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- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
Social media has been extensively researched, and its effects on well-being are well established. What is less studied, however, is how social media affects romantic relationships specifically. The few studies that have researched this have found mixed results. Some researchers have found social media to have a positive influence on relationship outcomes, while other have found social media to have a negative influence. In an attempt to reconcile these discrepancies, the current thesis study explored possible mediators between social media use and relationship health outcomes which, to my knowledge, has not been investigated in previous literature. Three moderators were explored: type of social media use (active use versus passive use), relationship-contingent self-esteem, and social comparison orientation. The baseline portion of the study had 547 individuals, recruited from Arizona State University’s SONA system as well as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, who were in a romantic relationship for at least three months; the follow-up portion of the study had 181 participants. Results suggest that women who passively use social media exhibit a negative association between hours per day of social media use and baseline relationship satisfaction. Men who passively use social media exhibited a negative association between hours per day of social media use and follow-up relationship satisfaction, as well as a negative association with baseline commitment. While relationship-contingent self-esteem did not moderate the association between hours per day of social media use and relationship health, it was positively related to both men and women’s baseline relationship satisfaction and baseline commitment. Social comparison orientation (SCO) produced minimal results; women low on SCO exhibited a negative association between social media use and baseline relationship satisfaction, and higher SCO for men was associated with lower baseline commitment. Finally, exploratory post-hoc mediation models revealed that relationship comparisons mediated the association between hours per day of social media use and baseline relationship, as well as baseline commitment, for both men and women. Previous research supports the findings regarding passive social media use, while the findings regarding relationship-contingent self-esteem and relationship comparisons add new findings to the romantic relationship literature.
ContributorsQuiroz, Selena (Author) / Mickelson, Kristin (Thesis advisor) / Burleson, Mary (Committee member) / Halavais, Alexander (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
The “filter bubble” has been a heated discussion topic since several years ago. In addition to possible algorithmic contribution to this phenomenon, people’s selective exposure tendency may be another primary cause of the “filter bubble” on social media. Prior research indicates that, under the influence of selective exposure tendency, people tend to perceive pro-attitudinal news as more credible than counter-attitudinal news, with strong partisans more likely to be affected. The proposed thesis seeks to examine whether the perceived credibility of a news source and story on social media is influenced by selective exposure and strength of partisanship. Through an experimental study via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, 468 participants chose or were assigned to read an ostensible news story from a social media feed with the news source and ideological slant varied between participants. The results showed that people reported higher perceived source and story credibility when the source and stories were pro-attitudinal (consistent with their political ideology) as opposed to counter-attitudinal, regardless of participants’ age, race, perceived credibility of news from social media, in general, and strength of partisanship. However, contrary to the hypotheses, selective exposure behavior (i.e., choosing a preferred news source before reading a news story) did not affect credibility perceptions when participants read counter-attitudinal news from a pro-attitudinal source. Last, strength of partisanship did not moderate the influence of selective exposure on credibility perceptions. In sum, this study suggests that although selective exposure tendency may affect people’s credibility perceptions and contribute to “filter bubbles,” the impact of selective exposure behavior may be overestimated in terms of perceived source and story credibility of news on social media.
ContributorsLiu, Xingyu (Author) / Mickelson, Kristin D (Thesis advisor) / Hall, Deborah (Committee member) / Walker, Shawn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
The development of the internet provided new means for people to communicate effectively and share their ideas. There has been a decline in the consumption of newspapers and traditional broadcasting media toward online social mediums in recent years. Social media has been introduced as a new way of increasing democratic discussions on political and social matters. Among social media, Twitter is widely used by politicians, government officials, communities, and parties to make announcements and reach their voice to their followers. This greatly increases the acceptance domain of the medium.
The usage of social media during social and political campaigns has been the subject of a lot of social science studies including the Occupy Wall Street movement, The Arab Spring, the United States (US) election, more recently The Brexit campaign. The wide
spread usage of social media in this space and the active participation of people in the discussions on social media made this communication channel a suitable place for spreading propaganda to alter public opinion.
An interesting feature of twitter is the feasibility of which bots can be programmed to operate on this platform. Social media bots are automated agents engineered to emulate the activity of a human being by tweeting some specific content, replying to users, magnifying certain topics by retweeting them. Network on these bots is called botnets and describing the collaboration of connected computers with programs that communicates across multiple devices to perform some task.
