Profile Owners Research Articles

Hookah's new popularity among US college students: a pilot study of the characteristics of hookah smokers and their Facebook displays

Objectives(1) To confirm the prevalence of hookah use among US college students. (2) To identify substances commonly smoked in hookahs and other substance use characteristics of hookah smokers. (3) Given...

Motives and relevance of online friendships

A short interview-based study looks at the different motives why persons establish online friendships, for example via Facebook. Further reasons are discovered during a second study – an online focus group. This study also looked into the differences in importance that profile owners attach to different (groups of) online friends. The results of Study 2 were analysed using qualitative content analysis and resulted in the formation of four categories of factors influencing the number of friendships a person establishes online; namely: 1) person-focused; 2) online-friends; 3) purpose; 4) dedication. These categories serve as a tool for employers, helping them to assess an applicant based on his/her number of online friends. The categories allow for a rationalisation of the conclusions made. Despite the considerable insights into the driving forces for the establishment of online friendships gained, there certainly is room for future research to further refine the presented categories.

Baring Their Souls in Online Profiles or Not? Religious Self-Disclosure in Social Media

This study measured the prevalence of religious self-disclosure in public MySpace profiles that belonged to a subsample of National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) wave 3 respondents (N = 560). Personal attributes associated with religious identification as well as the overall quantity of religious self-disclosures are examined. A majority (62 percent) of profile owners identified their religious affiliations online, although relatively few profile owners (30 percent) said anything about religion outside the religion-designated field. Most affiliation reports (80 percent) were consistent with the profile owner's reported affiliation on the survey. Religious profile owners disclosed more about religion when they also believed that religion is a public matter or if they evaluated organized religion positively. Evangelical Protestants said more about religion than other respondents. Religiosity, believing that religion is a public matter, and the religiosity of profile owners’ friendship group were all positively associated with religious identification and self-disclosure.

OMG! Exploring and Learning from Teachers' Personal and Professional Uses of Facebook

Members of the Net Generation are increasingly using social networking sites. The authors employed a mixed methods approach to examine Facebook site features preservice educators use and how those features are utilized personally and professionally. Results indicate that interaction on Facebook is reciprocal; that is, the number of posts made to a wall was significantly related to the number of updates made by the profile owner. Qualitative, descriptive data indicated emerging professional use of Facebook, with profile owners utilizing peers for instructional ideas and ongoing classroom support. Recommendations for future research are described.

Associations Between Displayed Alcohol References on Facebook and Problem Drinking Among College Students

To examine the associations between displayed alcohol use and intoxication/problem drinking (I/PD) references on Facebook and self-reported problem drinking using a clinical scale. Content analysis and cross-sectional survey. Facebook Web site (http://www.facebook.com/). The study included undergraduate students (age range, 18-20 years) at 2 state universities with public Facebook profiles. The profiles were categorized into 1 of 3 distinct categories: Nondisplayers, Alcohol Displayers, and I/PD Displayers. An online survey measured problem drinking using the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) scale. Analyses examined associations between alcohol display category and (1) AUDIT problem drinking category using logistic regression, (2) AUDIT score using negative binomial regression, and (3) alcohol-related injury using the Fisher exact test. Among 307 profiles identified, 224 participants completed the survey (73% response rate). The average age was 18.8 years; 122 (54%) were female; 152 (68%) were white; and approximately 50% were from each university. Profile owners who displayed I/PD were more likely (odds ratio, 4.4; 95% CI, 2.0-9.4) to score in the problem drinking category of the AUDIT scale, had 64.0% (incidence rate ratio, 1.64; 95% CI, 1.27-11.0) higher AUDIT scores overall, and were more likely to report an alcohol-related injury in the past year (P = .002). Displayed references to I/PD were positively associated with AUDIT scores suggesting problem drinking as well as alcohol-related injury. Results suggest that clinical criteria for problem drinking can be applied to Facebook alcohol references.

