Facebook Activity Research Articles

Expectations of social networking site users who share and acquire health-related information

Researchers in the public health and the management information systems fields have attempted to improve understanding of the intentions of people who use social networking sites (e.g., Facebook and blogs) to share and acquire health-related information. The aim of this study was to identify factors (e.g., opportunities for socializing and self-improvement of health) that affect the performance expectations of people who use social networking sites for this purpose. The analytical framework was the theory of planned behavior. Data from a survey of 203 active Facebook users in Taiwan revealed that both attitude and subjective norms were significantly associated with behavioral intention. Additionally, behavioral intention significantly affected health-related information sharing and acquisition. Finally, health-related information sharing and acquisition significantly affected socializing activity, but health-related self-improvement did not. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

Development of a voice recognition based system to help physically disabled people use the facebook

Social network sites (SNSs) have become so popular that the number of people joining and actively participating on such sites is increasing on a daily basis. Although there are several SNSs, Facebook is currently the most popular and most commonly used. SNSs have primarily been developed with able-bodied people in mind and as a result of this, people with disabilities find it difficult to join and participate on these sites. Furthermore, this topic has received little attention by researchers around the world. Facebook pages usually consist of text, graphics, and sound where the users navigate through the pages using a mouse. As a step towards addressing this need and finding a possible elegant solution, the authors have developed a voice-activated PC-based system (called NEU-FACE) in the form of an interface to Facebook. With the aid of this system, a person with a physical disability can join and participate in Facebook by giving voice commands to manage the typical Facebook activities.

Associating Facebook Measurable Activities with Personality Traits: A Fuzzy Sets Approach

In this study we identify potential associations between people’s personality (utilizing the popular Big Five personality model) and measurable Facebook activities such as number of likes received, number of posts, number of comments on posts. Extant literature suggests that personality can be manifested through different features of the Facebook profiles but under an implicit assumption that those users may belong in a single psychographic group. However, it has been shown that people may share characteristics, common acts and behaviors of more than one psychographic group. In this study we aim to address limitations of previous studies, by adopting a fuzzy set approach which is capable to handle users’ membership in multiple psychographic groups. Furthermore, fsQCA offers equifinality, which means that research can end up to the same outcome, beginning from different initial combinations of data. The work presented here provides empirical evidence concerning the association between Facebook activities and users' personalities in a novel way indicating the significance of this relationship and providing alternative combinations that lead to the same output. Furthermore, it paves the ground towards predicting social platforms' measurements, other than Facebook, relying on users' personalities, using the same technique but on different fields of study and social media platforms.

Opinion dailies versus Facebook fan pages: the case of Poland’s surprising 2015 presidential elections

The following study explores the effect of social media visibility on public discussion and, possibly, on the results of the 2015 presidential elections in Poland, unexpectedly won by Andrzej Duda. Instead of newspaper analyses and polls, Facebook interactions proved more accurate in predicting the final results. In the study, focus is laid on two key sources of visibility of opinion that emerged during the campaign: major daily newspapers, which provide space for opinion only to selected writers; and presidential candidates’ Facebook fan pages, which offer broad visibility to Facebook users’ opinions. The proposed interpretation of this discrepancy is that of a major shift in making public opinion more self-expressive and personal: public discussion is formed ‘in between’ rationality and emotion, publicness and privacy. The 2015 presidential elections in Poland reveal that this ‘in-between’ emerged in people’s Facebook activity, and it uncovered a public affect which translated into election results.

