Sexism in online video games: The role of conformity to masculine norms and social dominance orientation

Sexism toward women in online video game environments has become a pervasive and divisive issue in the gaming community. In this study, we sought to determine what personality traits, demographic variables, and levels of game play predicted sexist attitudes towards women who play video games. Male and female participants (N = 301) who were players of networked video games were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey. Social dominance orientation and conformity to some types of masculine norms (desire for power over women and the need for heterosexual self-presentation) predicted higher scores on the Video Game Sexism Scale (i.e., greater sexist beliefs about women and gaming). Implications for the social gaming environment and female gamers are discussed.     

Misery rarely gets company: The influence of emotional bandwidth on supportive communication on Facebook

This study introduces the concept of emotional bandwidth to describe a communicator’s ability to use technological features to disclose personal affect online. Strategic use of emotional bandwidth was expected to correspond with interpersonal rewards, specifically the willingness of others to provide social support. Participants (N = 84) viewed hypothetical Facebook profiles that contained manipulated levels of emotional bandwidth and were asked how much support they would provide to the person in the profile. Participants who viewed profiles portraying high emotional bandwidth were less willing to provide social support; however, this finding was qualified by personal qualities. Females, people who perceived a sense of community, and people who had a preference for online social interaction indicated a greater willingness to provide support in the high emotional bandwidth condition. Implications for designing affective affordances in technologies and their psychological effects are discussed.     

Posting,commenting, and tagging: Effects of sharing news stories on Facebook

Social networking sites such as Facebook provide new ways of sharing news stories that allow users to act as opinion leaders in their networks, encourage discussion, and potentially increase their involvement in current events. This study identifies the particular features of Facebook that facilitate the discussion of news and tests their effects on involvement and feelings of influence. Participants (N = 265) in a 3 (Broadcast level: news feed vs. wall post vs. direct message) × 3 (Elaboration: opinion vs. question vs. no comment) × 2 (Involving-friends: tag vs. no tag) between-subjects factorial experiment were randomly assigned to share a story from a news website on Facebook. Results show that user involvement in the news content depends on the social affordances of the site, particularly those that allow for audience customization and those that drive network feedback. Asking the network’s opinions and targeting specific friends led to greater involvement in the news content. Discussion through comments led to a greater sense of influence and greater involvement for those sharing the news story. These findings highlight the importance of encouraging individuals to act as sources of information in their networks to drive engagement in current events in the changing news landscape.     

Factors involved in associations between Facebook use and college adjustment: Social competence,perceived usefulness,and use patterns

Although previous research has investigated widespread use of social media, especially Facebook, by youth attending college, the conditions under which these media foster adjustment to college remain unclear. This study tested a model illuminating pathways linking social competence to college adjustment via students’ perceptions about the usefulness of Facebook and ways in which they used the medium. Self-report survey data from 321 college students (M age = 20.09; 58% female; 84% Caucasian) attending a major Midwestern university supported the proposed model, indicating that higher social competence could foster or impede college adjustment, depending upon how it was related to beliefs about the usefulness of different Facebook functions and how these perceptions, in turn, were associated with patterns of Facebook use. Findings underscore the importance of considering connections among personal attributes, perception of media effectiveness, and media behaviors in assessing the implications of social media for users’ psychosocial well-being.     

#Gettinghealthy: The perceived influence of social media on young adult health behaviors

Young adults (18–25 years old) spend a majority of their waking hours with technology and young adulthood is an important developmental time period for establishing lasting health behaviors. Considering the relevance of technology and health during young adulthood the current study explored young adults (N = 34) perceptions of social media’s (e.g., social networking) influence on their health behaviors (i.e., diet and exercise) using a social ecological framework. Data was collected through eight focus groups and four individual interviews. Three themes were identified through phenomenological qualitative analysis. Young adults perceived that technology could be both a barrier and a motivator for exercise. Social media was also credited with expanding food choices through creating access to a variety of recipes, providing a venue for showcasing the food young adults eat or prepare, and distracting young adults from making positive food choices. Participants also reported that it is common to post statuses or pictures relating to exercise practices on social media during young adulthood. Young adults indicated that these posts could be inspirational or misused, depending on the context. Results are discussed in terms of theory and preliminary implications.     

