The choices people make: the types of buddy icons people select for self-presentation online

People are adapting their self-presentation strategies to utilize both online and offline communication in their interactions with strangers, co-workers, family, and friends. One way people communicate online is through the use of instant messaging, which includes the use of graphical representations of people called buddy icons. This project presents the results of a survey of the buddy icons 93 participants were currently using in their instant messaging interactions. It examines the extent to which self-presentation theory (Goffman 1959) can explain the choices people are making about how to self-present elements of their identity online. The icons were categorized and users were asked why they choose them as well as when and whether they change them with different interaction partners. Results show that male users select different categories of buddy icons than females but that most users select buddy icons that are human like, low on photorealism, and consistent with their biological sex. Users also reported that they rarely change their icons and that they selected human buddy icons when they want to increase social presence.     

IM = Interruption Management? Instant Messaging and Disruption in the Workplace

Some scholars worry that Instant Messaging (IM), by virtue of the ease with which users can initiate and participate in online conversations, contributes to an increase in task interruption. Others argue that workers use IM strategically, employing it in ways that reduce interruption. This article examines the relationship between IM and interruption, using data collected via a (U.S.) national telephone survey of full-time workers who regularly use computers (N = 912). Analysis of these data indicates that IM use has no influence on overall levels of work communication. However, people who utilize IM at work report being interrupted less frequently than non-users, and they engage in more frequent computer-mediated communication than non-users, including both work-related and personal communication. These results are consistent with claims that employees use IM in ways that help them to manage interruption, such as quickly obtaining task-relevant information and negotiating conversational availability.     

Avatars in social media: Balancing accuracy,playfulness and embodied messages

This paper examines how users negotiate their self-presentation via an avatar used in social media. Twenty participants customised an avatar while thinking aloud. An analysis of this verbal data revealed three motivating factors that drive self-presentation: (1) avatars were used to accurately reflect their owners’ offline self; participants chose to display stable self-attributes or idealised their avatar by concealing or emphasising attributes aligned to imagined social roles, (2) the diversity of customisation options was exploited by some participants who broke free from the social rules governing self-presentation offline; others used the avatar's appearance to emotionally provoke and engage the avatar viewer and finally, (3) avatars were used as proxies; participants designed their online self in order to convey a message to a significant other.     

Exploring the relationships between self-presentation and self-esteem of mothers in social media in Russia

Majority of parents use social media platforms, with young mothers being the most active users. Academic research has only recently started addressing the impact of social media on mothers, although they are one of the most engaged online audiences. Instagram and Facebook perceived as positive types of social media, where users post positive content to increase encouraging response from their subscribers and thus enhance their self-esteem. This also relates to mothers portraying positive self-presentation online, therefore enhancing their parental self-esteem. This study provides in-depth analysis of 23 popular online profiles of mothers with more than thirty thousand followers on Instagram and 12 interviews with socially active mothers. This work focuses on mothers in Russia. Research findings show mothers with children of pre-school age are the most regular users of social media. This is due to time availability, as majority of these mothers are on maternity leave and due to little knowledge in child related aspects, which leads to lower self-esteem. They often look for assurance in online community. Mothers that are more confident have positive attitude towards social media communication. Mothers with initially lower self-esteem feel under pressure to maintain positive image to be in line with other mothers' presentation on social media. Mothers find Facebook more informative and supportive vehicle of communication than Instagram.     

The Relationship Between Facebook Use and Well‐Being Depends on Communication Type and Tie Strength

An extensive literature shows that social relationships influence psychological well‐being, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We test predictions about online interactions and well‐being made by theories of belongingness, relationship maintenance, relational investment, social support, and social comparison. An opt‐in panel study of 1,910 Facebook users linked self‐reported measures of well‐being to counts of respondents' Facebook activities from server logs. Specific uses of the site were associated with improvements in well‐being: Receiving targeted, composed communication from strong ties was associated with improvements in well‐being while viewing friends' wide‐audience broadcasts and receiving one‐click feedback were not. These results suggest that people derive benefits from online communication, as long it comes from people they care about and has been tailored for them.     

