Popular Social Networking Sites Research Articles

Politics at Play: TikTok and Digital Persuasion in Zimbabwe's 2023 General Elections

Zimbabwe's August 2023 elections were held against the backdrop of outcry over the outcomes of previous elections, which opposition political parties accusedthe ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party of rigging. Access to the public media is among the issues of contestation. Opposition political parties claim that they are not given equal space for campaigning purposes. Social networking sites such as X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook have recently provided spaces for political communication, where all parties have unfettered access to the electorate. Recently, TikTok has emerged as a popular social networking site, rivaling established applications in terms of its uptake, particularly among youths. Research on the social media application suggests that it is largely used for trivial purposes and does not contribute to critical dialogue. However, lately there is evidence that TikTok is being used for “serious” purposes, including activism. The study sought to find out how political actors in Zimbabwe used the TikTok platform for political communication in the run-up to the 2023 elections. The paper also examines the nature of digital persuasion on TikTok and how this enriches or trivialises political discourse. Findings show that TikTok was used to urge Zimbabwean youths to register to vote as well as to provide visual evidence of the good and the bad associated with particular political parties, as they competed for voters. It was used as a politainment tool, combining political messaging with the entertainment affordances of TikTok.

The Impact of Social Media as a Part of Fashion Marketing and its Impact on Youngsters

Abstract: This research is aimed to understand the impact of social media as a part of fashion marketing and its impact on youngsters, social media on the face of global society has created a new network of social connection with youngsters. Their relationship with influencers on “#outfit of the day” on Instagram is attractive to youngsters, social media marketing can benefit fashion brand in many ways. Including target audience, brand awareness and so far social media platforms by designers to promote, their own brand. Social media platform have also become a key tool for fashion brand, to showcase their collection and engage with consumers through live streaming event and social media campaigns. It has impacted the fashion industry through the democratization of fashion. Personalized fashion recommendations are becoming more popular, making it easier for consumers to discover new styles and brands that align with their individual tastes. People want to offer real-time interactions with them through an active presence in social media; social media might consider digital advertising highly impactful and more valuable and authentic than traditional advertising. Social media platform such as Instagram has recently become the most popular social networking site among the young people. In addition, selling and marketing the product in the virtual store on Instagram represent a new shopping most of the consumers. In survey the constant stream of New Style encourages us to buy, even if we do not need them. People want to fit into society and have the coolest or most desired product out there which influences the spread of new items becoming popular on social media network. This research paper emphasizes more on understanding the mindset of youth and their views on social media as a part of fashion marketing. All together of50 respondents as youth of age group (18-30yrs) were taken, Primary research has been taken as Google form survey as questionnaire. The increased diversity and representation that social media has brought to the fashion industry is very positive development, and it will be interesting to see how this continues to evolve in the future

The commercial promotion of electronic cigarettes on social media and its influence on positive perceptions of vaping and vaping behaviours in Anglophone countries: A scoping review.

There is ongoing scientific and policy debate about the role e-cigarettes play in tobacco control, with concerns centring around unknown long-term effects, and the potential industry co-option of harm reduction efforts, including marketing to youths. There is substantial evidence of the influence of conventional cigarette promotion on smoking behaviours in Anglophone countries, and the popularity of social networking sites, as well as the lack of marketing regulations on the commercial promotion of electronic cigarettes online, suggest an urgent need to explore this topic further. This scoping review aims to map the existing evidence related to the influence of e-cigarette commercial promotion on social media on positive perceptions of vaping and vaping behaviours in core Anglophone countries. Searches were conducted in CENTRAL, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), Embase, Epistemonikos, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Science Citation Index, on the 21st of July 2022. From 1,385 studies, 11 articles were included in the final review, using diverse study designs, including focus groups, content analysis, cross-sectional studies, and experiments. The studies were primarily based in the U.S. and evidenced the association between the commercial promotion of e-cigarettes on social media with positive perceptions of vaping and vaping behaviours, particularly among young people, addressing diverse themes including celebrities' sponsorship, e-liquid appeal (including flavours and nicotine levels), users' engagement with ads, and other marketing strategies. Further, social networking sites commercially promoting e-cigarettes might increase positive attitudes towards vaping and vaping behaviours, particularly among youths. Future research should be conducted in broader settings, incorporate larger and diverse sample sizes, ensure research transparency, cover multiple social networking sites, emphasize ecological validity, and foment longitudinal studies.

