Digital Social Platforms Research Articles

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Social media networks have emerged among young people in a way that has made digital platforms dominating on virtual reality for many users, which has made them win the bet on media competition between media institutions and communicating platforms to attract more users. In the midst of this demand for digital social platforms, questions arise regarding the nature of the changes and effects that these platforms reflect on users. Despite the fact that this path has been previously addressed by a number of researchers, questions related to these effects still exist due to the change in communication content and the increase in consumption by users, which suggests a change in perceptions, whether negatively or positively. Therefore, many research questions arise here related to intellectual influences in terms of the type of influence that digital social platforms reflect on university student users and to what extent this influence reaches and what are the individual differences due to demographic characteristics. Given that the social aspect is the final result of common customs and traditions, which stem from religious culture, socialization, education and upbringing, this study addresses the intellectual and social effects of digital social media platforms on university students (King Abdulaziz University) due to the great diversity that the university contains in terms of social and cultural backgrounds, which reflects a clearer and more accurate picture than some other universities located in areas with less cultural and social diversity. The study included a diverse sample of university students, numbering around 264 male and female students. The study showed that intellectual effects tend to be largely negative, as variables related to the positive effects of social media networks on social values received a weak approval rate among the study sample, for example: what is published of news and events on social media networks about social values is positive (45.20%), social media networks help in preserving social values (44%), social media networks enhance the building of social values (47.20%), with the emergence of demographic differences due to gender between male and female students in some other variables regardless of academic specializations. The study includes at the end a number of outputs and recommendations that can contribute to reducing the negative effects among university students, which increases the chances of influencing more than being influenced.

Perceived Success and Entrepreneurial Identity in West Africa

This research aims to understand the Fake It Until You Make It (FIUYMI) culture and its impact on entrepreneurial identity in the West African startup ecosystem. Self-presentation is important for entrepreneurs and often they tend to exaggerate their success. In West Africa, this is usually the case for entrepreneurs that want to gain social acceptance among their peers and to secure funding. It is represented by a desire of belonging and is amplified with digital social platforms and peer pressure. This study aims to evaluate the impact of perceived success using mixed methods research with both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative phase consists of semi-structured interviews with 20 startup founders from West Africa. The initial objective is to understand the motivations behind employing FIUYMI behaviour and its effect on the entrepreneurial identity and sense of success. A structured survey is then conveyed to 50 startup founders across the same region. The second objective is to quantitatively assess the prevalence of this behaviour and its impact on self-perception, and psychological well-being. Results suggest that FIUYMI is at first a good strategy for entrepreneurs to enhance perceived credibility and attract support and can be a positive tool for entrepreneurs to some extent as it boosts their confidence and network. It may later lead to psychological stress and has a perverse effect on entrepreneurs of not belonging to their community: Even when they achieve their desired outcome, they may consider their achievements to be fraudulent which is linked to a sense of imposter phenomenon. The research goal is to understand the complexities of perceived success and the ‘Fake it Until You Make it’ attitude in the West African context informing effective interventions in entrepreneurial behaviour. By showing its negative impact on an entrepreneur's journey, the research also aims to enhance accurate self-presentation and contribute to a more trustworthy entrepreneurial ecosystem in West Africa for entrepreneurs and investors.

Unveiling image forgery with cutting-edge techniques-a survey

Digital social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., driven by multimedia content, has led to billions of photos being shared annually. The ease of image modification has resulted in ‘deepfakes’, causing potential misinformation, emotional distress, and credibility loss. Image forgery has become a widespread problem with the advent of digital manipulation tools. Manipulated pictures are a problem in the digital world, demanding strong detection methods. This survey explores this important field and offers an extensive overview of state-of-the-art methods for identifying picture forgeries. Breaking down well-known techniques such as classic feature analysis, which unmask significant differences by examining pixels in depth and statistical irregularities. Moreover, this paper explores the revolutionary potential of deep learning by highlighting how convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can analyze pictures with unparalleled accuracy and reveal previously unseen alterations. By providing readers with a comprehensive grasp of the most recent developments in picture forgery detection with the datasets, this article gives them the knowledge they need to successfully negotiate the always changing field of visual deception. This survey acts as a launchpad for further research and development.