User study on AffectIM,an avatar-based Instant Messaging system employing rule-based affect sensing from text

Social interaction among people is an essential part of every society, and a strong foundation for the development and self-actualization of a person. Even in virtual environments we tend to interact in a social way. Our research addresses the tasks of recognition, interpretation, and visualization of affect communicated through text messaging. In order to facilitate sensitive and expressive interaction in computer-mediated communication, we previously introduced a novel syntactical rule-based approach to affect recognition from text. The evaluation of the developed Affect Analysis Model showed promising results regarding its capability to accurately recognize affective information in text from an existing corpus of informal online conversations. To enrich the user's experience in online communication, to make it enjoyable, exciting, and fun, we implemented a web-based Instant Messaging (IM) application, AffectIM, and endowed it with emotional intelligence by integrating the developed Affect Analysis Model. This paper describes the findings of a twenty-person study conducted with our AffectIM system. The results of the study indicate that our IM system with automatic emotion recognition function can achieve a level of affective intelligence (system is successful at conveying the user's feelings, avatar expression is appropriate) that is comparable to “gold standard”, where users select the label of the conveyed emotion manually.     

Exploring the potential effects of emoticons

Instant messaging (IM) has shown signs of becoming one of the main stream communication applications for users, like e-mail. Many people maintain constant contacts with multiple friends and relations via IM simultaneously whenever they are online, whether working on other applications or not. In addition to allowing instant exchange of text information, a unique feature of IM is its use of graphical icons that express emotions, known as emotional icons or emoticons. We explored their potential effects. Our model, based on prior theory and research, was tested using data collected from student users; it was analyzed to reveal potential effects of emoticons on various factors related to the use of IM. Our study used structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis; the results showed that the user of emoticons felt a positive effect on enjoyment, personal interaction, perceived information richness, and perceived usefulness. Our results suggested, however, that emoticons were not just enjoyable to use, but also a valuable addition to communication methods.     

Managing Impressions Online: Self-Presentation Processes in the Online Dating Environment

This study investigates self-presentation strategies among online dating participants, exploring how participants manage their online presentation of self in order to accomplish the goal of finding a romantic partner. Thirty-four individuals active on a large online dating site participated in telephone interviews about their online dating experiences and perceptions. Qualitative data analysis suggests that participants attended to small cues online, mediated the tension between impression management pressures and the desire to present an authentic sense of self through tactics such as creating a profile that reflected their "ideal self," and attempted to establish the veracity of their identity claims. This study provides empirical support for Social Information Processing theory in a naturalistic context while offering insight into the complicated way in which "honesty" is enacted online.     

Strategic self-presentation on Facebook: Personal motives and audience response to online behavior

People have always been concerned with their social image and engaged in strategic self-presentation (Goffman, 1959), but the growth of social networking sites (SNS) has had a major influence on such social endeavors. When people choose how to present themselves online, they use strategies and make choices that influence the liking and respect they receive from others. We examine a model that links: (a) motives for self-presentation, (b) actual online behavior on Facebook, and (c) feedback: social network members' responses (“likes,” comments). One hundred and fifty-six undergraduates (37 males, 119 females, mean age = 24.5) reported on their last three Facebook status updates (468 status updates overall). Based on structural equation modeling, we found that performance goals predict increased levels of self-enhancement on Facebook and increased levels of social feedback – “likes” and comments by others. Mastery goals do not predict increased levels of self-derogation (posting negative contents about self), but those who do choose to derogate also receive increased numbers of “likes” and comments from their network friends.     

IPv4和IPv6下的P2P即时通信

P2P(Peer to Peer)技术已经在即时通信软件中得到了广泛应用,P2P即时通信要求通信双方能够进行双向通信,但IPv4环境下的NAT(Network Address Translation)机制使得P2P的应用受到了限制.本文设计了一种在IPv4环境下P2P即时通信软件穿越NAT的方法,在公网中提供代理服务器以使通信双方可以获得对方的地址从而进行直接通信.最后讨论了在IPv6下将P2P技术应用到即时通信软件中的优势和发展前景.     