Prevalence of Stress References on College Freshmen Facebook Profiles

Stress is common among college students and associated with adverse health outcomes. This study used the social networking Web site Facebook to identify self-reported stress and associated conditions among college students. Public Facebook profiles of undergraduate freshman at a large Midwestern State University (n = 300) were identified using a Facebook search. Content analysis of Facebook profiles included demographic information and displayed references to stress, weight concerns, depressive symptoms, and alcohol. The mean reported age was 18.4 years, and the majority of profile owners were female (62%). Stress references were displayed on 37% of the profiles, weight concerns on 6%, depressive symptoms on 24%, and alcohol on 73%. The display of stress references was associated with female sex (odds ratio [OR], 2.81; confidence interval [CI], 1.7-4.7), weight concerns (OR, 5.36; CI, 1.87-15.34), and depressive symptoms (OR, 2.7; CI, 1.57-4.63). No associations were found between stress and alcohol references. College freshmen frequently display references to stress on Facebook profiles with prevalence rates similar to self-reported national survey data. Findings suggest a positive association between referencing stress and both weight concerns and depressive symptoms. Facebook may be a useful venue to identify students at risk for stress-related conditions and to disseminate information about campus resources to these students.

The Effects of Other-Generated and System-Generated Cues on Adolescents' Perceived Attractiveness on Social Network Sites

The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent other-generated and system-generated cues on social network sites (SNS) influence the popularity and attractiveness of adolescents. In a 2 (friends' physical attractiveness: attractive, unattractive) ×2 (friends' wall postings: positive, negative) ×3 (number of friends: low, average, high) factorial experiment, 497 high school students between 12 and 15 years of age were randomly assigned to one of the twelve experimental conditions. Results revealed that the profile owner of a SNS was perceived as being more attractive when the profile includes attractive friends and positive wall postings. The profile owners' number of friends did not affect the perceived attractiveness of the profile-owner, only the perceived extraversion.

Feeling bad on Facebook: depression disclosures by college students on a social networking site

Depression is common and frequently undiagnosed among college students. Social networking sites are popular among college students and can include displayed depression references. The purpose of this study was to evaluate college students' Facebook disclosures that met DSM criteria for a depression symptom or a major depressive episode (MDE). We selected public Facebook profiles from sophomore and junior undergraduates and evaluated personally written text: "status updates." We applied DSM criteria to 1-year status updates from each profile to determine prevalence of displayed depression symptoms and MDE criteria. Negative binomial regression analysis was used to model the association between depression disclosures and demographics or Facebook use characteristics. Two hundred profiles were evaluated, and profile owners were 43.5% female with a mean age of 20 years. Overall, 25% of profiles displayed depressive symptoms and 2.5% met criteria for MDE. Profile owners were more likely to reference depression, if they averaged at least one online response from their friends to a status update disclosing depressive symptoms (exp(B) = 2.1, P <.001), or if they used Facebook more frequently (P <.001). College students commonly display symptoms consistent with depression on Facebook. Our findings suggest that those who receive online reinforcement from their friends are more likely to discuss their depressive symptoms publicly on Facebook. Given the frequency of depression symptom displays on public profiles, social networking sites could be an innovative avenue for combating stigma surrounding mental health conditions or for identifying students at risk for depression.

Effects of Online Christian Self-Disclosure on Impression Formation

This experiment examined the effects of online Christian disclosure. Respondents (N = 233) viewed a fictional social networking profile containing one of three levels of Christian disclosure frequency: none, nominal, and extensive. Respondents made few distinctions between nondisclosure and nominal disclosure. Most notably, respondent religiosity moderated impressions. Regardless of disclosure level, religious respondents rated profile owners as more likeable and less stereotypically negative than less religious respondents. The least religious respondents tended to rate the extensively disclosing Christian as least romantically desirable and with more negative stereotyping. The most religious respondents rated the extensively disclosing Christian as most likeable and as most romantically desirable. Christian identity tended to be assumed when not disclosed. Nominal disclosure may constitute a socially acceptable level of online Christian disclosure.