In this thesis, I will study how bots can influence the opinion, finding which parameters are playing a role in shrinking or coalescing the communities, and finally logically proving the effectiveness of each of the hypotheses.
The usage of social media during social and political campaigns has been the subject of a lot of social science studies including the Occupy Wall Street movement, The Arab Spring, the United States (US) election, more recently The Brexit campaign. The wide
spread usage of social media in this space and the active participation of people in the discussions on social media made this communication channel a suitable place for spreading propaganda to alter public opinion.
An interesting feature of twitter is the feasibility of which bots can be programmed to operate on this platform. Social media bots are automated agents engineered to emulate the activity of a human being by tweeting some specific content, replying to users, magnifying certain topics by retweeting them. Network on these bots is called botnets and describing the collaboration of connected computers with programs that communicates across multiple devices to perform some task.
In this thesis, I will study how bots can influence the opinion, finding which parameters are playing a role in shrinking or coalescing the communities, and finally logically proving the effectiveness of each of the hypotheses.
ContributorsAhmadi, Mohsen (Author) / Davulcu, Hasan (Thesis advisor) / Sen, Arunabha (Committee member) / Li, Baoxin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
“Mix Mix Tayo: The Many Pieces in Our Stories'' is a written reflection, exploring the creation of the dance documentary, Carried Across the Water as well as the community event, Mix Mix Tayo. The ideas behind these works are centered in storytelling, filipino american identity and community. This research explores the use of film, dance, event production and the mixing of elements to create new wholes in order to communicate these ideas. These works were imagined in response to a call that was felt from people actively searching for healing, community and ancestral knowledge.
ContributorsCurry, Nicole (Author) / Standley, Eileen (Thesis advisor) / Fitzgerald, Mary (Committee member) / Nascimento, Eliciana (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Social media has become a significant aspect of American life and culture.
Criminal groups including extremists of various ideological milieus have found social
media useful in their recruitment efforts. Further, these online spaces allow extremists to
easily interact with one another, reinforcing each other’s radical perspectives. Little
research has examined social media’s role in radicalization and fewer studies have tested
the differences between the radicalization processes of individuals espousing disparate
ideologies. Using Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States, a data set of
804 extremist men, this study sets out to determine whether the role of social media in the
radicalization process varies between Islamist and far right extremists using social
learning as a theoretical framework. The results indicate no significant difference
regarding the role of social media in radicalization between Islamists and far rightists.
Additionally, the odds of having radical friends and family were much lower for Islamists
than far rightists, suggesting only partial support for social learning theory as an
explanation of radicalization.
Criminal groups including extremists of various ideological milieus have found social
media useful in their recruitment efforts. Further, these online spaces allow extremists to
easily interact with one another, reinforcing each other’s radical perspectives. Little
research has examined social media’s role in radicalization and fewer studies have tested
the differences between the radicalization processes of individuals espousing disparate
ideologies. Using Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States, a data set of
804 extremist men, this study sets out to determine whether the role of social media in the
radicalization process varies between Islamist and far right extremists using social
learning as a theoretical framework. The results indicate no significant difference
regarding the role of social media in radicalization between Islamists and far rightists.
Additionally, the odds of having radical friends and family were much lower for Islamists
than far rightists, suggesting only partial support for social learning theory as an
explanation of radicalization.
ContributorsStewart, Connor James (Author) / Young, Jacob (Thesis advisor) / Decker, Scott (Committee member) / Telep, Cody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Police brutality is a major opposing force to racial justice today. While police brutality in the United States is nothing new, the increase in accessibility to videos, images, headlines, and discussions that stem from police brutality has only risen due to the rise in social media usage and the speed at which information is shared. As the views rise, so does the likelihood that Black college students may experience an emotional and psychological response to the racial violence seen and develop symptoms of race-based traumatic stress. Black college-aged students who spend ample amounts of time on social media and engage with police brutality content are more likely to experience episodes of anger, exhaustion, guilt, irritability, avoidance, depression, and fear for their physical safety. These are symptoms of race-based traumatic stress (RBTS), an emotional and psychological reaction to a racial incident, which views racism as a potential traumatic stressor.The aim of this thesis was to use Dr. Robert Carter’s (2007) theory of race-based traumatic stress as a framework to explore the experiences Black college students have when engaging with police brutality content online and investigate the various mechanisms used to cope with the nonstop media coverage and viral nature of Black Death. The use of existing scholarship, including theories, other studies, and primary data gathered from focus groups, provides a fresh angle to the conversation of police brutality and the effects of widely sharing its content via various social media platforms. This study found that Black college-aged students experience’s online when engaging with police brutality content is overwhelmingly negative, the incident occurs suddenly, and the user has no control over the situation. In addition, participants experienced the core reactions of arousal (anxiety, anger, hypervigilance, and sleeplessness), avoidance (pushing the events out of mind and not using social media often), and intrusion (reoccurring thoughts about the incident). It is reasonable to conclude that witnessing police violence online can lead to the development of race-based traumatic stress, as all participants fit its criteria, as outlined by Carter (2007).