Facebook, Twitter Activities Sites, Location and Students’ Interest in Learning

This study was carried out to ascertain the influence of social networking sites activities (twitter and Facebook) on secondary school students’ interest in learningIt also considered the impact of these social networking sites activities on location of the students. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions, while t-test statistics was applied in testing the null hypotheses. In carrying out the study, the researchers adopted Ex-post Facto research design. The sample of the study consisted of 240 senior secondary school Two (SSS11) students from public schools. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 120 students from the urban and 120 students from the rural areas. A 15-item Questionnaire was used in data collection. Cronbach Alpha was used to establish the internal consistency of the instruments. Cronbach Alpha Coefficients values of 0.88 and 0.72 were obtained. The findings of the study indicated that there is a significant influence of students’ Twitter and Facebook activities over their interest in learning. Students in urban schools had higher Mean Score interest in learning than those in rural location. The result also indicated that there is no significant difference in the Mean interest ratings of urban and rural students.

Pathways to Virality: Psychophysiological Responses Preceding Likes,Shares, Comments, and Status Updates on Facebook

ABSTRACTFacebook use has become habitual to social network site (SNS) users, yet little is known about the psychological processes at play while using this platform. This study explored how psychophysiological responses vary as a function of liking, commenting, sharing, or posting status updates interactions on Facebook’s newsfeeds. Participants were instructed to enact common Facebook activities or viral behaviors (like, share, comment, and update a status) in brief segments, while their psychophysiological responses were recorded. Our results showcase different approaches to dealing with psychophysiological responses for undefined, uncontrolled (organic) stimuli. We contrasted Facebook organic use segments that ended with pressing on the like button to those that did not end with liking the Facebook post. In the second method of data analysis, we analyzed psychophysiological data at the participant level using the 10 sec preceding the enactment of the 4 viral behaviors. Our findings showed that, indeed, the pathways leading up to performing online behaviors are diverse, thus indicating different underlying psychological processes. Findings’ theoretical and practical implications are discussed within the broader context of understanding social media behaviors.

Social Media Utilization for the Service Innovation

This article describes how more and more enterprises are represented on online social networks. A significant number of these enterprises are uncertain to why they are present on the social technologies, while others have a clear strategy. These strategies include getting closer to the customers for new innovation and service creation. This article looks into how innovation takes place for enterprises using Facebook as their channel for starting service innovation in the meetings between the enterprise and the customer as part of their strategy to getting closer to the customers. The article takes a theoretical look on service innovation in the ICT service encounter, where the ICT relation is based on social media. Two Danish cases are presented (a bank and a mobile service provider) focusing on their use of Facebook in their ideation and innovation processes. Interviews and monitoring of Facebook activities are used as data sources to understand the ideation and innovation processes of the cases.

Towards professionalism through social networks: constructing an occupational community via Facebook usage by temporary migrant workers from the Philippines

ABSTRACTSocial networking sites (SNSs) have restructured the ways that workers reflect on their occupational identity and work to elevate its prestige and social status. In this study, we investigate Facebook activities of Filipino temporary migrant workers employed as caregivers in Israel and instead of cultural or leisure communal and SNS activities, this study aims to focus on migrant workers’ daily occupation, questioning: How do SNS expressions shape and co-create an occupational community of temporary migrant workers? Through an extensive methodology that incorporates over 800 Facebook posts and supported by an extensive ethnographic research, the study uncovers four facets of communication that relate to caregiver work: utility, care, emotive and legal. These facets are then related to the construction of symbolic knowledge, accountability, expressivity, responsibility (ethics) and developing know-how. Thus, SNSs are found to provide a powerful platform for marginalized occupations and communities, to foster preliminary forms of (semi)professionalism, and gain social recognition from within their community and beyond. Hence, the study elucidates unintended impacts of grassrooted online self-educating communities and demonstrates their potential for evoking change in self-image and occupational identity.

Injury Incidence and Patterns Among Dutch CrossFit Athletes.

