Loneliness,anxiousness, and substance use as predictors of Facebook use

This study investigates the relationships between loneliness, anxiousness, alcohol, and marijuana use in the prediction of freshman college students’ connections with others on the social network site Facebook as well as their emotional connectedness to Facebook. A survey of 229 respondents was conducted at a mid-sized public university to examine these relationships. Respondents were currently living in university dormitories and had an active Facebook account. The study examined the aforementioned predictor variables in relation to Facebook connections strategies and emotional connectedness to Facebook. Results showed that anxiousness, alcohol use, and marijuana use predicted emotional attachment to Facebook. Additionally, loneliness and anxiousness, but not alcohol or marijuana use, predicted individuals’ connections with others using Facebook. The current study adds to the growing body of literature investigating predictors of why individuals become emotionally attached to Facebook and the precursors to connecting with others on Facebook.     

Impact of the Internet on our lives: Male and female personal perspectives

Gender differences in Internet access and usage have been found in a number of previous investigations. The study reported here extends this work by providing an analysis of the impact of the Internet on men’s and women’s lives. A content analysis of 200 postings from men and 200 from women, on the topic of “Has the Internet changed your life” invited by a news website, was undertaken then examined for gender differences. Results showed more women’s postings mentioned having made new friends or having met their partner, renewing old friendships, accessing information and advice, studying online, and shopping and booking travel online, while more men’s postings mentioned that the Internet had helped or given them a career, positive socio-political effects, and negative aspects of the technology. The results are interpreted as supporting the view that the Internet represents an extension of broader social roles and interests in the “offline” world.     

The expression of social presence through the use of figurative language in a web-based learning environment

The present paper’s aim is to investigate how the participants of an online learning environment employed written language in a creative way through the spontaneous use of figurative language. The content analysis showed that figurative language was a means to express the social dimension either to refer to the self, feelings and emotions, or to conceptualize the components of the virtual learning setting. The research context was a 10-week course, delivered at a distance via a computer conferencing system, addressed to 57 student teachers. The analysis was carried out in the social and meta-cognitive reflection areas, those areas which are mainly related to the expression of the social dimension The study had three different purposes: to investigate the distribution of figurative language during the course length; to explore the relation between the participants’ educational background and their use of figurative language, and to examine the relation between figurative language and the structure of the communication threads. The results indicate that participants tended to use figurative language more when meaningful or critical events happened. The higher the emotional involvement was, the more metaphorical language was adopted. Further results suggest that the adoption of figurative language seems to be related more to individual attitude, than to other factors such as educational background. Finally, figurative language occurrences were not concentrated in specific kinds of postings or threads and did not encourage further use of figurative language.     

Life in the Bubble: Examining the forwarding of political videos

We examined whether participants’ political beliefs significantly predicted likelihood of forwarding political videos and the characteristics of the targets of these forwards. Participants viewed one of four political advertisements that varied in terms of the candidate’s political party (Democrat or Republican) and the emotion that the advertisement evoked (Positive or Negative). Democrats were more likely to forward advertisements when they experienced positive emotional arousal, and the targets of the forwards were not especially similar to Democrat participants in terms of political orientation or personality. Conversely, Republicans were more likely to forward advertisements when they experienced negative emotional arousal, and the targets of the forwards were highly similar to the Republican participants in terms of political orientation and personality. This is consistent with previous research (e.g., Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003) indicating that conservatism is associated with greater negative affect sensitivity and insularity in communication.     

Is exposure to online content depicting risky behavior related to viewers' own risky behavior offline?

There are public and governmental concerns that social media may encourage risky behavior in the offline environment. Using international survey data from 412 young adults aged between 18 and 25 years of age (M = 21.20 years, SD = 2.31 years), this study demonstrates that there is a relationship between exposure to online content depicting risky behavior and users’ own offline risky behavior. This relationship was found for six behaviors: drug use, excessive alcohol use, disordered eating, self-harm, violence to others, and dangerous pranks. A borderline effect was found for two further behaviors: unprotected sex and sex with a stranger. The relationship between content depicting disordered eating and offline behavior was only significant for females; suggesting that female users may be more vulnerable to effects of viewing content depicting disordered eating habits, and/or use social media content to find material related to their existing behavior. No other gender moderation effects were found. The findings provide preliminary evidence that social media use may influence offline risky behavior in young adults.     