How the digital empowerment of mobile social platforms improves Chinese traditional retail enterprises’ operational performance: from the knowledge management capabilities perspective

PurposeBased on the perspective of knowledge management capability, this paper aims to reveal the internal mechanism of the digital empowerment of mobile social platforms to improve the operational performance of Chinese traditional retail enterprises. Such improvements have crucial theoretical value and practical implications for Chinese traditional retail enterprises to achieve transformation and sustainable development.Design/methodology/approachThis study applied the typical analysis method, selected China’s leading mobile social platform, WeChat, as a typical case, and observed and analyzed the public data of the traditional retail industry and social platforms and interviews with relevant enterprises. On this basis, this study used the inductive and deductive methods of qualitative research to conduct an in-depth analysis of the mechanism by which WeChat’s digital empowerment improves the operational performance of Chinese traditional retail enterprises. It also discussed the critical role and path knowledge management capabilities play in this mechanism.FindingsThis research demonstrated that mobile social platforms empower Chinese traditional retail enterprises to build diversified digital channels, enhance the knowledge acquisition capability of enterprises and thus improve their performance; empower Chinese traditional retail enterprises to build digital community networks, enhance the knowledge diffusion capability of enterprises and thus improve their performance; and empower Chinese traditional retail enterprises to integrate online and offline businesses, enhance the knowledge integration capability of enterprises and thus improve their performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis study clarifies the internal mechanism of how the digital empowerment of mobile social platforms can improve the performance of Chinese traditional retail enterprises. This mechanism implies that knowledge management capabilities (knowledge acquisition, diffusion and integration capability) are the underlying logic for Chinese traditional retail enterprises to achieve higher performance levels. This has important practical implications for managers of Chinese traditional retail enterprises to leverage the digital infrastructure of mobile social platforms to achieve the sustainable development of enterprises.Originality/valueThis study provides an in-depth analysis of how the traditional retail industry uses digital social platforms to improve operational performance from the perspective of knowledge management capabilities, which can further promote the theoretical research and practical development of digitalization and knowledge management. At the same time, this study explored the research on the operational performance of Chinese traditional retail enterprises from the perspective of knowledge management capabilities and expanded the research on knowledge management in related fields. The authors have initially sorted out the impact of knowledge management capabilities on the operational performance of Chinese traditional retail enterprises in the digital era. This will help better understand the role and function of knowledge management in strategic transformation and expand the application of knowledge management theory.

Gender Disparities in Self-Presentation on WeChat Moments

This study delved into the relationship between gender and self presentation in WeChat Moments, and analyzed gender patterns and differences through questionnaire data. Using Erving Goffman’s drama theory, self presentation in WeChat Moments is viewed as an online performance, in which users play their own roles and carefully manage their online image. WeChat Moments serve as an inclusive space where users of all genders can express themselves and participate in social networks. Research has found that regardless of gender, both male and female users actively participate in posting behavior on WeChat Moments. Although male posting frequency is slightly higher, this difference is not statistically significant. The survey also found that gender has no significant impact on the composition of personal social networks and unique content creation in WeChat Moments. This study provides important insights into the role of gender in social media usage and self presentation, enriching our understanding of digital social platforms.

“HERE TO HAVE FUN AND FIGHT ABLEISM”: #AUTISKTOK USER BIOS AS NEUROQUEER MICRO-ACTIVIST PLATFORM AFFORDANCES

User biography sections on digital social platforms (hereafter described as “user bios” or “bios”) are spaces for account holders to take narrative ownership in communicating their identities to other users and interlocutors. Online platforms, such as social media, are increasingly used as community hubs for disabled groups, and especially for autistic people (Author; Author; Sins Invalid, 2019). We focus on #Autisktok, one of many enclaves for autistic community building and cultural production on TikTok. Through a critical/cultural qualitative thematic analysis of #Autisktok user bios, we assess how the user bio mediates self-advocacy, agency, and autistic-centered knowledges on #Autisktok. To investigate how autistic TikTokers use their profile’s bio section as a space for “restorying” mainstream discourses about autism and agency, we draw upon M. Remi Yergeau’s (2018) work on autism and neuroqueer rhetorics and Arseli Dokumacı’s (2023) theory of micro-activist affordances, extending these frameworks toward the digital. We pose the following research questions: How do autistic youth use the bio section on TikTok to (re)story autism diagnosis? What is the user bio’s role in creating a supportive enclave for other autistic creators, users, and activists on the TikTok platform? Three themes emerged from our analysis: the explicit use of autism in the user bio, autism and intersecting identities, and the bio as a space for asserting agentic autistic selfhood.

