Nicole L. Muscanell

Make new friends or keep the old: Gender and personality differences in social networking use

The present study examined the influence of gender and personality on individuals use of online social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace. Participants were 238 undergraduate students who reported being members of Facebook, MySpace, or both. Based on prior research examining online behavior, we expected that gender and scores on the Big Five personality scale would moderate online social networking behavior. The results supported our predictions. Specifically, men reported using social networking sites for forming new relationships while women reported using them more for relationship maintenance. Furthermore, women low in agreeableness reported using instant messaging features of social networking sites more often than women high in agreeableness, whereas men low in openness reported playing more games on social networking sites compared to men high in openness. Overall, these results indicate the importance of examining individual differences in online behavior.

Gender differences in mediated communication: Women connect more than do men

Past research in gender differences in the overall Internet use has been contradictory. Some asserted men used it more than women, while others asserted there were no gender difference. Both camps concluded that men and women differed in their motivation and utilization of time spent online. The purpose of the present research was to take a contemporary look at these gender differences. Using an online survey, we asked participants about their experiences with multiple forms of mediated communication: social networking sites, e-mail, video calls, instant messaging, texting, and phone calls. Our results indicated that women, compared to men, are generally more frequent mediated communication users. Compared to men, women prefer and more frequently use text messaging, social media, and online video calls. These results suggest that the nature of mediated social interaction is changing.

Even in virtual environments women shop and men build: A social role perspective on Second Life

The present study examined whether traditional gender role expectations (Eagly, 1987) influence behaviors in non-traditional contexts such as online virtual environments. Participants were 352 Second Life users who reported their activities and experiences in Second Life. Results indicated that men and women differed in the types of activities they engaged in a manner predicted by social role theory. Specifically, as compared to women, men were more likely to report building things (e.g. objects), to own and work on their own virtual property, and were less likely to change their avatars appearance. Women, as compared to men, were more likely to meet people, shop, regularly change their avatars appearance, and buy clothes/objects for their avatar. The present study adds to our understanding of how traditional gender role expectations may carry over to online virtual worlds and influence online behavior.

Snapchat Elicits More Jealousy than Facebook: A Comparison of Snapchat and Facebook Use

Recent news in the media has suggested that younger people are using popular social media such as Facebook less and are quickly adopting newer media, such as the self-destructing app Snapchat. Snapchat is unique in that it erases messages several seconds after they have been sent, affording its users a higher level of privacy. Yet, little research exists on Snapchat use in general, let alone its broader psychological implications. This article offers a preliminary comparison of Snapchat and Facebook use and psychological effects on romantic jealousy. General motives for using Snapchat and Facebook are examined, as well as the nature of the content that Snapchat users most frequently share. Further, because of the differences in privacy and persistence of information, potential psychological effects in the domain of romantic jealousy are also examined, which has been widely studied on Facebook in the last few years. Findings show that the main difference in motives were that Snapchat was used more for flirting and finding new love interests, whereas Facebook was still the main social networking site used for keeping in touch with friends. Further, when presenting users with a series of potentially jealousy provoking scenarios, Snapchat elicited higher levels of jealousy than did Facebook. These findings are explained based on an affordance approach.

The homeless use Facebook?! Similarities of social network use between college students and homeless young adults

This research compared technology use among homeless young adults with that of college students as a means of understanding technology use among young adults today; people who have grown up with technology. Specifically, social network site (SNS) usage was assessed for two age-matched young adult samples, one drawn from a large introductory psychology subject pool, and a second from homeless young adults who were approached for participation when they entered metropolitan shelters. Overall, technology use was strikingly similar. These results call for a paradigm shift in researchers understanding of technology use and indicate that contemporary young adults sampled across socio-economic class and varying ethnicities are far more similar than prior research would suggest. These results call into question whether the term digital divide is useful for describing group differences in technology use as our results suggest the divide has narrowed considerably.

Don't it make my brown eyes green? An analysis of Facebook use and romantic jealousy.

Social networking Web sites, such as Facebook, have changed the way in which people communicate online. The present study examined the relationship between jealousy and Facebook use experimentally by asking participants to imagine viewing their romantic partners Facebook page. We varied the hypothetical privacy settings and number of photos of the couple publicly available on Facebook. Results indicated that imagined privacy settings and the presence of couple photos affected negative emotions (jealousy, anger, disgust, and hurt). Furthermore, we found sex differences indicating that women felt more intense negative emotions after thinking about the fictitious scenario than did men, particularly when evidence of infidelity was public to others. These results have implications for sex differences in jealousy and suggest that the manner in which people employ Facebook privacy settings can be negative for romantic relationships.

