Personality and motivations associated with Facebook use

Social networking in online support groups for health: how online social networking benefits patients

An increasing number of online support groups (OSGs) have embraced the features of social networking. So far, little is known about how patients use and benefit from these features. By implementing the uses-and-gratifications framework, the author conducted an online survey with current users of OSGs to examine associations among motivation, use of specific features of OSG, and support outcomes. Findings suggest that OSG users make selective use of varied features depending on their needs, and that perceptions of receiving emotional and informational support are associated more with the use of some features than others. For example, those with strong motivation for social interaction use diverse features of OSG and make one-to-one connections with other users by friending. In contrast, those with strong motivation for information seeking limit their use primarily to discussion boards. Results also show that online social networking features, such as friending and sharing of personal stories on blogs, are helpful in satisfying the need for emotional support. The present study sheds light on online social networking features in the context of health-related OSGs and provides practical lessons on how to improve the capacity of OSGs to serve the needs of their users.

The Media and Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale: An empirical investigation

Current approaches to measuring people's everyday usage of technology-based media and other computer-related activities have proved to be problematic as they use varied outcome measures, fail to measure behavior in a broad range of technology-related domains and do not take into account recently developed types of technology including smartphones. In the present study, a wide variety of items, covering a range of up-to-date technology and media usage behaviors. Sixty-six items concerning technology and media usage, along with 18 additional items assessing attitudes toward technology, were administered to two independent samples of individuals, comprising 942 participants. Factor analyses were used to create 11 usage subscales representing smartphone usage, general social media usage, Internet searching, e-mailing, media sharing, text messaging, video gaming, online friendships, Facebook friendships, phone calling, and watching television in addition to four attitude-based subscales: positive attitudes, negative attitudes, technological anxiety/dependence, and attitudes toward task-switching. All subscales showed strong reliabilities and relationships between the subscales and pre-existing measures of daily media usage and Internet addiction were as predicted. Given the reliability and validity results, the new Media and Technology Usage and Attitudes Scale was suggested as a method of measuring media and technology involvement across a variety of types of research studies either as a single 60-item scale or any subset of the 15 subscales.

Effect of Facebook on the life of Medical University students

Background

Facebook is a social networking service launched in February 2004, owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. As of June 2012, Facebook reports more than 1 billion active users. Objective of study was to evaluate the effect of Facebook on the social life, health and behavior of medical students.

Methodology

It was a cross sectional, observational and questionnaire based study conducted in Dow University OF Health Sciences during the period of January 2012 to November 2012. We attempted to interview all the participants who could be approached during the period of the study. Participants were MBBS students, while all students of other courses and programs were taken as exclusion criteria. Approximately 1050 questionnaires were distributed to participants. Fifty questionnaires were rejected due to incomplete answers, yielding 1000 usable responses for an approximate 95% response rate. Informed verbal consent was taken from each participant. Study was ethically approved by Institutional Review Board of Dow University of Health Sciences. All the data was entered and analyzed through SPSS 19.

Result

Out of total 1000 participants, males were 400 (40%) and females were 600 (60%). Participants were in the age group of 18–25 years with a mean age of 20.08 years. Most of the participants were using Facebook daily (N = 640, 64%) for around 3–4 hours (N = 401, 40.1%). Majority of them (N = 359, 35.9%) believed that they were equally active on Facebook and in real life while few believed their social life became worse after start using Facebook (N = 372, 37.2%). Most of the participants admitted that they were considered as shy in real world (N = 390, 39.0%) while in the world of Facebook they were considered as fun loving by their friends (N = 603, 60.3%). A large number of participants (N = 715, 75%) complained of mood swings.

Conclusion

Youngsters are willing to compromise their health, social life, studies for the sake of fun and entertainment or whatever satisfaction they get after using Facebook. What we observed in our study was that although majority of our subjects showed multiple signs of Facebook addiction, they don’t realize it and if even they realize it they don’t want to quit Facebook and even if they want to quit, they can’t. Our observance concluded that majority of the users are highly addicted.