The Influence Of Fanpages Following Instagram On Intention To Transact With Sense Of Brand Community And Brand Love Mediators In Digital Financial Companies

Social media has given consumers the opportunity to speak up for the products or services they sell and consume. In recent years, the social networking site Instagram is one of the most popular social networking sites for consumers. One of the most widely used platforms by companies for Instagram marketing is "Fan page following". This study aims to determine the effect of fan pages following Instagram on transaction intentions with the mediation of sense of brand community and brand love in digital financial companies. The sampling method used purposive sampling with a sample size of 80 respondents. The number of statements given to respondents was 16 statement items. The data were analyzed using the Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM). The results of this study indicate a significant effect of fan pages following on the sense of brand community, a significant effect on fan pages following on brand love, an insignificant effect on the sense of brand community with transaction intention, a significant effect on, a significant effect of brand love on transaction intention, a significant effect on fan pages following on transaction intention, an insignificant mediating effect on the sense of brand community with fan pages following and transaction intention and a significant mediating effect on brand love with fan pages following and transaction intention.
 Keywords:Fanpage Following, Sense of Brand Community, Brand Love,Transaction Intention

MORE THAN JUST ENGAGING? TIKTOK AS AN EFFECTIVE EDUCATIONAL TOOL.

TikTok, a video-sharing social media platform, has rapidly become one of the most popular social networking sites in recent years, with over 1 billion monthly active users. With its easy-to-use interface, short-form videos, and viral content, TikTok provides an innovative way for educators to engage and educate students. This paper aims to investigate the usefulness of TikTok as an effective educational tool by creating a fun and interactive learning environment. TikTok is an ideal platform for effective and engaging learning for several reasons such as allows students to be creative and use their imagination to create unique, meaningful content for variety of subjects such as science, math, social studies, and language arts. Several studies have shown that TikTok can be a valuable learning tool, improving students' engagement, motivation, and overall learning experience. Despite its popularity, Tiktok use in education also raises concerns and challenges that need to be addressed by the scholars. This study was conducted using a purposeful sampling of KPTMAS students, with data collected through an online survey administered via Google Form. The findings revealed that high acceptance and usefulness of TikTok as an educational tool among KPTMAS students. In conclusion, TikTok has proven to be an effective and efficient platform for learning. Its unique features provide an innovative way for educators to engage students and teach valuable skills. As social media platforms continue to influence the way people consume information, TikTok could be an important tool for educators to create a more engaging and effective learning experience.

The link between Facebook addiction and depression among university students: Evidence from a lower-middle income country.

Among all the social media, Facebook is the most popular social networking site among students. That raises a chance of excessive Facebook usage being a form of addiction to hamper students' mental health. The primary goal of this study was to find the association of Facebook addiction with the depression level of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four hundred ten university students from Bangladesh were selected randomly as samples for this investigation. In this study, the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale and nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire were used to assess the level of Facebook Addiction and depression status of the students, respectively. Ordered probit models were employed to identify the connection between Facebook addiction and depression. Ordinary least square models were utilized further to check the robustness of the findings. Ordered probit results confirm that Facebook addiction increases the likelihood of having heightened depression among university students. Besides, sex, household income, and history of being infected by COVID-19 also appeared to be correlated with the depression level of the students. Creating opportunities for students to participate in more physically demanding outdoor activities should be prioritized as it could ultimately enhance their capacity to mitigate depression. Appropriate measures must be taken to increase the number of recreational facilities on the campus for students, considering their age, gender, and preferences.

THE REASONS FOR UNIVERSITY YOUTH'S USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS AND THE SATISFACTIONS ACHIEVED FROM THEM IN EGYPTIAN SOCIET

The aim of this study is to highlight gratification achieved universities' youth from using social networking sites, and identify the most important social networking sites have a favorite universities' youth, and Identify the motivations for using universities' youth to social networking sites, sample of the study were applied on (400 cases) from males and females) between the ages of (18-21years ),that are equally distributed among the four universities،the study relied on a questionnaire. The most important results of the study are: 1- Has proved the validity of the hypothesis of the study, which stated: "There is a statistically significant relationship between the extent of using Universities' youth of social networking sites and the gratification achieved for them" 2- The study showed that Facebook ranked as the first place as the most popular social networking sites among respondents, followed by Twitter and YouTube, Google plus, Instagram, Flickr, and Myspace. 3- networking sites is Fill leisure time and get rid of the boredom and loneliness which came on top of the ritual, while the connect with others and follow all the new things on the media scene in the introduction to the utilitarian motivation to use the respondents to social networking sites. 4- (study sample) of their use of social networking sites is the gratification you give me courage for dealing with the various issues and express their views boldly and clearly stating in the introduction to the gratification, while gratification for me to participate in events in society in the second place, and gratification the increasing knowledge of current events in Egypt in the third place.

