UNDERSTANDING PERCEIVED FLAMING TENDENCIES ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Abstract

Social Networking Sites (SNS) are getting an increasing user-base, with people of different socio-cultural and language backgrounds actively using these sites to interact with each other. The structure of these sites also enables users to befriend other users whom they have not met personally, through shared interests or activities making them ‘non-met’ friends. Computer mediated communication (CMC) such as SNS, Forums, Usenet, IRC etc. are characterized by flaming and with the increase in the user base on CMC, flaming is also on the rise. This increasing flaming has initiated debates and prompted concern whether CMC is favorable or disruptive for developing meaningful agreements between factions and whether CMC has positive or negative effect on society. Since SNS are becoming vital part of CMC, there is need to study about flaming in SNS. This exploratory study will help researchers to better understand the behavior of SNS users’ towards flamed status messages and their flaming tendencies towards sensitive real life situations. The research adopted the method of surveying a small group of SNS users and studying the results to answer the research questions.