Effects of visual and linguistic anthropomorphic cues on social perception,self-awareness,and information disclosure in a health website

Acknowledging the lack of studies examining both visual and linguistic anthropomorphic cues and the underlying mechanisms of their effects, we investigated how the different modalities of anthropomorphic cues in a health website influenced information disclosure. In a 2 (visual cues: human vs. non-human image) × 2 (linguistic cues: conversational vs. impersonal language) × 2 (question type: less vs. more sensitive questions) between-subjects experiment (N = 254), participants registered with a mock-up health website. We assessed a behavioral outcome of not disclosing personal information and psychological outcomes of social perception and self-awareness as potential mediators. Results revealed distinctive effects of the two modalities of the anthropomorphic cues. Anthropomorphic images, on one hand, increased public and private self-awareness, and public self-awareness in turn led to less information disclosure. Anthropomorphic language, on the other hand, heightened social perception and promoted information disclosure, but social perception did not predict the disclosure. These results indicate unique underlying mechanisms of the effects of anthropomorphism: priming effect of visual cues, and communicative effects of linguistic cues.     

Who puts the best “face” forward on Facebook?: Positive self-presentation in online social networking and the role of self-consciousness,actual-to-total Friends ratio,and culture

The present research investigated how individual, interpersonal, and cultural variables influence positive self-presentation in online social networking. In particular, we examined the role of self-consciousness, actual-to-total Friends ratio, and culture in positive self-presentation on Facebook. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with college-age participants in the United States (n = 183) and South Korea (n = 137). Results showed that self-consciousness (public vs. private) and actual-to-total Friends ratio were not significantly associated with positive self-presentation on Facebook; however, culture showed a statistically significant association with positive self-presentation on Facebook, with the U.S. participants engaging in positive self-presentation on Facebook to a greater extent than the South Korean participants. More interestingly, culture significantly moderated the relationship between public self-consciousness and positive self-presentation as well as the relationship between actual-to-total Friends ratio and positive self-presentation. Specifically, positive self-presentation showed a significant positive association with public self-consciousness and a significant negative association with actual-to-total Friends ratio only among the South Korean participants and not among the U.S. participants. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding cross-cultural differences in self-presentation behaviors on social network sites were discussed.     

Exploring depression and problematic internet use among college females: A multisite study

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to assess associations between depression and problematic internet use (PIU) among female college students, and determine whether Internet use time moderates this relationship.MethodThis cross-sectional survey included 265 female college students from four U.S. universities. Students completed the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Problematic and Risky Internet Use Screening Scale (PRIUSS) and self-reported daily Internet use. Analyses included multivariate analysis of variance and Poisson regression.ResultsParticipants reported mean age of 20.2 years (SD = 1.7) and were 84.9% Caucasian. The mean PHQ-9 score was 5.4 (SD = 4.6); the mean PRIUSS score was 16.4 (SD = 11.1). Participants’ risk for PIU increased by 27% with each additional 30 min spent online using a computer (RR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.14–1.42, p < .0001). Risk for PIU was significantly increased among those who met criteria for severe depression (RR = 8.16 95% CI: 4.27–15.6, p < .0001). The PHQ-9 items describing trouble concentrating, psychomotor dysregulation and suicidal ideation were most strongly associated with PIU risk.ConclusionsThe positive relationship between depression and PIU among female college students supports screening for both conditions, particularly among students reporting particular depression symptoms.     

Sex role stereotyping is hard to kill: A field experiment measuring social responses to user characteristics and behavior in an online multiplayer first-person shooter game

Sex role stereotyping by players in first-person shooter games and other online gaming environments may encourage a social environment that marginalizes and alienates female players. Consistent with the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE), the anonymity of online games may engender endorsement of group-consistent attitudes and amplification of social stereotyping, such as the adherence to gender norms predicted by expectations states theory. A 2 × 3 × 2 virtual field experiment (N = 520) in an online first-person shooter video game examined effects of a confederate players’ sex, communication style, and skill on players’ compliance with subsequent online friend requests. We found support for the hypothesis that, in general, women would gain more compliance with friend requests than men. We also found support for the hypothesis that women making positive utterances would gain more compliance with friend requests than women making negative utterances, whereas men making negative utterances would gain more compliance with friend requests than men making positive utterances. The hypothesis that player skill (i.e., game scores) would predict compliance with friend requests was not supported. Implications for male and female game players and computer-mediated communication in online gaming environments are discussed.     