The use of digital social platforms in enhancing the engagement of AYA cancer patients in research: opportunities, challenges, and ethical concerns

This paper examines the use of digital social platforms to enhance the engagement of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer patients in research. Among AYAs, digital social networks have emerged as valuable resources for connection, information exchange, and emotional support. Patient engagement, encompassing participation and empowerment, is a critical aspect of AYA oncological research, yet there is a lack of scholarship dissecting the manifestation of these concepts in relation to digital social platforms. This study aims to bridge this gap by employing the frameworks of participatory culture and data ethics to analyze the impact of digital social platforms on patient engagement in research. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with eight experts from AYA patient organizations to gather insights on this topic. The findings reveal the potential of digital social platforms in fostering peer support, improving patient awareness and collaboration, increasing research enrollment, and diversifying data collection with user-generated content. However, challenges related to communication, privacy, and ethical considerations such as diversity and inclusion were also identified. The study contributes to the understanding of patient engagement among AYA cancer patients in the digital age and the development of effective strategies to encourage and highlight the voices of this patient population.

Deep convolutional neural network based real-time abnormal behavior detection in social networks

In this study, we introduce a novel real-time approach for detecting abnormal behaviors in online social networks, leveraging both dynamic user activities and their associated profiles through Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). Social networks, which serve as hubs for communication, discussion, and multimedia sharing, amass a plethora of user data. This vast reservoir of information, while invaluable for genuine interactions, is susceptible to exploitation by malicious entities. Despite numerous previously proposed detection methods, the challenge of ensuring security persists. Our distinctive framework, rigorously tested using an extensive dataset sourced from the web and executed via the CNN toolbox in MATLAB, consistently demonstrates an impressive 99.9% classification accuracy. This achievement not only underscores the method's effectiveness but also marks a significant stride towards proactively identifying and neutralizing potential threats in digital social platforms.

Digital media preferences’ transformation of modern Russian youth in connection with new realities

The article considers features of modern Russian youth media preferences transformation against the activity’s restrictions of digital social platforms as Instagram, TikTok, etc. The authors have assumed that the “flow” of youth audience to other platforms would occur at a very rapid pace, and new platforms would be mastered in the shortest possible time, i.e. adaptation would be maximally effective. It has also been hypothesized that new platforms creation would attract youth audience, which would seek to “close” their consumer preferences through the newly emerging digital platforms in Russia, replacing those that were legally restricted. To test the above hypotheses, we have surveyed young people aged 18–24, who are the main audience that, according to the hypothesis of this study, would be most affected by media environment transformation. The main hypotheses have been tested by means of several blocks of questions to which the respondents gave answers first within the framework of a standardized questionnaire and then in free form within the framework of interviewing by the researchers. As a result of the study, it has been found out that the specifics of media preferences transformation among young people is not so significant compared to general changes in society, and therefore recommendations for further research directions have been put forward.

Social Networks as a Tool of Marketing Communications

The relevance of the research topic lies in the necessity to use social networks as innovative tools of marketing communications. A wide audience and the ability to segment the market for a specific consumer determine the construction of a corporate strategy, which will be based on using the social networking approach. The spread of the global coronavirus pandemic has led to the rapid development of remote communication channels between the company and the customer. The issue of using marketing tools in social networks acquires the most urgent importance in the modern world of the introduction and implementation of the company’s marketing strategies. The purpose of the academic paper is to study the use of social networks as features of implementing the marketing campaign. Social networks are the result of the development of digital technologies and the processes of creating an information society involved in the digital space. The objectives of the research are to analyse the opportunity of using social networks as a tool for marketing communications and their implementation at the level of its widespread use by enterprises and establishments. It is significant to create an advertising campaign by defining the target audience and outlining the key aspects, on which the company is focused. The research methodology consists in determining the theoretical and methodological approaches to the essence of introducing social networks and their practical importance in the implementation of marketing activities of companies. The obtained results can significantly improve the quality of functioning of modern enterprises and organizations that plan to master a new market segment or gain competitive advantages in the existing one. The academic paper examines the essence of social networks as a tool of marketing communications. The key principles of the development of digital social platforms were revealed. The quality of implementing the advertising campaign in the social network was studied, and further prospects for the development of using social networks as a component of the marketing strategy were outlined. Therefore, the academic paper analyses the problems of using social networks as a marketing tool.