Compulsive use of social networking sites in Belgium: prevalence, profile, and the role of attitude toward work and school

A representative sample (n=1,000) of the Belgian population aged 18 years and older filled out an online questionnaire on their Internet use in general and their use of social networking sites (SNS) in particular. We measured total time spent on the Internet, time spent on SNS, number of SNS profiles, gender, age, schooling level, income, job occupation, and leisure activities, and we integrated several psychological scales such as the Quick Big Five and the Mastery Scale. Hierarchical multiple regression modeling shows that gender and age explain an important part of the compulsive SNS score (5%) as well as psychological scales (20%), but attitude toward school (additional 3%) and income (2.5%) also add to explained variance in predictive models of compulsive SNS use.

Like, Share, Recommend

In this study, the authors examine the use of smart phones for self-broadcasting among college students based on motivation and network externalities theories. The authors propose that smartphones have changed telephones from a point-to-point interpersonal medium to a broadcast medium for individuals to disseminate information to their networks through the use of social media. The authors hypothesized that the more friends and followers a student has on Facebook and Twitter respectively, the more likely the student will use friends and followers as self-broadcasting mediums from their smartphones. The hypothesis was supported based on survey data collected at a public university. The study also discusses the social implications of using smartphones as a broadcast and self-promotion medium.

The relationships between behavioral addictions and the five-factor model of personality

Aims Although relationships between addiction and personality have previously been explored, no study has ever simultaneously investigated the interrelationships between several behavioral addictions, and related these to the main dimensions of the five-factor model of personality. Methods In this study, 218 university students completed questionnaires assessing seven different behavioral addictions (i.e., Facebook addiction, video game addiction, Internet addiction, exercise addiction, mobile phone addiction, compulsive buying, and study addiction) as well as an instrument assessing the main dimensions of the five-factor model of personality. Results Of the 21 bivariate intercorrelations between the seven behavioral addictions, all were positive (and nine significantly). The results also showed that (i) Neuroticism was positively associated with Internet addiction, exercise addiction, compulsive buying, and study addiction, (ii) Extroversion was positively associated with Facebook addiction, exercise addiction, mobile phone addiction, and compulsive buying, (iii) Openness to experience was negatively associated with Facebook addiction and mobile phone addiction, (iv) Agreeableness was negatively associated with Internet addiction, exercise addiction, mobile phone addiction, and compulsive buying, and (v) Conscientiousness was negatively associated with Facebook addiction, video game addiction, Internet addiction, and compulsive buying and positively associated with exercise addiction and study addiction. Conclusions The positive associations between the seven behavioral addictions suggest one or several underlying pathological factors. Hierarchical multiple regressions showed that personality traits explained between 6% and 17% of the variance in the seven behavioral addictions, suggesting that personality to a varying degree explains scores on measures of addictive behaviors.

Use and views on social networking sites of pharmacy students in the United kingdom

Objective. To investigate students' use and views on social networking sites and assess differences in attitudes between genders and years in the program.Methods. All pharmacy undergraduate students were invited via e-mail to complete an electronic questionnaire consisting of 21 questions relating to social networking.Results. Most (91.8%) of the 377 respondents reported using social networking Web sites, with 98.6% using Facebook and 33.7% using Twitter. Female students were more likely than male students to agree that they had been made sufficiently aware of the professional behavior expected of them when using social networking sites (76.6% vs 58.1% p=0.002) and to agree that students should have the same professional standards whether on placement or using social networking sites (76.3% vs 61.6%; p<0.001).Conclusions. A high level of social networking use and potentially inappropriate attitudes towards professionalism were found among pharmacy students. Further training may be useful to ensure pharmacy students are aware of how to apply codes of conduct when using social networking sites.