Identification of Emotional Spectrums of Patients Taking an Erectile Dysfunction Medication: Ontology-Based Emotion Analysis of Patient Medication Reviews on Social Media.

Patient medication reviews on social networking sites provide valuable insights into the experiences and sentiments of individuals taking specific medications. Understanding the emotional spectrum expressed by patients can shed light on their overall satisfaction with medication treatment. This study aims to explore the emotions expressed by patients taking phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors and their impact on sentiment. This study aimed to (1) identify the distribution of 6 Parrot emotions in patient medication reviews across different patient characteristics and PDE5 inhibitors, (2) determine the relative impact of each emotion on the overall sentiment derived from the language expressed in each patient medication review while controlling for different patient characteristics and PDE5 inhibitors, and (3) assess the predictive power of the overall sentiment in explaining patient satisfaction with medication treatment. A data set of patient medication reviews for sildenafil, vardenafil, and tadalafil was collected from 3 popular social networking sites such as WebMD, Ask-a-Patient, and Drugs.com. The Parrot emotion model, which categorizes emotions into 6 primary classes (surprise, anger, love, joy, sadness, and fear), was used to analyze the emotional content of the reviews. Logistic regression and sentiment analysis techniques were used to examine the distribution of emotions across different patient characteristics and PDE5 inhibitors and to quantify their contribution to sentiment. The analysis included 3070 patient medication reviews. The most prevalent emotions expressed were joy and sadness, with joy being the most prevalent among positive emotions and sadness being the most prevalent among negative emotions. Emotion distributions varied across patient characteristics and PDE5 inhibitors. Regression analysis revealed that joy had the strongest positive impact on sentiment, while sadness had the most negative impact. The sentiment score derived from patient reviews significantly predicted patient satisfaction with medication treatment, explaining 19% of the variance (increase in R2) when controlling for patient characteristics and PDE5 inhibitors. This study provides valuable insights into the emotional experiences of patients taking PDE5 inhibitors. The findings highlight the importance of emotions in shaping patient sentiment and satisfaction with medication treatment. Understanding these emotional dynamics can aid health care providers in better addressing patient needs and improving overall patient care.

The Impact of Social Media on Women's Body Image Perception: A Meta-Analysis of Well-being Outcomes

This study examines the correlation between female body image and social media usage, focusing on the impact it has on overall well-being. The popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) has significantly impacted our digital culture, providing options for self-expression, engagement, and communication. However, SNSs also bring certain drawbacks, such as the potential for body dissatisfaction and negative psychological effects. Gap: While previous research has examined the relationship between social media use and body image, there is a need for a comprehensive analysis that specifically focuses on the effects on female well-being. This study aims to fill the gap by providing a comprehensive exploration of the effects of social media use on female body image and its influence on overall well-being. The objective of this study is to examine the correlation between social media usage and female body image, specifically focusing on the detrimental effects on well-being and mental health. By analyzing academic papers and research findings, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of the intricate relationship between social media, body image, and well-being. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) framework was used to compile relevant literature. Data from Scopus sources was analyzed using the RStudio 4.2.1-win program. Various factors, such as the publishing year, author details, keywords, and document categories, were considered to identify important patterns and insights. It is recommended that awareness and educational campaigns be developed to promote a healthy body image and address the potential negative consequences of social media use. The analysis significantly contributes to the body of knowledge by offering a thorough examination of the connection between female body image on social media and usage, highlighting the detrimental effects on well-being and mental health.

Enhanced Spam Detection System for Twitter Social Networking Platform

Twitter social site is one of the most popular Online Social Networking Site (OSN) used by popular people such as Ministers, businessman, large companies, actors to share their information. In this site, around 500 million of tweets are posted monthly by the total 313 million Twitter active users. The widespread of Twitter has drawn the interest of spammers. These malicious actors exploit the platform for various nefarious purposes, including monitoring authentic users, disseminating harmful software, and promoting their agendas through URLs embedded in tweets. They engage in tactics like secret following and unfollowing legitimate users, all with the intent of gathering sensitive information.To resolve this problem, a secure spam detection based on machine learning approach is designed. The designed used stop word removal, word to vector model to refined and dimensionally reduced the data. To enhance the quality of the data Cosine similarity is also been applied to measure the similarity score among the tweets and based upon that Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is trained. Later on, it is used to test the efficiency by examining the performance parameters in terms of precision, recall and F-measure. Also, the comparative analysis has been performed to present the efficiency of the work. The average precision, recall and F measure of proposed spam detection model of 0.9252, 0.6107 and 0.734 are obtained.