Background:CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program that has gained widespread recognition, with 11,000 affiliated gyms worldwide. The incidence of injuries during CrossFit training is poorly analyzed.Purpose:To investigate the incidence of injuries for persons participating in CrossFit. Risk factors for injury and injury mechanisms were also explored through athlete demographics and characteristics.Study Design:Descriptive epidemiology study.Methods:A questionnaire that focused on injury incidence in CrossFit in the past year and included data on athlete demographics and characteristics was distributed to all 130 CrossFit gyms in the Netherlands and was also available online in active Facebook groups. Data were collected from July 2015 to January 2016. Inclusion criteria consisted of age ≥18 years and training at a registered CrossFit gym in the Netherlands. A total of 553 participants completed the survey. Univariable and multivariable generalized linear mixed models were used to identify potential risk factors for injury.Results:A total of 449 participants met the inclusion criteria. Of all respondents, 252 athletes (56.1%) sustained an injury in the preceding 12 months. The most injured body parts were the shoulder (n = 87, 28.7%), lower back (n = 48, 15.8%), and knee (n = 25, 8.3%). The duration of participation in CrossFit significantly affected the injury incidence rates (<6 months vs ≥24 months; odds ratio, 3.687 [95% CI, 2.091-6.502]; P < .001). The majority of injuries were caused by overuse (n = 148, 58.7%).Conclusion:The injury incidence for athletes participating in CrossFit was 56.1%. The most frequent injury locations were the shoulder, lower back, and knee. A short duration of participation (<6 months) was significantly associated with an increased risk for injury.

Social Media and Higher Education Institute Recruitment

Communication medium has changed dramatically in the past decade after the emergence of social media. . Not only it became top priority for business houses now a day but other organizations including education institutes are using social media to connect with students. With approximately 462 million internet users and over 241 million active Facebook users; Internet penetration, Smartphone’s, youth exposure are major factors which are responsible for high growth rate of internet and social website users. Decision makers are consistently trying to identify ways through which firms can make use of social media applications such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc. It is a place where people discuss politics, products, cricket, music &amp; movies, fashion, science &amp; Technology and many other issues. This new media has led to a paradigm shift in marketing practices of many companies from a traditional brand or product-driven approach to a contemporary customer-driven approach. Social Media and its technology are consumer-driven as it can directly communicate with consumers for their product and services. Moreover, this new form of media is often perceived more trustworthy source rather than sponsored content transmitted thru the traditional media of the promotion mix. Though organizations cannot control the direction of information disseminated through social media yet social media is being widely used by almost all the companies, in spite of their size or structure. Consumers get instant response and feel more attached with the organization.Considering all these benefits educational institutes and universities are now using social media to reach its perspective clients i.e. students, in order to improve recruitments. Social media sites are generally accessed by youth of specific demographic profile. There is big difference in how and why people use social networking sites. In addition, how much is the involvement and continuation of traditional marketing practices required in social media marketing.Unfortunately, universities/institutes using these technologies often fail to understand the unique opportunities and challenges that accompany the adoption of social media. In this paper, an effort has been made on conceptual approach in identifying issues and challenges in identifying role of social media in higher education and to identify factors that affect the selection of higher educational institutes and role of social media in reaching to the perspective students. The data will be analyzed using statistical techniques like factor or confirmatory factor analysis with reliability and validation checks.

Out of Sight, (Not Yet) Out of Mind: The Impact of Tie Strength on Direct Interaction and Social Surveillance Among Geographically Close and Long-Distance Facebook Friends

Social networking sites are considered a valuable resource to maintain existing friendships even over considerable distances. The present study emphasizes tie strength as a crucial determinant for the use of interactive and passive features among 302 active Facebook users and friends of different relational closeness (close friends vs. casual friends vs. acquaintances) as well as a moderator for the impact of physical distance. As expected, tie strength affected direct interaction linearly, whereas social surveillance followed a quadratic trend. Furthermore, moderation analyses revealed less frequent direct interaction between close friends and stronger surveillance of casual friends’ profiles as physical distance increases. These results indicate different functions in relationship maintenance for both behaviors as direct interaction aims at nurturing current relationships, while surveillance serves as a catalyst for promising future communications. As a consequence, physical distance influences direct interaction adversely due to emerging constraints but also contains informational value encouraging information-seeking behaviors.