“It’s Not Who You Know,but Who You Add:” An investigation into the differential impact of friend adding and self-disclosure on interpersonal perceptions on Facebook

This research seeks to understand how people perceive and respond to structural factors and different types of disclosure on Facebook when evaluating the profile of someone they have never met offline. Using a 2 × 3 × 2 between-subjects experimental design, this research explored the relationship between friend adding (add; no add), levels of self-disclosure (low, medium, high), and sex of the Facebook profile owner (male; female) on feelings of interpersonal liking, future behavioral intentions to interact, and homophily. Results indicated that friend adding and higher levels of self-disclosure led to greater feelings of interpersonal liking and homophily amongst both male and female participants. In addition, males tended to view other male profiles with moderate amounts of disclosure and female profiles with the highest amount of disclosure most favorably. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Sleep in a live-in mining operation: The influence of start times and restricted non-work activities

The amount of sleep obtained between shifts is influenced by numerous factors including the length of work and rest periods, the timing of the rest period relative to the endogenous circadian cycle and personal choices about the use of non-work time. The current study utilised a real-world live-in mining environment to examine the amount of sleep obtained when access to normal domestic, family and social activities was restricted. Participants were 29 mining operators (26 male, average age 37.4 ± 6.8 years) who recorded sleep, work and fatigue information and wore an activity monitor for a cycle of seven day shifts and seven night shifts (both 12 h) followed by either seven or fourteen days off. During the two weeks of work participants lived on-site. Total sleep time was significantly less (p < 0.01) while on-site on both day (6.1 ± 1.0 h) and night shifts (5.7 ± 1.5 h) than days off (7.4 ± 1.4 h). Further, night shift sleep was significantly shorter than day-shift sleep (p < 0.01). Assessment of subjective fatigue ratings showed that the sleep associated with both days off and night shifts had a greater recovery value than sleep associated with day shifts (p < 0.01). While on-site, participants obtained only 6 h of sleep indicating that the absence of competing domestic, family and social activities did not convert to more sleep. Factors including shift start times and circadian influences appear to have been more important.     

Social media metrics: Third-person perceptions of health information

The present study investigated the role of social media metrics (i.e., number of shares and comments) displayed alongside online news stories in shaping users’ perceptions of the content and its influence. In a web-based experiment (N = 144), participants first read a cancer news story that displayed either a high or a low level of social media metrics, then reported their perceived story influence on the self and others, as well as their behavioral intentions. In the low social media metrics condition, the general story influence was perceived to be stronger for others than for the self, indicative of the “third-person effect.” This effect, however, was diminished to insignificant levels in the high social media metrics condition. Further, social media metrics had an ultimate indirect effect on behavioral intentions via the third-person effect. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are provided in the end.     

Social network site use,mobile personal talk and social capital among teenagers

Social network sites (SNSs) and mobile phones are becoming increasingly important in teenagers’ lives. Using data collected from a nationally representative survey (N = 800), this study explores the variation of social capital by SNS adoption, different SNS activities, and mobile personal talk among teenagers. The results indicate that SNS adoption and mobile personal talk can not only enhance teenagers’ close ties with friends, but also jointly promote teenagers’ civic engagement. Among SNS users, mobile personal talk also increase teens’ network capital. Different SNS activities such as commenting on friend’s Facebook pictures and joining Facebook groups have different relationships with social capital, and such relationships are moderated by mobile personal talk.     

Can synchronicity and visual modality enhance social presence in mobile messaging?

As companies move increasingly toward text-based computer-mediated communications (CMC) for providing customer service, they tend to lose out on the social presence of a live agent interacting in person or via the telephone. Given the importance of social presence for maintaining healthy customer relations, how can companies counter the relative lack of social presence in CMC? Increasing the synchronicity of communications is one solution, but it is not always possible to provide instant responses to customers. In such cases, can a richer modality (e.g., picture of the customer-service agent) make up for diminished synchronicity and thereby enhance social presence? We addressed these questions with a 3 [synchronicity: high (no delay in response time) vs. medium (1-h delay) vs. low (6-h delay)] × 3 [modality: text-only vs. text+picture vs. text+emoticon] ful factorial, between-subjects experiment in which participants (N = 108) interacted with a customer service agent in a mobile e-commerce context. Data reveal that participants in high synchronicity and text+emoticon conditions felt higher social presence and perceived the customer service agent more positively than those in other conditions. Social presence and task impression mediated the relationship between each independent variable and their evaluations of the customer service agent.     

Avatar creation in virtual worlds: Behaviors and motivations

Avatar creation has become common for people to participate and interact in virtual worlds. Using an online survey (N = 244), we investigated both the behavioral characteristics and major motivations for avatar creation in virtual worlds. Our results suggest that a majority of the participants had multiple avatars; these avatars’ appearance did not merely resemble the human players; and their personality did not necessarily mirror the player’s real personality. Furthermore, participants on average spent over 20 h per week and often interacting with others in the virtual worlds. Our exploratory factor analysis yielded four major motivations: virtual exploration, social navigation, contextual adaptation, and identity representation.     