A systematic review of motivations, attitudes, learning outcomes, and parental involvement in social network sites in education across 15 years

ABSTRACT Despite the growing popularity of social network sites (SNSs) in educational settings, there has been a lack of comprehensive review studies focused on the effects of SNSs used for educational purposes. This study seeks to address this gap by examining the impact of SNS use on motivations, attitudes, learning outcomes, and parental involvement, which have been infrequently studied in previous research. Employing a systematic review based on the protocol of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), our findings indicate that the use of SNSs has the potential to enhance learners’ motivations, engender positive attitudes, and improve learning outcomes. However, it is also observed that parental involvement may complicate SNS-assisted learning outcomes. Consequently, this study explores methods for improving SNS-assisted learning motivations, attitudes, and outcomes, as well as the effects of parental involvement on SNS-assisted learning. Future research directions are discussed.

Filtered reality: Exploring gender differences in Instagram use, social conformity pressure, and regret among young adults

ABSTRACT Instagram is a popular social networking site for sharing visual content such as photos and videos. Users can “follow,” “like,” and “comment” on the posts of others. Instagram has become a place for users to constantly compare themselves to others and feel compelled to show oneself in a certain manner due to the platform's emphasis on visual content. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether Instagram users experience regret or social pressure based on their gender. The research examines whether Instagram users adhere to social norms and compare themselves to others on the network, drawing on the theories of social conformity and social comparison. Data was collected from 390 Instagram users through an online survey. Results showed that women use Instagram filters and editing tools more frequently than men, but the reasons for this gender gap require further investigation. Contrary to the hypothesis, the association between time spent on Instagram and social conformity pressure was not stronger for women than for men. Instead, Instagram use frequency played a vital role in shaping the relationship between time spent on the platform and social conformity pressure. According to the study's findings a large proportion of Instagram users, regardless of gender, reported having regret after posting. Our results imply that those who spend more time on Instagram may experience more pressure to adhere to the views and actions of others on the site, with regular use perhaps being a driving factor in this pressure.

Exploring the correlates of Facebook addiction and its impact on academic performance among youths of Tripura

Growing incidences of Facebook addiction or problematic Facebook use are fast becoming a matter of concern in the Western countries. The popularity of social networking sites is increasing in India as well, circumventing the barriers of age, gender, and place of residence. The rapid dispersal of Facebook is of particular concern as it has given rise to a new phenomenon termed as Facebook addiction, particularly among the students and youths. Little academic research has been done so far in a far-flung State in the North Eastern part of India. This paper attempts to fill this gap by studying Facebook Addiction among 3356 youth participants from the state of Tripura. Male participants were found to be significantly more at risk for Facebook addiction, as compared to the females. Utilizing the logistic regression model, this study could also bring into light the predictors and correlates of Facebook addiction which include the location of residence, educational qualification of parents, and the overall purpose of internet usage, such as online shopping, cloud storage, attending online classes and others. Dysfunctional or uncontrolled Facebook usage has also been found to be linked with adverse interference in the academic performance of the participants.

Outdoor fitness activity under COVID-19 restrictions. Wearable devices, images, and posts as sources of information on users

Our study aimed to present amateur sports models during the CO VID-19 restrictions on outdoor activities. We used mixed research methods: the questionnaire research data and information available through wearable devices. We investigate physical activity phenomena based on questionnaire results and existing data from a popular social networking site. Firstly, we asked respondents about their training types, rhythm, and preferences in using new technologies (wearables devices and social networks to upload and share results) in individual physical activity practices. Secondly, we also used a collection of over 11 thousand photos of 3138 users, with metadata downloaded from Instagram to compare declarations and content. The obtained data were processed using machine learning and Python software. Analyzing the results, we showed a change in the intensity of practicing three selected types of activity. We also analyzed the data set (photos, tags, and metadata) from a social network. The conclusions show the potential of triangulation of methods and data to describe the amateur physical activity and the change of these practices during CO VID-19 limitations in indoor and outdoor sports.

Vocabulary of Hatred in Social Media

The study focuses on Facebook, one of the most popular socialnetworking sites in our time, given its position in the digital world andthe importance of the verbal component in it. The main objective of theresearch is to investigate whether in a corpus of utterances in Italiancoming from two public Facebook groups, the incitement to hatred man-ifests itself through the use of slurs, the choice of which is delimited byprecise criteria. The presence of the selected words is verified throughautomatic searches with the tools available on Facebook. Moreover, theanalysis is aimed at discovering whether slurs always carry their deni-gratory potential, or whether they can also have a non-denigratory use.Some possible extensions of the research will also be defined.