A Facebook post is born: exploring the process of generating MPs’ social media presence

ABSTRACTResearch on political communication between MPs and the public has focused on the role, activities and perceptions of the members of parliament (MPs) themselves. However, the authors’ prior research demonstrated that in fact social media necessitate a new prism through which to study such communication. The contribution of the present study is to look at this relationship through the heretofore under-researched prism of those who in fact are doing much of the actual communication (at least in Israel): the parliamentary assistants (PAs). Whereas other studies tend to focus on the communicative contents, the present research deals mainly with the behind-the-scenes processes that produce such content.In this study 26 PAs were interviewed in Israel’s Knesset regarding three central questions: What are the goals of the MPs’ activities on Facebook? What are the key obstacles perceived by the assistants while maintaining MPs’ Facebook presence? What are the main professional dilemmas that PAs run into during their Facebook activity on behalf of MPs? By addressing these questions, the paper contributes to generating a more comprehensive picture of the ways political Facebook posts are born, and of the processes through which MPs’ social media presence is generated.

Parsimonious data: How a single Facebook like predicts voting behavior in multiparty systems.

This study shows how liking politicians’ public Facebook posts can be used as an accurate measure for predicting present-day voter intention in a multiparty system. We highlight that a few, but selective digital traces produce prediction accuracies that are on par or even greater than most current approaches based upon bigger and broader datasets. Combining the online and offline, we connect a subsample of surveyed respondents to their public Facebook activity and apply machine learning classifiers to explore the link between their political liking behaviour and actual voting intention. Through this work, we show that even a single selective Facebook like can reveal as much about political voter intention as hundreds of heterogeneous likes. Further, by including the entire political like history of the respondents, our model reaches prediction accuracies above previous multiparty studies (60–70%).The main contribution of this paper is to show how public like-activity on Facebook allows political profiling of individual users in a multiparty system with accuracies above previous studies. Beside increased accuracies, the paper shows how such parsimonious measures allows us to generalize our findings to the entire population of a country and even across national borders, to other political multiparty systems. The approach in this study relies on data that are publicly available, and the simple setup we propose can with some limitations, be generalized to millions of users in other multiparty systems.

Health professionals’ reactions to patients’ social media posts about treatment

Introduction : Social media use for health purposes is gaining ground, and individuals and organizations are increasingly using social media to inform about and discuss health-related issues and even to offer treatment [1,2]. The health-related use of the Internet and the social media can empower patients in dealing with their own health and illness [3]. However, there has been concern relating to how social media may influence the health professional-patient relationship [4], and guidelines have been developed on health professionals’ social media use [5]. Methods : In a pilot study, we performed in-depth interviews with five healthcare providers (one doctor, two psychologists, and two nurses) working at a Norwegian psychiatric university clinic. They were asked about their work-related experiences with social media and especially whether they had experienced that their patients had discussed their treatment on social media. The interviews were analyzed drawing on the method of content analysis. Results : All had private social media accounts, but none had extensive work-related experience with social media. None had posted on social media as part of their work. Three had read social media comments posted by their patients relating to treatment. Patients’ posting of criticism was perceived of as potentially problematic for the health professional-patient relationship. Discussion, limitations, and lessons learnt : It may represent a challenge for health providers when patients discuss and evaluate their treatment on social media. While patients may post about their interaction with health professionals and treatment, confidentiality makes this off limits to health professionals [4,5]. Moreover, such posts can in some cases reflect ongoing problems in the health professional-patient relationship that should be addressed by the patient and the health professional. If health professionals feel that they are publicly unfairly evaluated by patients, this might provoke negative feelings towards patients and thereby negatively influence the health professional-patient relationship [3-6]. The study suggests that there is a need for discussion amongst health professionals regarding how to handle online criticism in a professional manner. This was a small exploratory study and more research is needed to confirm its findings. References : 1. Gabarron E, Serrano JA, Wynn R, Armayones M. Avatars using computer/smartphone mediated communication and social networking in prevention of sexually transmitted diseases among North-Norwegian youngsters. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak 2012;12:120. 2. Gabarron E, Serrano JA, Wynn R, Lau AY. Tweet content related to sexually transmitted diseases: no joking matter. J Med Internet Res 2014;16(10):e228. 3. Santana S, Lausen B, Bujnowska-Fedak M, Chronaki CE, Prokosch HU, Wynn R. Informed citizen and empowered citizen in health: results from an European survey. BMC Fam Pract 2011;12:20. 4. Moubarak G, Guiot A, Benhamou Y. Facebook activity of residents and fellows and its impact on the doctor-patient relationship. J Med Ethics 2011;37:101-4. 5. Mansfield SJ, Morrison SG, Stephens HO, et al. Social media and the medical profession. Med J Aust 2011;194:642-4. 6. Wynn R. Provider-patient interaction: A corpus-based study of doctor-patient and student-patient interaction, Oslo, Norway, Norwegian Academic Press, 1998.

