent Research

Example: Inigral’s Schools application

College Friends on Facebook

Facebook Collaboration

Behaviors

Bonding Social

Capital

Social Adjustment to College

Persistence at College

+

+

+

+32

Can Facebook help improve college adjustment and retention?Gray et al. (2012)

Research at MSU

• Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe (2011)• Actual friends matter more than

total friends when it comes to perceptions of social capital

Total FB Friends

Actual Friends

Among undergrads: 25%Among MSU staff: 37%

Tong et al. (2008): When you have too many “friends” on a SNS, people rate you as less socially attractive

How

muc

h I l

ike

you

# of FB Friends

33

What does it mean to be a Facebook “Friend”?

• Robin Dunbar claims you can only manage meaningful relationships with 150 people.

Dunbar: “Our minds are not designed to allow us to have more than a very limited number of people in our social world. The emotional and psychological investments that a close relationship requires are considerable, and the emotional capital we have available is limited.” 34

Facebook users have *a lot* of Friends

• Vitak (2012): Most users reported having many Facebook Friends• M = 500, Median = 433, SD = 361,

range: 62 – 1600• And many were weak ties• 8% of network considered close ties• 52% of network considered very weak

ties

Weak Ties

3rd Tier

2nd TierSt

rong

Tie

s

35

Pew data: SNS users vs. non-users

• How big is your social network?• Average American: 634 ties• Average Internet user (669) vs.

non-user (506) ties• Average cell phone user: 664 ties• Average SNS user: 636 ties

* Source: Hampton et al. (2011)

36

SNSs & Context Collapse

Selective Self-Presentation: We present different versions of the self depending on our audience

Context collapse occurs when we “perform” for different audiences at same time (e.g., weddings)

Ego

37

Context Collapse on Facebook

38

Impact of Context Collapse

Marwick & boyd (2011)• Treat public space (Twitter) as if it were bounded

Vitak, Lampe, Gray, & Ellison (2012) • Strategies for maintaining work/personal life boundary

Vitak (2012)• Engaging with privacy features• Increased disclosures• Increased perceptions of social capital

39

Future of Social Media?Depends largely on how companies handle users current concerns.

When using Facebook, users are most concerned about:*1. Personal information being sold to other companies for marketing

purposes.2. Their account being compromised (e.g., their ID & password

posted online).3. Personal information like a phone number or email address

becoming publicly visible.4. Someone hacking their account & being unable to access it.5. Private messages becoming publicly visible.

40

* This is based on a new dataset that is still being collected, so any statements based on this are purely speculative.

Future of Social Media?Social relationships will always matter. Period.

What could alter the balance is trust.

41These companies focus on CONTROL OF INFORMATION.

What they don’t have is the embedded networks that Facebook does.

Thanks!

Jessica VitakUniversity of Maryland

iSchool Page: http://ischool.umd.edu/faculty-staff/jessica-vitakEmail: jvitak@umd.edu

Twitter: @jvitakHomepage: http://jessicavitak.com

Academia: http://umd.academia.edu/JessicaVitakGoogle Citations Page:

http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RC9bN7kAAAAJ&hl=en

42