Personal Use Of Social Media Research Articles

Professionalism? Restricting Expressions? Determining Journalists' Individual Social Media Uses Based on Institutional Guidelines

The usage of social media by journalists might lead to problems with the conflict between their personal and professional identities. Because it can be difficult to distinguish between private and public posts, media companies are developing guidelines to regulate how their employees use social media. The study examines how institutional guidelines for journalists' use of social media can influence their personal use of social media. Through document analysis, the guidelines of both the BBC and Anadolu Agency in Türkiye were examined with the aim of uncovering the expectations of these institutions. Both documents were analyzed using the Python programming language. Furthermore, with the goal to uncover the journalists' perceptions of the guidelines, in-depth interviews were carried out with personnels from BBC and Anadolu Agency. The research showed that the guidelines were designed to safeguard corporate identity and reliability. Moreover, it was noted that the journalists who were interviewed did not view the guidelines as a form of intervention or censorship.

The relationship between social media usage and loneliness among younger and older adults: the moderating effect of shyness

Does social media alleviate or exacerbate loneliness? Past research has shown mixed results regarding the relationship between social media usage and loneliness among younger and older adults. Unlike younger individuals, older adults may decrease their loneliness through social media interactions. Additionally, previous research has indicated that the link between social media use and loneliness can vary depending on one’s shy tendency. Therefore, this study aims to explore the relationship between individuals’ social media use and loneliness while considering age and shyness tendency as moderating variables. The study employed a questionnaire survey conducted through convenience sampling, resulting in 234 valid responses from participants in Northern Taiwan. Among them, 113 were college students (aged 18 to 25, average age 19.40), and 121 were older adults (aged 50 to 82, average age 60.81). Using hierarchical regression analysis, results indicated that (1) age moderates the relationship between personal social media use and loneliness. Minimal differences were observed among younger individuals, but among older adults, increased social media usage time was associated with a significant reduction in loneliness. (2) Shyness tendency moderate the relationship between personal social media use and loneliness. Individuals with higher shyness tendency experience an increase in loneliness as their social media usage time lengthens.

Reaching the public with Twitter: The reputation value of CEOs

In this study, we investigate whether CEOs' use of Twitter influences their compensation. The results show that CEOs benefit from being active on social media because this participation helps reduce information asymmetry. Further, the effect of this Twitter usage becomes stronger when firms face competitive markets. We also use earnings announcements to show how CEOs' tweets can lower the deviations in stock prices around these announcements. Overall, a CEO's personal use of social media can help to reduce the information asymmetry between their firm and investors. This strategic tool benefits the CEO when negotiating compensation.

University Students, Social Media, and Purposeful Use

University students are frequent users of networked environments, such as social media, in their everyday lives. Although often associated with socialization and entertainment, their social media use is multifaceted, reaching across other life activities and contexts. This exploratory, qualitative study draws upon interviews with 25 university students in the United States, considering how they use social media across learning and professional contexts, and how they view their role in this setting. During the interviews, students participated in a card sort activity that presented them with 41 potential social media tasks they might engage in as well as two different ways of categorizing social media tasks.Findings showed that students use some social media tools, like Instagram, widely across contexts, while other tools are relegated to specialized use or contexts, largely driven by task. Instructors set the tone for using certain other tools, like X (formerly known as Twitter) or Diigo (a social bookmarking tool), whereas other tools are used to access resources but not to interact, like Pinterest and YouTube. Most students reported using social media to interact with others, but only within well-defined networks comprised of friends and classmates. Interactions with these individuals were focused on supporting friendship and accomplishing learning or extracurricular tasks, respectively. Beyond that, students reported a passive role on social media, consuming rather than producing content and leaving limited traces of their presence in the public sphere, with the exception of situations when students were leaders in extracurricular groups or using social media for their jobs. In those instances, the most common uses were related to posting event and promotional information. After engaging with the social media tasks and activity categories presented in the card sort, students offered two types of reflections. One group reflected on the limited nature of their personal social media use, whereas the other group indicated that there was a range of social media tasks and uses that they had not previously considered. The small group of students who did not offer any sort of post-activity reflection indicated that they had small networks with limited activities by design, and lacked interest in thinking further about them. These findings have implications for higher education institutions, where students might be offered learning, extracurricular, and career support opportunities to help them develop both awareness and skills related to common networked knowledge activities and corresponding digital skills.

