Location‐based social media behavior and perception: Views of university students

Abstract

Location‐based social media (), a specific type of volunteered geographic information (), is increasingly being used as a spatial data source for researchers in geography and related disciplines. Many questions, though, have been raised about data in terms of its quality and its contributors. While a number of studies have explored users’ demographics and motivations for contribution to explicitly geographic forms of , such as OpenStreetMap and Wikimapia, few have focused on these aspects with implicitly geographic forms of , such as (for example, Twitter and Instagram). This study, through use of an online survey, specifically assesses the behavior and perceptions of 253 university students, noting differences found in gender, race, and academic standing. We find that the greatest differences are those between males and females, rather than through race or academic standing, and appears less biased than other forms of .