Taking modern psychiatry into the metaverse: Integrating augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies into psychiatric care.

The landscape of psychiatry is ever evolving and has recently begun to be influenced more heavily by new technologies. One novel technology which may have particular application to psychiatry is the metaverse, a three-dimensional digital social platform accessed via augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR). The metaverse allows the interaction of users in a virtual world which can be measured and manipulated, posing at once exciting new possibilities and significant potential challenges and risks. While the final form of the nascent metaverse is not yet clear, the immersive simulation and holographic mixed reality-based worlds made possible by the metaverse have the potential to redefine neuropsychiatric care for both patients and their providers. While a number of applications for this technology can be envisioned, this article will focus on leveraging the metaverse in three specific domains: medical education, brain stimulation, and biofeedback. Within medical education, the metaverse could allow for more precise feedback to students performing patient interviews as well as the ability to more easily disseminate highly specialized technical skills, such as those used in advanced neurostimulation paradigms. Examples of potential applications in brain stimulation and biofeedback range from using AR to improve precision targeting of non-invasive neuromodulation modalities to more innovative practices, such as using physiological and behavioral measures derived from interactions in VR environments to directly inform and personalize treatment parameters for patients. Along with promising future applications, we also discuss ethical implications and data security concerns that arise when considering the introduction of the metaverse and related AR/VR technologies to psychiatric research and care.

Affective Toxicology of Social Media

The toxicity ascribed to social media indicates deeper systemic problems than those usually designated as its toxic ills. Although the widespread afflictions resulting from social media consumption constitute grave social problems in their own right, they allude to a dysfunctionality that precedes and transcends the individual troubles. The ill effects not only predicate toxicity, they indicate social media as both causal factor and self-perpetuating outcome by creating the conditions of reciprocal obligation and the dependency on the “Like!” which together function as the engine behind the compulsion to repeat. Platforms seek to maximize their users’ screen-time because all screen-time is unpaid productive net-work that contributes to the platform’s capital and to its bottom line. We examine the dynamics of social media toxicity as an affective affliction using Marcel Mauss’s ideas of reciprocal obligation from The Gift (1925) and Spinoza’s Ethics (1677) as a practical philosophy that sheds light on the underlying machinism of digital social platforms and the creation of value as the space-time of social networks by way of cultivating narcissism. It does not purport to be the “be-all, end-all” explanation of the phenomenon, but seeks to produce an alternative, supplemental — albeit incomplete — image of social media use.

Russian Sociology in the Context of Society Digitalization: Results of a Corpus Analysis of Scientific Texts

Using the analysis of a corpus of texts from eight leading Russian sociological journals, the article examines the impact of the digitalization of society on sociology in 2000-2021. Frequency analysis of 13.8 thousand scientific texts tracked the introduction of concepts related to digitalization into scientific circulation. The article reveals the differences between the journals, due to their editorial policy in the selection of articles. Through content analysis of texts, the author studied the experience of using digital social platforms as a source of data and an object of reflection. The text shows that they are being used more and more over time, and since 2019, one in five publications mentions digital platforms. The study confirmed that due to the introduction of new digital technologies, the frequency and complexity of the software tools used by sociologists is increasing. Since 2015, there has been an increase in the number of studies whose authors develop their own algorithms for data collection and analysis. The identified trends are likely to continue in the future, as all the indicators considered show a steady increase over time. In the conclusions of the article, the author formulates the prospects for studying the patterns of development of sociological science using the methods of corpus linguistics.