Tiny videos: a large data set for nonparametric video retrieval and frame classification

In this paper, we present a large database of over 50,000 user-labeled videos collected from YouTube. We develop a compact representation called "tiny videos" that achieves high video compression rates while retaining the overall visual appearance of the video as it varies over time. We show that frame sampling using affinity propagation-an exemplar-based clustering algorithm-achieves the best trade-off between compression and video recall. We use this large collection of user-labeled videos in conjunction with simple data mining techniques to perform related video retrieval, as well as classification of images and video frames. The classification results achieved by tiny videos are compared with the tiny images framework [24] for a variety of recognition tasks. The tiny images data set consists of 80 million images collected from the Internet. These are the largest labeled research data sets of videos and images available to date. We show that tiny videos are better suited for classifying scenery and sports activities, while tiny images perform better at recognizing objects. Furthermore, we demonstrate that combining the tiny images and tiny videos data sets improves classification precision in a wider range of categories.     

Attracting student participation in asynchronous online discussions: A case study of peer facilitation

Previous research studies on how to promote student participation in asynchronous online discussions have largely focused on the role of the instructor or tutor as facilitators. Not many investigated student facilitation. This article reports a qualitative study examining the facilitation techniques used by student facilitators to attract their course mates to participate in asynchronous online discussions. Data were collected from the students’ reflection logs and students’ online postings. To explore the extent to which student participation in an online discussion forum is successful, we looked at the depth of discussion threads. We deemed a student facilitator to have successfully attracted other students to participant if the discussion threads had a depth of six or more levels of students’ postings. We then examined in detail and reported the facilitation techniques that were exhibited by the student facilitators. Results showed that seven facilitation techniques were employed; the most frequently used were Socratic questioning and sharing personal opinions or experiences. We end by exploring potential implications for practice and for future research.     

Color balancing of digital photos using simple image statistics

The great diffusion of digital cameras and the widespread use of the internet have produced a mass of digital images depicting a huge variety of subjects, generally acquired by unknown imaging systems under unknown lighting conditions. This makes color balancing, recovery of the color characteristics of the original scene, increasingly difficult. In this paper, we describe a method for detecting and removing a color cast (i.e. a superimposed color due to lighting conditions, or to the characteristics of the capturing device), from a digital photo without any a priori knowledge of its semantic content. First a cast detector, using simple image statistics, classifies the input images as presenting no cast, evident cast, ambiguous cast, a predominant color that must be preserved (such as in underwater images or single color close-ups) or as unclassifiable. A cast remover, a modified version of the white balance algorithm, is then applied in cases of evident or ambiguous cast. The method we propose has been tested with positive results on a data set of some 750 photos.     

Watching a Movie Alone yet Together: Understanding Reasons for Watching Danmaku Videos

By overlaying timeline-synchronized user comments on videos, Danmaku commenting creates a unique co-viewing experience of online videos. This study aims to understand the reasons for watching or not watching Danmaku videos. From a review of the literature and a pilot study, an initial pool of motivations and hindrances to Danmaku video viewing was gathered. Then, a survey involving 248 participants to identify the underlying factor structures of motivations and hindrances was conducted. Their influences on users’ attitude and behaviors with Danmaku videos were also examined. The results showed that people viewed Danmaku videos to obtain information, entertainment, and social connectedness. Introverted young men with high openness to new experience are more likely to view Danmaku videos. Infrequent viewers refused to watch Danmaku videos mainly because of the visual clutter that resulted from Danmaku comments.     

Child Perception of Humanoid Robot Appearance and Behavior

This study investigated children’s attitudes toward humanoid robots that exhibit various anthropomorphic appearances and behaviors. A total of 578 children aged from 8 to 14 years were recruited to evaluate humanoid robots depicted either in still images (N = 267) or videos (N = 311). The results showed that the degree of anthropomorphism affected children’s attitudes toward the robots. An uncanny valley was observed in this study, indicating that children prefer robots created with a moderate level of human likeness over those that have a highly human-like appearance but remain distinguishable from humans. A striking finding was that moving robots exhibiting social cues moderate the uncanny valley plot, thus contradicting Mori’s uncanny valley hypothesis, which posits that emotional responses are greater for moving robots than for static robots. In addition, the children in this study perceived the robots as more socially and physically attractive when the robots exhibited social cues. In summary, the current results suggest that children prefer moderately realistic robots and that robot behavior is a key determinant of how children perceive robots. A moderate level of anthropomorphic appearance combined with appropriate social cues can enhance child preferences for and acceptance of robots.     

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.     

集成视频监控的IC卡消费系统研究

为了提高传统IC卡消费的安全性,提出将视频监控技术应用到IC卡消费中,在消费时视频监控记录消费的全过程,并与消费数据建立联系.对监控采集到的视频进行镜头检测,提取关键帧,计算特征值,关键帧聚类,并与视频建立索引.用户可以通过消费数据或提交图像进行视频检索,在一定程度上保证了消费的安全性.系统采用基于RIA的Flex技术...     