Smartphones and attitudes to intimate partner violence: Evidence from Africa

AbstractThis paper, using data from the Afrobarometer surveys, examines the potential for smartphones to influence attitudes to intimate partner violence (IPV). Controlling for ownership of television and radio, we find that those living in areas with a higher incidence of smartphone ownership are more likely to state that it is never justifiable for a man to beat his wife. This is the case for both male and female respondents. We find that the strength of the association between regional smartphone proliferation and attitudes to IPV is similar for those who frequently get news from social media and those who get news from elsewhere. This suggests that our results are not driven entirely by personal social media use. Finally, we only find a statistically significant relationship for those who are socially conservative.

State-society relations and government technology: a survey of public awareness and communication in Hong Kong

Abstract A survey of Hong Kong residents finds that public support for government technology, as understood through the concept of smart cities, is associated with concept-awareness and official communications. The statistical analysis identifies moderating effects attributable to personal social media use and controls for personal ideological views about scope of government intervention and perceived political legitimacy of smart city policies. The study builds on a growing body of empirical scholarship about public support for government technology, while also addressing a practical trend in urban governance: the growing sophistication of technologies like artificial intelligence and their use in strengthening government capacities. The Hong Kong case exemplifies ambitious investments in technology by governments and, at the time of the survey, relatively high freedom of political expression. The study’s findings help refine theories about state-society relations in the rapidly evolving context of technology for public sector use.

Perception of Bank Managers on the Use of Personal Social Media for Bank Product Promotion: A Narrative Study of Nepal

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, this qualitative narrative study uncovers the intricate perspectives of three Nepalese bank managers on the use of personal social media platforms to promote their bank's products and services. The most modern qualitative approach that focuses on life stories as the essence of people-oriented sciences is narrative study, therefore the study adopts an interpretivist epistemological perspective and a constructivist realism ontology, employing in-depth interviews to gather rich narratives from the participants. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed four prominent themes: Work-Life Balance, Belongingness, Enforced Instructions, and Boon and Bane. These themes offer theoretical insights into the complex interplay between personal and professional aspects in the context of digital marketing and organizational culture. The study provides valuable insights into how bank managers perceive the use of personal social media accounts for product promotion within Nepal's banking industry.

Lose at sunrise, but gain at sunset: Linking social cyberloafing to psychological detachment, personal life enhancement of work, and mental health.

Previous research has demonstrated that the personal use of social media, i.e., social cyberloafing, is associated with employee mental health. However, the underlying mechanism through which social cyberloafing is related to mental health has received limited attention. Drawing on conservation of resource theory and work/nonwork enhancement literatures, we developed and tested a model that examines health effect of social cyberloafing. As such, employees' social cyberloafing is posited as positively related to psychological detachment and personal life enhancement of work, which in turn would act as mediators that explain why social cyberloafing improves mental health. Data from 375 Chinese employees were analyzed to test research hypotheses using the structural equation modeling and bias-corrected bootstrap method with Mplus 7.4. The results found that social cyberloafing is positively related to psychological detachment, but not with personal life enhancement of work. Social cyberloafing was positively related to employees' mental health through both psychological detachment and through psychological detachment and personal life enhancement of work serially. Psychological detachment alone and alongside personal life enhancement of work form part of the mechanisms explaining how and why engaging in social cyberloafing is positively associated with employees' mental health. These mechanisms offer insights to organizations into how the mental health of employees can be improved in the digital workplace.

Cybercrime Awareness on Social Media: A Comparison Study

The popularity of social media has not waned since it gained popularity in the early 2000s. Social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Snapchat boast billions of active users worldwide. Social media remains an invaluable tool to both organizations and individuals because of the ease of sharing information and media and the ability to both reach and engage specific audiences of interest. Due to its massive user base, communication ease, and data sharing, social media presents fertile ground for the conduct of cybercrime. Cybercriminals actively target social media users, use social media to facilitate their cybercrime activities, and advertise their criminal activities on social media. The potential dangers of cybercrime on social media necessitate that organizations institute cybercrime on social media policies to guard against these threats and provide employees with cybercrime awareness on social media (CASM) training. CASM is important as corporate and personal use of social media becomes increasingly blurred. This study attempted to measure the CASM scores of employees in security-critical sectors and determine if hearing disability had any impact on the CASM scores. Employees of the education, finance, government, information technology, legal, medicine, military, and Policing sectors in the United States were surveyed. Results showed that the CASM score was average across all sectors. No statistically significant difference in CASM score was found between groups with and without hearing difficulties, although CASM scores were slightly lower for employees with hearing difficulties. The results suggested that more CASM training is needed for employees in the surveyed sectors.