Chemistry students’ digital literacy skills on thermochemistry context “hydrogen fuel issue”

Living in the era of the Internet of things makes students familiar with the use of digital platforms in their daily life. However, several studies show that familiarity with digital platforms does not merely indicate that students are digitally literate. Students are still vulnerable to unreliable news, only mastering digital social platforms, and are unfamiliar with specific digital applications of expertise. This study aims to examine chemistry students’ digital skills related to thermochemical content integrated with the global dilemma of ​​using hydrogen fuel. This research utilized a mixed-methods design, a sequential explanatory type. Quantitative data was obtained through surveys and structured interviews to obtain qualitative data. Research participants included 74 chemistry students from seven state universities in Indonesia. The research instrument was a two-tier digital literacy questionnaire (r=0.947) consisting of 13 items, with self-assessment as the first tier and knowledge-based assessment (verification questions) as the second tier. Digital literacy profiles from surveys and interviews show that most students’ skills are at the foundation and intermediate levels. The research implication is that students’ digital literacy skills need to be improved, especially explicitly teaching several competencies related to digital literacy.

Identifying Radical Activity on Social Digital Platform: A Machine Learning Approach

The social media in digital form over internet is getting popularity in recent years. This digital platform is being used by many to share their thought or opinion. Though these social media had given results too many good causes, there are some users are present on these platforms for radical activities. In this paper, the tweets form the digital social platform twitter is taken for analysis based on radical keywords. The data is collected in form of tweets are analyzed using different machine learning algorithms and a comparative analysis is done. The proposed work concludes the best machine learning algorithms for analysis of such data and the new words came in light for the collected dataset. The deep learning model are also implemented and tested for sentimental analysis.
 HIGHLIGHTS
 
 Radical keywords-based message collection from social platforms
 Application of various machine learning and deep learning algorithms trained using collected datasets
 Discovery of new temporal words
 Identification of radical messages floating on social platforms
 Identifying the best performing machine learning and deep learning algorithm for radical message analysis
 
 GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

A semi-automated hybrid approach to identify radicalization on social digital platform

The <span>digital social platform is an important medium for sharing or communicating a message from one person to another or one to many. The growth of internet users and social media use has also led to many adverse consequences. Such a platform is also used for radical activity by spreading the radical message in public. The detection of such a message is impossible by human monitoring. Many researchers are continually working on automatic detection of such activity to find a way to stop it. Automatic identification is also not possible due to the massive amount of data present and ambiguity in messages. The proposed work presents a framework for detecting the radical message and taking action by automatically blocking it. A dataset of 33k tweets has been fetched from twitter based on radical words. Two machine learning models, first countervectorizer and Logistic regression-based and second convolutional neural networks (CNN) have been applied yielding 96.97% accuracy. The provision of human intervention is also given in doubt cases which helps further to improve the accuracy of overall model. The framework gives very good results in a simulated environment</span>.

Reciprocity or Self-Interest? Leveraging Digital Social Connections for Healthy Behavior

We examine the role of reciprocity enabled by digital social platforms for offline healthy behavior. Although reciprocity is a fundamental aspect of human psychology, its application in promoting healthy behavior has been limited. We conduct a randomized field experiment with over 1,700 pairs of users on a mobile social network platform. Individuals in the reciprocity treatment group receive a gift from their friends and are asked to return this favor by participating in a running challenge. Their performance is compared to the self-interest incentives widely used in practice. Building on social exchange theory, we argue that reciprocity-based incentives will outperform self-interest incentives with modest reward for motivating behavior change. We find that, on average, reciprocity is stronger than self-interest in inducing exercise behavior by a substantial amount. Furthermore, our results reveal that the magnitude of the reciprocity effect is contingent on the social closeness between senders and receivers. Interestingly, social closeness has an inverted U-shaped influence on the reciprocity effect. The effect is strongest when closeness is moderate, and wanes when closeness is either too strong or too weak. Compared to commonly used self-interest based financial incentives, our findings offer a potentially more powerful avenue for mechanism design in promoting healthy behavior.