Co-creation and user-generated content–elderly people’s user requirements

There is an increasing demand on citizens to participate in social network websites and to create and share their own user-generated content (UGC), such as photographs, videos, and blogs. So far, little is known about how elderly people respond to these new trends and master the techniques required. This paper reports on three studies that investigated elderly people’s user requirements related to consumption, sharing and co-creation of UGC in new media. The first study, conducted in Norway, identifies patterns of Internet usage, age differences, and participation in online communities and the consumption, sharing and co-creation of UGC on a macro level. The second study, conducted in Belgium, investigated the social requirements of elderly people on a group level. The third study, also conducted in Belgium, investigated user and context requirements on an individual level. The results of the first study show that the elderly rarely participate in online communities and share audio-visual UGC. However, they embrace some aspects of the new media and more often express themselves politically. The results of the second study show that the elderly are very motivated to contribute with UGC, given the right circumstances. The results of the third study show that it is important for elderly people that they be able to use the new technologies easily and identifies their worries about using them.     

Breaking news: “I have an eating disorder.” Video testimonials on YouTube

Over the last several decades there has been an exponential increase in the usage of the Internet, and social networking websites in particular. Social networking websites have gained popularity because they allow people to network on both a personal and professional level. The rise of testimonial videos about one’s experience with hardships has gained popularity as another way for people to connect with one another for support. The current study looks at men and women who utilized YouTube, a video posting website, to document their struggles with eating disorders (ED). Fifty videos were viewed and analyzed regarding content and viewer response. It was found that most posters actively sought treatment for their ED, yet sought out additional support on the Internet while also offering support for others. In addition, viewers responded with an overwhelmingly large number of supportive comments compared to negative comments (8:1).     

Net-friends: Adolescents’ attitudes and experiences vs. teachers’ concerns

This study has three chief purposes: (1) identify Taiwan adolescents’ attitudes and experiences regarding their online relationships, (2) understand teachers’ attitudes and concerns about students’ online relationships, and (3) investigate the discrepancies between students and teachers on these issues. The researchers surveyed 494 middle and high school students in Taiwan and interviewed 21 teachers as well. The results indicated that having net-friends is a part of Taiwan adolescents’ social lives. They are quite honest about the personal information they reveal with their online friends and generally have very positive attitudes regarding their online relationships. Some have gone beyond online interactions to meet in person, often without telling their parents or teachers.     

Investigating recognition-based performance in an open content community: A social capital perspective

As the open source movement grows, it becomes important to understand the dynamics that affect the motivation of participants who contribute their time freely to such projects. One important motivation that has been identified is the desire for formal recognition in the open source community. We investigated the impact of social capital in participants’ social networks on their recognition-based performance; i.e., the formal status they are accorded in the community. We used a sample of 465 active participants in the Wikipedia open content encyclopedia community to investigate the effects of two types of social capital and found that network closure, measured by direct and indirect ties, had a significant positive effect on increasing participants’ recognition-based performance. Structural holes had mixed effects on participants’ status, but were generally a source of social capital.     

Video lecture format, student technological efficacy, and social presence in online courses

Online platforms are frequently used as an alternative environment for individuals to meet and engage in a variety of activities, like attending courses online. We examined the effect of adding social presence cues in online video lectures and technological efficacy on college students’ perceived learning, class social presence, and perception that the videos aided learning. Participants rated their technological efficacy and completed an online class with video lectures that either included the video (image) of the instructor or not. The interaction between technological efficacy and video manipulation predicted lower ratings of perceived learning, social presence, and video usefulness, particularly for students with lower technological efficacy. A mediated-moderation analysis showed that, the interaction between person (efficacy) and media (instructor image in video vs. no image) predicted greater perceived learning through the mediators of perceived usefulness of videos, class interactivity, and felt comfort in the class.     

Catching a viral video

The sharing and re-sharing of videos on social sites, blogs e-mail, and other means has given rise to the phenomenon of viral videos—videos that become popular through internet sharing. In this paper we seek to better understand viral videos on YouTube by analyzing sharing and its relationship to video popularity using millions of YouTube videos. The socialness of a video is quantified by classifying the referrer sources for video views as social (e.g. an emailed link, Facebook referral) or non-social (e.g. a link from related videos). We find that viewership patterns of highly social videos are very different from less social videos. For example, the highly social videos rise to, and fall from, their peak popularity more quickly than less social videos. We also find that not all highly social videos become popular, and not all popular videos are highly social. By using our insights on viral videos we are able develop a method for ranking blogs and websites on their ability to spread viral videos.