Postgraduate-Year-1 Residents' Perceptions of Social Media and Virtual Applicant Recruitment: Cross-sectional Survey Study.

The dissemination of information about residency programs is a vital step in residency recruitment. Traditional methods of distributing information have been printed brochures, websites, in-person interviews, and increasingly, social media. Away rotations and in-person interviews were cancelled, and interviews were virtual for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of our study was to describe postgraduate-year-1 (PGY1) residents' social media habits in regard to residency recruitment and their perceptions of the residency programs' social media accounts in light of the transition to virtual interviews. A web-based 33-question survey was developed to evaluate personal social media use, perceptions of social media use by residency programs, and perceptions of the residency program content. Surveys were sent in 2021 to PGY1 residents at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Florida, and Minnesota who participated in the 2020-2021 interview cycle. Of the 31 program directors contacted, 22 (71%) provided permission for their residents to complete the survey. Of 219 residents who received the survey, 67 (30%) completed the survey. Most respondents applied to a single specialty, and greater than 61% (41/67) of respondents applied to more than 30 programs. The social media platforms used most regularly by the respondents were Instagram (42/67, 63%), Facebook (36/67, 54%), and Twitter (22/67, 33%). Respondents used the program website (66/67, 99%), residents (47/67, 70%), and social media (43/67, 64%) as the most frequent resources to research programs. The most commonly used social media platforms to research programs were Instagram (38/66, 58%), Twitter (22/66, 33%), and Doximity (20/66, 30%). The type of social media post ranked as most interesting by the respondents was "resident life outside of the hospital." In addition, 68% (39/57) of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their perception of a program was positively influenced by the residency program's social media account. In this multispecialty survey of PGY1 residents participating in the 2020-2021 virtual interview season, respondents preferred Instagram to Twitter or Facebook for gathering information on prospective residency programs. In addition, the program website, current residents, and social media platforms were the top-ranked resources used by prospective applicants. Having an up-to-date website and robust social media presence, particularly on Instagram, may become increasingly important in the virtual interview environment.

The cost of workplace distractions to labor productivity; personal use of social media and hand-held devices during working hours

The cost of workplace distractions to labor productivity; personal use of social media and hand-held devices during working hours

Excessive use of personal social media at work: antecedents and outcomes from dual-system and person-environment fit perspectives

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the antecedents and outcomes of excessive use of personal social media at work. The prevalence of personal social media in the work environment can easily lead to excessive use and negative consequences. Understanding the predictive factors and negative consequences of employees' excessive use of personal social media at work is important to develop their appropriate use of social media and improve their job performance.Design/methodology/approachBased on dual-system theory and the person-environment fit model, this study develops a research model to examine the effect of habit and self-regulation on excessive use of personal social media at work and that of the outcomes of excessive use on employee job performance through strain. This study conducts a questionnaire survey on 408 employees to test the research model and hypotheses empirically.FindingsResults suggest that the imbalance between habit and self-regulation drives excessive personal social media use of employees at work. Furthermore, excessive use of personal social media has a strong impact on employee strain, which can significantly decrease job performance.Originality/valueFirst, this study considers excessive use of personal social media at work as a result of two different cognitive systems, that is, an automatic system and a controlled system, thereby extending the dual-system theory to explain excessive use of personal social media in the work context. Second, unlike previous studies that focused on the outcomes or explored the antecedents of excessive social media use at work respectively, the study employs the person-environment fit model and examines the systematic influence of excessive social media use at work from a broad perspective by linking its antecedents and outcomes.

Cross-Verification of COVID-19 Information Obtained From Unofficial Social Media Accounts and Associated Changes in Health Behaviors: Web-Based Questionnaire Study Among Chinese Netizens.