Spread the Voice! Digital Social Platforms as Conveyors of Innovation of Cultural Heritage in Europe

Digital social platforms (DSPs) are increasingly used to boost participation while giving a space for collaboration to wider audiences and marginalized groups of stakeholders. Considering that in the cultural heritage (CH) sector they are used as a possible booster of stakeholders’ participation and to foster innovation in practices related to CH management, the object of this study is to assess the stakeholder engagement strategies adopted by DSPs for CH from a network engagement perspective. The study takes stock of the main DSPs for CH in Europe and analyzes them through four key dimensions that distinguish different stakeholder engagement strategies (diffusion, accessibility, interactivity, and influence) to identify the alternative approaches to sustainable development based on social innovations adopted via these platforms. Following an exploratory approach, the research also delves into a specific case study (SoPHIA DSP), to deepen the understanding of if and how DSPs foster knowledge sharing among the different actors involved in a cultural project. Ultimately, this research provides a snapshot of the state of the arts on the literature and practices on DSPs, and outlines directions for future research, requesting for a longitudinal perspective to the framework and a vertical focus for consolidating the engagement strategies variables.

Exploring the synergy between nano-influencers and sports community: behavior mapping through machine learning

PurposeThe paper aims to explore the influence of cybersecurity on the semantic orientation of the sports consumers. Focusing on both sport and esports, this study finds the social media factors contributing in the sentiment formation and commenting behavior on Twitter and proposes a scheme for attitude modulation through identification of highly engaged nano-influencers.Design/methodology/approachExperimental design was used as the research methodology. Data mining from Twitter using RStudio software was conducted using the keyword “cybersecurity” during the time of pandemic. Final corpus of 31,891 tweets were considered for the study. Initial sentiment analysis has been conducted to explore the consumer's emotional inclination towards cybersecurity. Further through generalized equation modeling the impact of social media attributes over the consumer's posting behavior has been analyzed.FindingsThe research findings reveal that users are inherently positive towards cybersecurity adoption in sports and the factors such as number of tweets, number of positive words contained in these tweets and the authenticity of the information source boost the pre-established tweeting behavior. However, the influx of information from non-organizational sources such as trending topics and discussions have negative impact over the users.Originality/valueThis study is first to explore the role of nano-influencers as communication moderators over digital social platforms. This study offers a new understanding of key contributing attributes of sentiments formation over social media and offers a scheme of selection of nano-influencers to modulate the pre-established sentiments of the users. Finally, the current study offers valuable insights into social media engagements and selection of nano-influencers for practicing marketing managers.

A Mixed Content Analysis Design in the Study of the Italian Perception of Covid-19 on Twitter

The digital era and the boom of social, user-generated and freely available and usable content on the Net has brought to the fore a classic technique, accused too often of being highly subjective and requiring a large amount of intellectual work. This technique is Content Analysis, which has seen an unprecedented explosion in recent years. In addition to the incessant flow, speed of diffusion and high volume of today’s big data, the attention of social researchers – as well as of anyone interested in drawing information from this enormous proliferation of data – is shifting towards new possibilities. Among these we find that of having a notion of the contents conveyed, of the feelings expressed, of the polarities of big data, but also the chance to extract other information that indirectly speaks of the tastes, opinions, beliefs and transformations behind the behavior of the users of the Net. In fact, secondary data available on the Net, collectable through sophisticated query systems with API or with web scraping software, make it possible to accumulate huge amounts of this dense social data, from which it is possible to try to extract not only trends but real knowledge, in a quantitative as well as in a qualitative manner. This enriches the value of the results that can be produced with Content Analysis and limits, until disappearing, all the critical horizons that have classically left this technique in the shadows, allowing it to find new applicative dignity, validity and reliability (Hamad et al. 2016). In order to explain this evidence, the contribution that we will present attempts to prove that the return of Content Analysis techniques is not only due to the change in the scenario and in the data analyzed, but also to the ability of this technique to innovate and evolve, leading to open analytical perspectives beyond contingent changes. This can be demonstrated through the application of digital mixed content analysis to the recent Covid-19 outbreak and its development of the perception of the Italian population on a specific digital social platform, Twitter. Keywords: Digital Mixed Content Analysis Model, digital platform social data, Twitter, Italy, coronavirus.