Millennials’ Hotel Restaurant Visit Intention: An Analysis of Key Online Opinion Leaders’ Digital Marketing Content

ABSTRACT Social networking sites (SNSs) are popular platforms for people to share and exchange information, especially for the millennial generation. This research uses Hong Kong as a case to study millennials’ SNS usage behavior and the impact of online key opinion leaders’ (KOLs) reviews on millennials’ restaurant visit intention. Using a mixed method, this study first develops a KOLs online presentation framework, then investigates the relative importance of different elements in a restaurant review on buying intention. The findings reveal that Instagram, Facebook and YouTube are the top three most popular SNSs used by millennials in Hong Kong. In restaurant reviews posted by KOLs, photos of food and ambiance, ratings and opinions on food quality, and price are found to exert a significant and positive impact on millennials’ restaurant visit intention. This research not only extends the study of online opinion leadership in the context of hospitality, but also provides practical recommendations for hotel and restaurant managers.

Are People Addicted to Social Networks?

The popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) has increased rapidly. SNSs are a key part of daily life for many people around the world. The use of SNSs is already a global phenomenon. Drawing on social capital theory, this research empirically explored how structural capital (social network ties), relational capital (trust in SNSs, trust in members of SNSs, social identification, and social norms), and cognitive capital (shared language and shared goals) influence stickiness, which in turn affects addiction. This study introduced key moderators, privacy concerns and perceived security, to the relationship between stickiness and addiction. The authors empirically evaluated the proposed model by using survey data collected from SNS users. Structural equation modeling was applied to test the model. This study can provide a deeper understanding of SNS users' addiction behavior by focusing on social capital theory, privacy concerns, and perceived security and therefore contribute to both research and practice.

What Should Churches Post on Facebook? An Exploratory Study of the Perceived Contribution of Facebook Posts to the Mission of Churches

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world and is used by many churches. This study seeks to discover the type of Facebook posts that most contribute to the perceived spiritual formation of church attenders as defined by typical church mission statements. A broad range of church attenders who use Facebook ( N = 161) completed an online survey focusing on their church's Facebook page. They indicated the degree to which they believe various types of their church's Facebook posts contributed to their spiritual formation, specifically, their relationship with God, their relationship with fellow believers, their personal spiritual growth, and their involvement in ministry or service. They also indicated what type of posts they would like to see more frequently from their church. An exploratory analysis found that posts that had greater cognitive content (specifically, live broadcasts, video recordings, announcements, and devotionals) were perceived to contribute more to church attenders’ spiritual formation than did posts with less cognitive content (humorous memes, photos, inspirational quotations, and external links). Confirming these results, participants also expressed a preference for their church to make more posts with high cognitive content than posts with low cognitive content. These results lead to several applications of how churches can better use Facebook to contribute to their mission.

Identity – Attribute Inference in Online Social Network(s) Using Bio-Inspired Algorithms and Machine Learning Approaches

Twitter is one of the most popular social networking sites today, and it has become a critical tool for gathering data from numerous individuals throughout the world. The platform hosts a variety of debates spanning from current events and news to entertainment, advertising, and technology. In contrast to earlier approaches, the proposed work employs the concept of both direct (via tweets) and indirect stance detection (via homophily elements) to infer sensitive attributes. Along with attribute-based inference, the proposed work also matches user profiles across cross platforms via user-generated posts. Unlike prior efforts, usernames are not included in the feature set here since they are a bit of a giveaway. Bio-inspired algorithms are used along with ensemble methods to extract the best set of features.

Threat Modelling and Detection Using Semantic Network for Improving Social Media Safety

Social media provides a free space to users to post their information, opinions, feelings, etc. Also, it allows users to easily and simultaneously communicate with each other. As a result, threat detection in social media is critical for ensuring the user’s safety and preventing suspicious activities such as criminal behavior, hate speech, ethnic conflicts and terrorist plots. These suspicious activities have a negative impact on the community’s life and cause tension and social unrest among individuals in both inside and outside of cyberspace. Furthermore, with the recent popularity of social networking sites, the number of discussions containing threats is increasing, causing fear in various parties, whether at the individual or state level. Moreover, these social networking service providers do not have complete control over the content that users post. In this paper, we propose to design a threat detection model on Twitter using a semantic network. To achieve this aim, we designed a threat semantic network, named, ThrNet that will be integrated in our proposed threat detection model called, DetThr. We compared the performance of our model (DetThr) with a set of well-known Machine Learning algorithms. Results show that the DetThr model achieves an accuracy of 76% better than Machine Learning algorithms. It works well with an error rate of forecasting threatening tweet messages as non-threatening (false negatives) is about 29%, while the error rate of forecasting non-threatening tweet messages as threatening (false positives) is about 19%.