Inter-working between SIMPLE and IMPS

Instant Messaging is looked upon as one of the killer services for 3G (The Third Generation). This paper analyzes the differences between SIMPLE (Session Initiation Protocol for Instant Message and Presence Leveraging Extensions) and IMPS (Instant Messaging and Presence Services), which are two of the most popular standards for Presence and Instant Messaging in the world. IMPS is more mature and has been deployed in many communication systems, while SIMPLE is more suitable for an IMS (Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem) network, so inter-working between them is a hot topic in the value-added service field, but recently the research on the topic is just in the initial stage. Based on the analysis, a bi-directional protocol mapping is proposed to enable the exchange of Presence Information, instant messages and Group information between SIMPLE and IMPS systems. With the protocol mapping and OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) inter-working Architectural Model, an Enhanced Architectural Model is proposed to perform the inter-working functions which can not be completed by the current OMA Architectural Model. A method called IFT (Information Flow Trail) is adopted to describe the message streams and their exchanging between SIMPLE and IMPS. Based on the Enhanced Architectural Model, we implemented an IWF (Inter-working Function) system.     

Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships

Early research on online self-presentation mostly focused on identity constructions in anonymous online environments. Such studies found that individuals tended to engage in role-play games and anti-normative behaviors in the online world. More recent studies have examined identity performance in less anonymous online settings such as Internet dating sites and reported different findings. The present study investigates identity construction on Facebook, a newly emerged nonymous online environment. Based on content analysis of 63 Facebook accounts, we find that the identities produced in this nonymous environment differ from those constructed in the anonymous online environments previously reported. Facebook users predominantly claim their identities implicitly rather than explicitly; they “show rather than tell” and stress group and consumer identities over personally narrated ones. The characteristics of such identities are described and the implications of this finding are discussed.     

Control your Facebook: An analysis of online privacy literacy

For an effective and responsible communication on social network sites (SNSs) users must decide between withholding and disclosing personal information. For this so-called privacy regulation, users need to have the respective skills—in other words, they need to have online privacy literacy. In this study, we discuss factors that potentially contribute to and result from online privacy literacy. In an online questionnaire with 630 Facebook users, we found that people who spend more time on Facebook and who have changed their privacy settings more frequently reported to have more online privacy literacy. People with more online privacy literacy, in turn, felt more secure on Facebook and implemented more social privacy settings. A mediation analysis showed that time spend on Facebook and experience with privacy regulation did not per se increase safety and privacy behavior directly, stressing the importance of online privacy literacy as a mediator to a safe and privacy-enhancing online behavior. We conclude that Internet experience leads to more online privacy literacy, which fosters a more cautious privacy behavior on SNSs.     

Strength matters: Self-presentation to the strongest audience rather than lowest common denominator when faced with multiple audiences in social network sites

On social network sites (e.g. Facebook), individuals self-present to multiple audiences simultaneously 24 h a day. Prior research has inferred this results in a lowest common denominator effect (LCDE) whereby people constrain their online presentation to the standards of their strictest audience. However, this existing work neglects to address differences in the ‘value’ (social/economic) of the audience. Through the lens of self-presentation theory, we argue that it is not the strictest audience that constrains behavior but the strongest (i.e. that which has the highest score for standards and value combined). We call this the strongest audience effect (SAE). The aim of this research is to examine and contrast the LCDE and SAE. A survey of young Facebook users (n = 379) provides support for the SAE when compared to LCDE, with the strength of the strongest audience predicting behavioral constraint and also social anxiety. Additional insights are generated into which audiences are perceived as the strongest. This study contributes a novel and more holistic lens to understand self-presentation in the presence of multiple audiences in social network sites.     