Who commits virtual identity suicide? Differences in privacy concerns, Internet addiction, and personality between Facebook users and quitters

Social networking sites such as Facebook attract millions of users by offering highly interactive social communications. Recently, a counter movement of users has formed, deciding to leave social networks by quitting their accounts (i.e., virtual identity suicide). To investigate whether Facebook quitters (n=310) differ from Facebook users (n=321), we examined privacy concerns, Internet addiction scores, and personality. We found Facebook quitters to be significantly more cautious about their privacy, having higher Internet addiction scores, and being more conscientious than Facebook users. The main self-stated reason for committing virtual identity suicide was privacy concerns (48 percent). Although the adequacy of privacy in online communication has been questioned, privacy is still an important issue in online social communications.

College students' responses to mental health status updates on Facebook

Facebook is widely used by the college population, and previous research has shown that mental health references on Facebook are common. Focus groups of college students were held to determine their views of mental health references seen in their peers' Facebook profiles. Students' views of mental health references varied from being serious calls for help, to being jokes or attention-seeking behavior. Responses to mental health references depended on the participants' offline relationship with the poster. Students would contact close friends through a phone call or in-person conversation, but would not approach acquaintances. The prevalence of mental health references on Facebook, and the awareness of these references by college students, may present opportunities for future peer intervention efforts.

"Just talk to me": communicating with college students about depression disclosures on Facebook

PURPOSE

To determine acceptability, preferred communication medium, and other key considerations for intervention by friends, professors or resident advisors, and strangers in response to college students' references to depression on the social networking site Facebook.

METHODS

Facebook profiles belonging to 18- to 19-year-old students (n = 60) at a large public university were evaluated for references to depression. In-person, structured interviews assessed how students would prefer to be approached by a friend, professor or resident advisor, or stranger if that person saw displays of depression on the student's Facebook page. We coded interview transcripts for approach acceptability, communication medium, and emerging themes. We used chi-square tests to assess differences between depression displayers and non-displayers.

RESULTS

The sample was 60% female with a mean age of 18.5 years. All students were accepting of intervention approaches by friends. Most (93%) were accepting of an approach by known adults. Approximately half would accept an approach by a stranger, but this proportion was 26% lower among those who had displayed depression references on Facebook than among non-displayers (p = .072). In-person communication was preferred for approaches made by friends and adults. E-mail or using a student's friend as an intermediary was preferred if a stranger were to intervene.

CONCLUSIONS

In-person communication from friends or trusted adults is the preferred means for raising concerns about a student's signs of depression displays on Facebook. Programs that encourage resident advisors and peers to respond in this manner and encourage treatment may represent a way to improve access to care for depression.

Religion and Sex Among College Freshmen

The purpose of this study was to use the social networking site Facebook to explore the relationship between religion and sex in emerging adults. Public profiles were examined at four Time points during freshman year. One hundred fifty profiles were analyzed for self-displayed religious affiliation, references to religiosity, and references to sexual behavior. Analyses included mixed-effects logistic regression, mixed-effects Poisson regression, and nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test. Displayed religious affiliation and references to sexual behavior decreased over the year. References to religiosity slightly increased. Across all Time points, displayers of religiosity had 65% fewer sexual references compared with non-displayers. Facebook is a venue to evaluate how emerging adults are displaying the relationship between religion and sex over time.

A pilot evaluation of associations between displayed depression references on Facebook and self-reported depression using a clinical scale

The objective of this study was to determine associations between displayed depression symptoms on Facebook and self-reported depression symptoms using a clinical screen. Public Facebook profiles of undergraduates from two universities were examined for displayed depression references. Profiles were categorized as depression symptom displayers or non-displayers. Participants completed an online PHQ-9 depression scale. Analyses examined associations between PHQ-9 score and depression symptom displayers versus non-displayers. The mean PHQ-9 score for non-displayers was 4.7 (SD = 4.0), the mean PHQ-9 score for depression symptom displayers was 6.4 (SD = 5.1; p = 0.018). A trend approaching significance was noted that participants who scored into a depression category by their PHQ-9 score were more likely to display depression symptom references. Displayed references to depression symptoms were associated with self-reported depression symptoms.