Relation between start-ups’ online social media presence and fundraising

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the emergences of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have changed the way human beings communicate and interact. In the past few years, this has become crucial in the context of business, especially in start-up fund raising. Access to venture capital financing is a crucial issue in the entrepreneurial finance literature. To further explore the use of social media for entrepreneurs, the authors have explored how entrepreneurs use social media for fund-raising purposes. The authors have used Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to collect entrepreneurs’ funding data from Crunchbase and entrepreneurs’ social media data from Facebook and Twitter. The results show that social media is significant for start-ups in their success or failure in fund raising. Investing energy into utilizing online social media and exhausting these platforms consciously contributes to the financial success of start-ups. Therefore, start-ups which are popular among online fans and followers can manage to raise larger amounts of funding in the early stages.Design/methodology/approachThis research relies on a wide range of quantitative data, which was obtained from three different online sources which includes Facebook, Twitter and CrunchBase. The use of a variety of internet technologies have been linked to increases in individuals’ social network diversity, which likely increases access to social capital at the individual level (Hampton and Wellman, 2003). The dataset was retrieved by using APIs, which enables the collection of novel metrics, from various sources that provide a well-structured dataset (Priem and Hemminger, 2010). Hypotheses were tested on a longitudinal dataset from 2000 to 2013, comprising general and investment data and social media metrics of start-ups. First, a sample from the database was selected to ensure data availability and reliability. After sampling, all the selected companies’ Twitter and Facebook activities were observed and metrics were analysed. SPSS was used to conduct correlation and regression analyses.FindingsThis study analysed whether start-ups’ social media convention is able to influence investors’ choices, especially the amount of total funding given. The paper showed that innovative start-up companies were able to benefit from communicating on social media platforms. Start-ups, which were using Facebook and Twitter effectively, focusing on valuable social media metrics, received larger amount of funding in total. Furthermore, it was observed that as their business grew, they intended to put more effort into online social networking. It confirmed the idea that businesses are using social media consciously.Originality/valueThis is the only paper that the authors could find that examines the relationship between fundraising and activity on social networks.

Four Characteristics of Facebook Activities for English Language Learning: A study of Malaysian University Students’ Needs and Preferences

This paper identifies Malaysian university students’ needs and preferences for online English language activities on a Facebook group that supports their formal learning. Two methods of data collection were employed; content analysis of the Facebook interactions, and semi structured interviews. Four main learning preferences or characteristics of online activities are identified; a) teacher-led activities (tasks and learning content provided by teachers), b) teachers’ presence (one or two authority figures to facilitate learning and keep group lively), c) topics or content (entertainment-oriented, grammar quizzes, opinion-based discussions), d) structure of the group (optional and ungraded). The passive participants found the activity beneficial in improving their online communication ability, while the more active participants felt a boost of confidence to use English in a more public space like Facebook. The findings indicate that the students are in need of technological changes in learning, but are dependent on teachers’ instructions to initiate the process. They exert selective interests in learning topics and content, and demonstrate partial autonomy in negotiating the online group’s structure. The theoretical and practical implications, and recommendation for future research are briefly presented.