Mediating roles of self-presentation desire in online game community commitment and trust behavior of Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games

Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs), which allow simultaneous participation of several gamers, have attracted a great deal of attention recently. Since MMORPGs can be categorized as a type of online community, the behavior of MMORPGs users needs to be considered as the general behavior in online communities. However, previous studies of online communities did not pay enough attention to MMORPGs, in which users can express themselves by interacting actively through games and game avatars. Understanding the characteristics of MMORPGs as online game communities where users communicate and interact will allow games to be vitalized and users to be immersed in games in a more positive way. Hence, using self-presentation theory and social identity theory, this study examined the factors influencing self-presentation desire and the mediating role of self-presentation desire examined in terms of trust of and commitments to online game communities. The results showed that the interactivity in the spaces of MMORPGs had the biggest impacts on self-presentation desire; personal innovativeness and game design quality also was influential. The results also indicated that self-presentation desire caused trust of online games and eventually led to even stronger commitments to gamers.     

基于MQTT协议IM的研究和实现

随着移动互联网和智能终端的发展与普及, IM(Instant messaging即时通讯)再次成为一个炙手可热的领域。由于移动终端设备在低功耗、低带宽等方面的限制,对即时通讯协议提出了更高的要求。 MQTT(Message Queuing Telemetry Transport,消息队列遥测传输)作为一种轻量级基于发布/订阅模式的消息传输协议,是移动终端应用的理想选择。介绍了MQTT的基本内容和特点,并与其他即时通讯协议SIMPLE协议和XMPP协议进行了对比,从而提出一种基于MQTT协议的移动终端即时通讯解决方案。在Mosquitto开源项目的基础上,设计并实现了一款基于MQTT协议的移动即时通讯客户端,实现了即时通信、状态呈现和群组等功能。     

Contradictory deceptive behavior in online dating

Deceptive behavior is common in online dating because personal profiles can be easily manipulated. This study conducts two experiments to examine contradictory deceptive behavior in online dating. The results of Experiment 1 showed that users have lower perceptions of authenticity evaluations of daters’ self-provided photographs with strong physical attractiveness than for those with low physical attractiveness, and the authenticity perceptions of daters’ self-provided photographs have a positive relationship with the authenticity evaluation of online daters’ text-based self-presentations. Although users are suspicious of the authenticity of beautiful or handsome daters’ photographs, the results of Experiment 2 showed that people still employ higher levels of deception in self-presentations toward daters with highly attractive photographs to increase their possibilities of securing a date with those daters. The results also show that women employ higher levels of deception in self-presentation than men in online dating environments.     

Sexual self-presentation on social network sites: Who does it and how is it perceived?

The aims of this study were to investigate (a) the role of peer factors in adolescents’ sexual self-presentation on social network sites, and (b) how adolescents who present themselves sexually online are evaluated by others. 238 high school students (aged 12–18) evaluated either a sexual or non-sexual online presentation of same-sex and opposite-sex peers. Moreover, they filled in a questionnaire about their own self-presentation behavior. Findings showed that peer norms played a crucial role in whether adolescents posted sexual pictures of themselves online. Moreover, need for popularity was a strong predictor for posting such pictures. Girls who presented themselves in sexual ways were evaluated more negatively by other girls but more positively by boys. Similarly, boys who presented themselves in sexual ways were evaluated more positively by girls but not by boys.     

A private versus a public space: Anonymity and buying decorative symbolic goods for avatars in a virtual world

The virtual world has become a new channel in which people can contact with others, and organizations can provide service to their customers. Selling symbolic virtual goods has also emerged as a new economy in the virtual world. Such symbolic goods cannot facilitate people to accomplish any specific tasks; people buy them simply to decorate their avatars. This study is based on the theories of symbolic consumption, self-presentation, and computer-mediated environment, to investigate why people buy decorative symbolic goods in the virtual world. The results show that people buy symbolic virtual goods for both emotional and social values. While user perceived social presence and telepresence affect both social and emotional value of symbolic goods, individual self-presentation motivation affects only social value. Besides, anonymous users in the virtual world show behaviors that differ with non-anonymous ones.