BackgroundAs social media platforms have become significant sources of information during the pandemic, a significant volume of both factual and inaccurate information related to the prevention of COVID-19 has been disseminated through social media. Thus, disparities in COVID-19 information verification across populations have the potential to promote the dissemination of misinformation among clustered groups of people with similar characteristics.ObjectiveThis study aimed to identify the characteristics of social media users who obtained COVID-19 information through unofficial social media accounts and were (1) most likely to change their health behaviors according to web-based information and (2) least likely to actively verify the accuracy of COVID-19 information, as these individuals may be susceptible to inaccurate prevention measures and may exacerbate transmission.MethodsAn online questionnaire consisting of 17 questions was disseminated by West China Hospital via its official online platforms, between May 18, 2020, and May 31, 2020. The questionnaire collected the sociodemographic information of 14,509 adults, and included questions surveying Chinese netizens’ knowledge about COVID-19, personal social media use, health behavioral change tendencies, and cross-verification behaviors for web-based information during the pandemic. Multiple stepwise regression models were used to examine the relationships between social media use, behavior changes, and information cross-verification.ResultsRespondents who were most likely to change their health behaviors after obtaining web-based COVID-19 information from celebrity sources had the following characteristics: female sex (P=.004), age ≥50 years (P=.009), higher COVID-19 knowledge and health literacy (P=.045 and P=.03, respectively), non–health care professional (P=.02), higher frequency of searching on social media (P<.001), better health conditions (P<.001), and a trust rating score of more than 3 for information released by celebrities on social media (P=.005). Furthermore, among participants who were most likely to change their health behaviors according to social media information released by celebrities, female sex (P<.001), living in a rural residence rather than first-tier city (P<.001), self-reported medium health status and lower health care literacy (P=.007 and P<.001, respectively), less frequent search for COVID-19 information on social media (P<.001), and greater level of trust toward celebrities’ social media accounts with a trust rating score greater than 1 (P≤.04) were associated with a lack of cross-verification of information.ConclusionsThe findings suggest that governments, health care agencies, celebrities, and technicians should combine their efforts to decrease the risk in vulnerable groups that are inclined to change health behaviors according to web-based information but do not perform any fact-check verification of the accuracy of the unofficial information. Specifically, it is necessary to correct the false information related to COVID-19 on social media, appropriately apply celebrities’ star power, and increase Chinese netizens’ awareness of information cross-verification and eHealth literacy for evaluating the veracity of web-based information.

The impact of excessive social media use at work: a usage experience–stressor–strain perspective

ABSTRACT Excessive use of personal social media has become prevalent in the work environment and has caused significant psychological and behavioural problems among employees. These problems call for in-depth study. In this paper, we develop a usage experience–stressor–strain model to examine the consequences of excessive social media usage behaviour of employees at work, revealing the effects of different excessive usage patterns (i.e. social, hedonic, and cognitive) on employees’ psychological state (i.e. emotional exhaustion) and behavioural outcome (i.e. job performance) through dimensions of social media overload (i.e. information, communication, and social). We empirically test the research model with a survey of 422 employees who use social media at work. Our analysis presents that excessive social use at work is the major predictor of dimensions of overload. Furthermore, in contrast to the single effect of communication overload on emotional exhaustion and social overload on job performance, information overload has a significant impact on both emotional exhaustion and job performance of employees. This study advances our understanding of the complex relationships between excessive usage patterns, overload, emotional exhaustion, and job performance.

Digital opportunities to connect and complain - the use of Facebook in small animal practice.

BackgroundSocial media is increasingly used in small animal practice, enabling veterinarians to connect with clients and promote their business online. It can also be used by clients to quickly distribute complaints via online communities.Material/methodsUsing a questionnaire study we investigated Austrian, Danish and UK veterinarians’ attitudes towards Facebook, the contents of clients’ online complaints and how they were handled by veterinarians (N = 648).ResultsIn Denmark and the UK, around 90% of practices had a Facebook page, in contrast to 40% of Austrian practices. Most Danish and UK veterinarians agreed that the use of Facebook was relevant and expected by clients. Agreement was lower among Austrian veterinarians, probably reflecting the lower uptake of social media there. In particular, younger veterinarians and those who actively used Facebook for the practice, could see benefits. In all three countries, we found that clients most frequently complained about treatment costs. Most veterinarians preferred to actively deal with clients’ complaints, either replying online or discussing them directly.ConclusionsWe recommend future research focusing on veterinarians’ personal use of social media and on clients’ use of and attitudes towards social media in the veterinary context.

“How a Facebook Update Can Cost You Your Job”: News Coverage of Employment Terminations Following Social Media Disclosures, From Racist Cops to Queer Teachers

Social media posts and profiles have become a key part of hiring and firing processes, producing a “hidden curriculum of surveillance.” When hiring, employers routinely engage in “cybervetting” job candidates, making judgments based on their social media presence (or absence), and so too can social media disclosures impact (positively and negatively) employment progression and even result in termination. Where is the line between personal social media use and professional identities? What is the difference between holding people in positions of power to account and invading the privacy of everyday people? What kinds of social media posts get people fired? In this article, we report on a study of 312 news media articles that document stories of people being fired because of a social media post. We divide the corpus into posts made by the individuals who are fired (“self-posts,” n = 264) and posts made by others that resulted in the subject of those posts losing their job (“third party,” n = 48). Racism was the most common reason people were fired in these news stories, followed by other forms of discriminatory behavior (such as queerphobia), offensive content, workplace conflict, political content, acts of violence, and abuse. We examine these narratives through the lens of what van Dijck describes as “professional value,” and ultimately seek to question how these stories normalize the “hidden curriculum of surveillance,” putting additional pressure on employees and young people who are called to act on social media through the prism of future employment.