A Content Analysis of Displayed Alcohol References on a Social Networking Web Site

Exposure to alcohol use in media is associated with adolescent alcohol use. Adolescents frequently display alcohol references on Internet media, such as social networking web sites. The purpose of this study was to conduct a theoretically based content analysis of older adolescents' displayed alcohol references on a social networking web site. We evaluated 400 randomly selected public MySpace profiles of self-reported 17- to 20-year-olds from zip codes, representing urban, suburban, and rural communities in one Washington county. Content was evaluated for alcohol references, suggesting: (1) explicit versus figurative alcohol use, (2) alcohol-related motivations, associations, and consequences, including references that met CRAFFT problem drinking criteria. We compared profiles from four target zip codes for prevalence and frequency of alcohol display. Of 400 profiles, 225 (56.3%) contained 341 references to alcohol. Profile owners who displayed alcohol references were mostly male (54.2%) and white (70.7%). The most frequent reference category was explicit use (49.3%); the most commonly displayed alcohol use motivation was peer pressure (4.7%). Few references met CRAFFT problem drinking criteria (3.2%). There were no differences in prevalence or frequency of alcohol display among the four sociodemographic communities. Despite alcohol use being illegal and potentially stigmatizing in this population, explicit alcohol use is frequently referenced on adolescents' MySpace profiles across several sociodemographic communities. Motivations, associations, and consequences regarding alcohol use referenced on MySpace appear consistent with previous studies of adolescent alcohol use. These references may be a potent source of influence on adolescents, particularly given that they are created and displayed by peers.

Man seeks Man: Gay men’s profiles on a dating website as subject production

In this study, informed by social constructionist approaches to self and identity and LGBTQ psychology, 300 profiles posted by gay men on the dating websitewww.gaydar.co.ukwere analysed in terms of the narrative and interpretative resources used to construct an online gay identity. The analysis found evidence of a very active engagement with communication technology, with several profiles inviting the viewer to chat or send a message or photographs. Many profile owners professed to be ‘genuine’, distancing themselves from the alleged shallowness of the majority of other website members. A widely used discursive device for constructing the self and the type of person(s) sought was the expression ‘straight acting’, with an attendant rejection of camp and derogation of a ‘visibly gay’ style – a concerning finding that points to the policing of (self) presentation along exclusionary lines. While many profiles celebrated the site as a locus of new possibilities for sexual expression, website users mainly looking for a relationship constructed the website’s perceived emphasis on sex as commodification. As this was an exploratory study, future research could consider more websites, specialised (e.g. fetish) sites and emphasise their photographic/multimedia and interactive possibilities.

Face off: Implications of visual cues on initiating friendship on Facebook

This research investigates how moderating factors and theoretically relevant contextual variables affect impression formation and the willingness to initiate virtual friendship. An experiment examined both main and interaction effects for visual cues, profile owner’s gender, and evaluator’s gender; a 2 (stimulus gender: male and female) × 3 (visual conditions: attractive, unattractive, and no-photo) × 2 (evaluator’s gender: male and female) between subjects model analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed. A three-way interaction between gender and appearance was revealed. The results indicated that both male and female subjects were more willing to initiate friendships with opposite-sex profile owners with attractive photos. Subjects also displayed comparatively higher willingness to make friends with profile owners who did not include visual cues than with those who revealed an unattractive photo. The hyperpersonal model was supported and extended to address gender attributes.

Is Your Profile Picture Worth 1000 Words? Photo Characteristics Associated with Personality Impression Agreement

Social-Networking Websites (SNWs) are rapidly becoming a central media for social exchange. A basic question is how well are people able to get to know each other through these websites? In this study, we explore characteristics of the profile photographs and their association with impression agreement. Using a specially designed social networking website, we examined 1,316 first-impressions of profile owners who had posted photographs as part of a complete profile. The results suggest that photographs in which the profile owners were smiling, outdoors, and shown with others were associated with higher impression agreement. Several gender interactions suggested that other aspects of the photographs, including head covering and apparent weight, also affected impression agreement depending on the gender of the profile owner and visitors. These results were interpreted in light of the literature on interpersonal perception.

The Role of Friends’ Appearance and Behavior on Evaluations of Individuals on Facebook: Are We Known by the Company We Keep?

This research explores how cues deposited by social partners onto one’s online networking profile affect observers’ impressions of the profile owner. An experiment tested the relationships between both (a) what one’s associates say about a person on a social network site via “wall postings,” where friends leave public messages, and (b) the physical attractiveness of one’s associates reflected in the photos that accompany their wall postings on the attractiveness and credibility observers attribute to the target profile owner. Results indicated that profile owners’ friends’ attractiveness affected their own in an assimilative pattern. Favorable or unfavorable statements about the targets interacted with target gender: Negatively valenced messages about certain moral behaviors increased male profile owners’ perceived physical attractiveness, although they caused females to be viewed as less attractive.