Thou shall not try to speak in the Facebook language: Students' perspectives regarding using Facebook for chemistry learning

Facebook is the most commonly used Social Network Site (SNS) in the world. In this paper we explore students' attitudes towards the use of SNSs as a platform for learning chemistry and provide recommendations based on students' preferences regarding what should be done in the Facebook groups and what the teachers should not do (Thou shall nots) in an educational Facebook group with their students. We evaluated the extent to which students use SNSs in general and their attitudes toward the presence of a medium for learning chemistry in their SNS in particular. We found that the active Facebook groups for learning chemistry are perceived overall as a contributing experience for students' learning, and there was a positive correlation between the chemistry learning activity in the groups and the attitudes of students toward using Facebook groups for learning chemistry. Both parameters have gradually increased over the two-year study period.

Undermining anarchy: Facebook's influence on anarchist principles of organization in Occupy Wall Street

ABSTRACTDrawing on concepts rooted in cybernetics and anarchist political theory, this article argues that the shift in Occupy Wall Street from being a physical protest camp in late 2011 to an online movement in 2012 coincided with a shift in social media activity. Analysis of Facebook activity suggests a move from functional to anatomical hierarchy and a corresponding move from many-to-many communication to one-to-many communication. In conclusion, we argue that this development served to undermine the movement's anarchist principles of organization.

Passive and Active Facebook Use Measure (PAUM): Validation and relationship to the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory

The aims of this study were to design and validate a questionnaire to measure passive and active Facebook use, and to explore the associations of these factors with the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) of personality. Passive Facebook use describes the consumption but not the creation of content, while active Facebook use describes active engagement with the site. As Facebook has many features, users may interact with the site differently, thereby creating conflicting results when general use measures are assessed independently. To address this issue, we developed a 13-item questionnaire which reflects three levels of Facebook engagement: Active social, Active non-social, and Passive use. These three multi-item scales demonstrate sufficient internal reliability and discriminant validity. To further investigate individual differences in Facebook use, we used regressions to assess the associations between RST and the factors of the Passive Active Use Measure (PAUM). Reward Reactivity was positively associated with both Active social and Passive use. Impulsivity and Goal-Drive Persistence were positively associated with Active non-social use. FFFS was positively associated with Passive use, and Reward Interest was positively associated with all three PAUM factors. The findings of this study highlight how individual differences impact the way users engage with Facebook.

Anxiety with and Without New Technology Among Romanian High School Students

Nowadays, the new technology defines the classroom and students’ and teachers’ life. Sometimes the attitude towards technology use is marked by negative dysfunctional emotion, anxiety, fear, avoidance or dependence. This paper focuses both on the anxiety with the new technology and on the anxiety without technology. Our research aims to examine the attitudes and behaviours of Romanian high school students regarding trendy technologies, such as computers, internet and smartphones, including the access to social networking applications. The following tools were used: CARS (Heinssen, Glass, - Knight, 1987), IAS (Nickel and Pinto, 1986), four scales from MTUAS (Rosen, Whaling, Carrier, Cheever, and Rokkum, 2013), the Use of Smartphones for Learning Purposes Scale-USLS and a socio-demographic questionnaire. There were 517 participants distributed in two studies. The findings showed some differences concerning gender, age, specialization and academic performance, as well as an evolution of participants from the anxiety towards the computer (highest with females) to the anxiety without technology (similar for females and males). School performance is negatively associated with computer anxiety and Facebook activities. The study is important in the Romanian context, where computers, internet and smartphone penetration is more pronounced with younger people. Pedagogical issues of the research are also discussed, anxiety having a double function, as an endogenous and exogenous factor with respect to one’s academic and professional development.