Psychological and behavioral outcomes of social media-induced fear of missing out at the workplace

The intense proliferation of social media platforms into every facet of human lives has engaged researchers' attention towards understanding their adverse influences, referred to as the dark side of social media (DoSM) in the evolving literature. A relatively unexplored context in this regard is employees' personal use of social media during work hours and its impact on work-related outcomes. Since using social media during work hours can have implications for work performance and productivity, the lack of research in the area needs to be addressed by scholars sooner rather than later. Specifically, it is important to understand the drivers and outcomes of such behaviour. We have thus conceptualized a theoretical model based on the associations among individual tendencies (exhibitionism and voyeurism), fear of missing out (FoMO), and individual-level psychological (compulsive use of social media) and behavioral (work performance decrement and procrastination) outcomes of social media use during work hours. Grounded in the stressor-strain-outcomes (SSO) framework, the hypothesized associations were tested by a path analysis of 312 responses collected from individuals working in the United States. The results confirmed significant relationships between individual tendencies and FoMO, as well as psychological and behavioural outcomes. The findings contribute to the evolving literature around DoSM in the workplace and offer useful and practical insights.

SOCIAL MEDIA USE AND SCIENTIFIC SENSE-MAKING AMONG MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE STUDENT TEACHERS AT A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

Social media and scientific sense-making serve a current and important interplay in the teacher education process. The aim of this study was to understand the application of scientific sense-making practices and competences on social media platforms through the use of the Social Media Use and Scientific Sense-Making (SMSM) questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed, adapted and administered via Google forms and contained three sections: Personal Use of Social Media, Scientific Sense-making and a modified three out of the twelve items from the “Scientific Sense-making Survey- Form B (Monkeys)” (Activation Lab, 2016). A total of 111 student teachers (fourth year and first year MSc students) took part in the survey. The results show that the most frequent and productive engagement is done on WhatsApp (96.4%) and Facebook (75.6%). Leisure activities (over 65%) dominate the use of social media, compared to sharing scientific, technological and environmental issues. In addition, the findings show that despite inconsistencies in perceived self-beliefs in competency, the student teachers have developed sufficient sceptical, questioning and evidence seeking practices. Lastly, there is a general consensus on items that demonstrate scientific sense-making. Article visualizations:

CHARISMA AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN INDONESIAN POLITICS

The ability to exploit social media to develop political charisma has become essential for aspiring Indonesian politicians. Social media is even more crucial for those who competes in urban areas, where its citizens has better access on digital technology. Nevertheless, despite the entanglement, study on the function of social media to develop political charisma is still relatively nascent. In this regards, the article explores the way politicians employ social media to get and maintain their power. How do social media affordances enabled politicians to manufacture political charisma? To what extent, political charisma developed on social media enabled politicians to influence their followers? To answer these problem, the article draws from the political trajectory of Ridwan Kamil, Governor of West Java, whose political persona relies heavily on his personal use of social media. Based on digital observation and several in-depth interviews, the article proposes three arguments: First, social media affordances enabled politician to construct political charisma based on multiple representations within a short period of time. Second, the infrastructure of social media has reinforced the blurry lines between personal and public matters in politics. Third, the influence of charisma developed through social media is constrained by social and political contexts.

The Development of Social Media Guidelines for Psychologists and for Regulatory Use.

The Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, the national organization representing psychology regulatory/licensing boards in Canada and the USA, recently developed social media guidelines that are being recommended for use by its member boards. The purposes of the guidelines were to provide guidance to psychology regulatory boards both countries in identifying and communicating what are considered appropriate and inappropriate uses of social media and to promote consistency and clarity about this across jurisdictions. The process involved reviewing the professional literature, relevant guidelines, standards, current laws, and regulations. The guidelines developed include guidelines about confidentiality, informed consent, risk management, competence, multiple relationships, professional conduct, security of information, personal use of social media, and regulatory board use of social media. Major challenges and limitations in accomplishing this task are identified and discussed.