Missed Programs (You Can't TiVo This One) Why Psychologists Should Study Media

Media psychology involves the scientific examination of the cognitive processes and behavior involved in the selection, use, interpretation, and effects of communication across a variety of media (e.g., via the Internet, television, telephone, film). Media are central to people’s lives, with projections indicating that an average person spent over 3,515 hours using media in 2012. New technologies are increasing the importance of media. Data from two content analyses demonstrate the underrepresentation of media psychology in mainstream psychological literature and in undergraduate and graduate psychology course offerings. We argue for the importance of a psychological approach to the study of media because of its presence in people’s lives and because psychologists use it in their research and their choices may affect the external validity of their findings. We provide a useful framework from which psychologists can approach the study of media, and we conclude with recommendations for further areas of scientific inquiry relevant to psychological science.

Social networking for scientists: an analysis on how and why academics use ResearchGate

Purpose n n n n nThe purpose of this paper is to examine the usage and utility of ResearchGate (RG), which is a social networking site where scientists disseminate their work and build their reputations. In a sample consisting largely of American and European academics, the authors analyzed the ways they use the site, what they thought about the site’s utility, and the effects of usage on career outcomes. n n n n nDesign/methodology/approach n n n n nThe authors employed an online survey approach to target scientists who have an active RG account. Scientists who were not users were also recruited in order to get a better idea of the reasons for their nonuse. n n n n nFindings n n n n nMost academics who have an RG account did not use it very heavily. Users did not perceive many benefits from using the site, and RG use was not related to career satisfaction or informational benefits, but was related to productivity and stress. n n n n nResearch limitations/implications n n n n nSystematic research is needed to explore positive and negative consequences of using professional social media in academia, especially productivity and stress. Findings also suggest that RG needs to increase user engagement. n n n n nOriginality/value n n n n nThis study is one of the first to closely examine how and why people in academia use professional social media sites and whether usage leads to perceived benefits and effects on more general career outcomes.

The Relationship Between Young Adult Smokers’ Beliefs About Nicotine Addiction and Smoking-Related Affect and Cognitions

Risk beliefs and self-efficacy play important roles in explaining smoking-related outcomes and are important to target in tobacco control interventions. However, information is lacking about the underlying beliefs that drive these constructs. The present study investigated the interrelationships among young adult smokers’ beliefs about the nature of nicotine addiction and smoking-related affect and cognitions (i.e., feelings of risk, worry about experiencing the harms of smoking, self-efficacy of quitting, and intentions to quit). Smokers (nu2009=u2009333) were recruited from two large universities. Results showed that quit intentions were associated with feelings of risk, but not with worry or self-efficacy. Furthermore, higher feelings of risk were associated with lower beliefs that addiction is an inevitable consequence of smoking and with lower beliefs that the harms of smoking are delayed. This suggests that it is important for health messages to counter the possible negative effects of messages that strongly emphasize the addictiveness of nicotine, possibly by emphasizing the importance of quitting earlier rather than later. The findings also add to the evidence base that feelings of risk are powerful predictors of behavioral intentions. Furthermore, our results suggest that in some circumstances, feelings of risk predict quit intentions beyond that predicted by worry and self-efficacy. Gaining additional understanding of the tobacco-related beliefs that can increase feelings of risk and incorporating those beliefs into educational campaigns may improve the quality of such campaigns and reduce tobacco use.

Have We All Just Become “Robo-Sapiens”? Reflections on Social Influence Processes in the Internet Age

The first author (Rosanna Guadagno) is old enough to remember the dawn of the World Wide Web. In 1994, she was working as a Human–Computer Interaction Engineer at a large Silicon Valley corporation. Her group was asked to learn the language of the web (HTML) in preparation for the webbased products—including a long-forgotten search engine—the company had in the initial phases of the software development life cycle. At this time, there was no Google, no Myspace, no Facebook, no Twitter, or any kind of social networking sites, nor were there any news or celebrity gossip sites to entertain individuals expecting a 24-hr news cycle. In the old days, REG usually ran out of links after The Lurker’s Guide to Babylon 5,1 Captain Kirk’s Sing Along Page2, and her teammates’ pages. Unlike the Internet of today, where a person can literally spend hours following links from website to website or Google a topic or celebrity and find hundreds, if not thousands, of informative web pages, the early World Wide Web was static and finite. The web has changed so much in such a relatively short time span. In 1994, most web pages comprised information, possibly some pictures, and perhaps some links, but afforded no integrated means of social interaction—at best there were contact forms and mailto: (e-mail) links, otherwise there were references to alternative interactive options such as usenet groups (similar to today’s forums) or IRC channels, or offline contact details (phone numbers and physical addresses). Today, the Internet offers many ways to connect with others (Facebook’s “Like” button and its many imitations, integrated text, audio, and/or video chat and comment systems, e-mail, social media, a plethora of online conferencing and collaboration tools, blogs, microblogs, link-sharing sites, MMORPGs, online classes, etc.), and all of these provide different amounts of social and nonverbal cues. Thus, the Internet has be-