Effect of prescribed sleep surfaces on back pain and sleep quality in patients diagnosed with low back and shoulder pain

The purpose of this study was to assess sleep quality and comfort of participants diagnosed with low back pain and stiffness following sleep on individually prescribed mattresses based on dominant sleeping positions. Subjects consisted of 27 patients (females, n = 14; males, n = 13; age 44.8 yrs ± SD 14.6, weight 174 lb. ±SD 39.6, height 68.3 in. ± SD 3.7) referred by chiropractic physicians for the study. For the baseline (pretest) data subjects recorded back and shoulder discomfort, sleep quality and comfort by visual analog scales (VAS) for 21 days while sleeping in their own beds. Subsequently, participants’ beds were replaced by medium-firm mattresses specifically layered with foam and latex based on the participants’ reported prominent sleeping position and they again rated their sleep comfort and quality daily for the following 12 weeks. Analysis yielded significant differences between pre- and post means for all variables and for back pain, we found significant (p < 0.01) differences between the first posttest mean and weeks 4 and weeks 8–12, thus indicating progressive improvement in both back pain and stiffness while sleeping on the new mattresses. Additionally, the number of days per week of experiencing poor sleep and physical discomfort decreased significantly. It was concluded that sleep surfaces are related to sleep discomfort and that is indeed possible to reduce pain and discomfort and to increase sleep quality in those with chronic back pain by replacing mattresses based on sleeping position.     

Facebook use and academic performance among college students: A mixed-methods study with a multi-ethnic sample

This paper uses a mixed-methods approach to examine the relation between online academic disclosure and academic performance. A multi-ethnic sample of college students (N = 261; male = 66; female = 195; M age ≈ 22 years) responded to open-ended questions about their Facebook use. Thematic analysis revealed that over 14% of the Facebook wall posts/status updates (N = 714) contained academic themes; positive states were more frequent than negative and neutral states and students with lower GPAs expressed negative states more often. A path analysis suggested that academic performance may determine college students’ Facebook use, rather than the reverse. Implications for student support services are discussed.     

Cyberbullying among young adults in Malaysia: The roles of gender,age and Internet frequency

This study investigated the extent of young adults’ (N = 393; 17–30 years old) experience of cyberbullying, from the perspectives of cyberbullies and cyber-victims using an online questionnaire survey. The overall prevalence rate shows cyberbullying is still present after the schooling years. No significant gender differences were noted, however females outnumbered males as cyberbullies and cyber-victims. Overall no significant differences were noted for age, but younger participants were found to engage more in cyberbullying activities (i.e. victims and perpetrators) than the older participants. Significant differences were noted for Internet frequency with those spending 2–5 h online daily reported being more victimized and engage in cyberbullying than those who spend less than an hour daily. Internet frequency was also found to significantly predict cyber-victimization and cyberbullying, indicating that as the time spent on Internet increases, so does the chances to be bullied and to bully someone. Finally, a positive significant association was observed between cyber-victims and cyberbullies indicating that there is a tendency for cyber-victims to become cyberbullies, and vice versa. Overall it can be concluded that cyberbullying incidences are still taking place, even though they are not as rampant as observed among the younger users.     

Clerk agent promotes consumers’ ethical purchase intention in unmanned purchase environment

This study examined the effect of the presence of an artificial individual in a purchase environment on purchase intention for products with fair-trade labels among Japanese consumers. By manipulating the presence of an artificial individual, we assessed consumers’ intentions to purchase fair-trade products under two different experimental unmanned purchase environments: the agent condition, in which task instructions were given by a female clerk-like computer graphic agent throughout the task (N = 118), and the control condition in which task instructions were given through a text box (N = 106). Results demonstrated that participants under the agent condition valuated fair trade higher than those under the control condition, although participants in both the agent and the control conditions were instructed that their responses would remain anonymous. These findings suggest that the implication of the presence of an artificial individual, such as a clerk-like agent in an unmanned purchase environment, enhances the ethicality of purchase intentions as with manned purchase environments.     

Short- and long-term effects of students’ self-directed metacognitive prompts on navigation behavior and learning performance

This study seeks to promote learning in computer-based learning environments utilizing students’ self-directed metacognitive prompts. Such prompts are based on the idea of instructing students to design their own metacognitive scaffolds and learn with them afterward. In a pre-post experimental design, students in the experimental group (n = 35) were instructed to configure their own metacognitive prompts before learning whereas students in the control group (n = 35) learned without prompts. Log file analysis of navigation behavior indicates that students who learned with their individually designed, self-directed prompts visited relevant webpages significantly more often and spent a longer time on them compared with students in the control group. Moreover, participants in the experimental group attained better transfer performance immediately after learning. The long-term effect in transfer performance was even greater in a follow-up learning session conducted after three weeks without any instructional support in either group. These results are consistent with theories of metacognition and self-regulated learning and indicate that self-directed prompts can lead to sustainable effects.