ContributorsDonaldson, Marcus R (Author) / Swadener, Beth B (Thesis advisor) / McGuire, Keon (Committee member) / Charron-Chenier, Raphael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The introduction of this thesis explains that, though celebrity culture is a pre-existing phenomenon, the digital age has posed new, dehumanizing challenges for physically unattainable famous figures. Some people feel a stronger sense of love for celebrities, believing that the Internet connects them on a deeper, personal level, whereas others participate in increasing hate and decreasing fear of consequence of online behavior. The main goals of this project were to analyze in what ways online harassment toward celebrities differs according to gender, as well as what types of online harassment celebrities face on social media platforms.
Social media posts included in the discussion were taken from Twitter and explored using the qualitative research-based Grounded Theory. Four celebrities were selected as case studies to illustrate hate that popular music artists receive. These celebrities were Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. Before the data collection process transitioned to Twitter for specific examples, Google Search was effective in providing background information on each celebrity's controversies. With open coding as the chosen stage of data analysis, tweets were grouped with those containing similar content (e.g. two tweets using the same insult).
Social media users can uncover problematic tweets and refuse to forgive celebrities for past mistakes, send threatening messages that encourage celebrities to kill themselves, shame celebrities for their physical appearances and sexualities and so forth. All of these concepts are observed within the respective literature review and discussion sections. The types of online harassment included are insults, devotion defending, threats and hacking.
The gathered data found that difference in the online harassment that female pop stars receive versus that toward male pop stars often lies in how people perceive their sexualities and physical appearances, as well as the distance perceived between the social media user and the celebrity. In the examples provided, women were regarded as “whores” for wearing certain clothing and blamed for issues in their relationships, whereas men were not seen as the problem and criticized for appearing too "feminine."
It is recommended that people become more aware of the consequences of online harassment in general, but particularly toward celebrities who are viewed as being unaffected by hate comments. Due to the limitations of this study, future research within this area should include people of color and various sectors of the entertainment industry.
Social media posts included in the discussion were taken from Twitter and explored using the qualitative research-based Grounded Theory. Four celebrities were selected as case studies to illustrate hate that popular music artists receive. These celebrities were Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. Before the data collection process transitioned to Twitter for specific examples, Google Search was effective in providing background information on each celebrity's controversies. With open coding as the chosen stage of data analysis, tweets were grouped with those containing similar content (e.g. two tweets using the same insult).
Social media users can uncover problematic tweets and refuse to forgive celebrities for past mistakes, send threatening messages that encourage celebrities to kill themselves, shame celebrities for their physical appearances and sexualities and so forth. All of these concepts are observed within the respective literature review and discussion sections. The types of online harassment included are insults, devotion defending, threats and hacking.
The gathered data found that difference in the online harassment that female pop stars receive versus that toward male pop stars often lies in how people perceive their sexualities and physical appearances, as well as the distance perceived between the social media user and the celebrity. In the examples provided, women were regarded as “whores” for wearing certain clothing and blamed for issues in their relationships, whereas men were not seen as the problem and criticized for appearing too "feminine."
It is recommended that people become more aware of the consequences of online harassment in general, but particularly toward celebrities who are viewed as being unaffected by hate comments. Due to the limitations of this study, future research within this area should include people of color and various sectors of the entertainment industry.
ContributorsAyral, Nisa Marie (Author) / Gilpin, Dawn (Thesis director) / Halavais, Alexander (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Comm (Contributor, Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
Given the emergence of social media over the past decade and its popularity with adolescents, understanding its impact on this population is crucial to investigate. The purpose of this thesis was to identify potential links between social media use, identity formation, self-esteem, and social comparison motives. The first hypothesis proposed a positive association between passive social media use and identity moratorium, diffusion, and distress. The second hypothesis suggested self-esteem would mediate this relationship. The final hypothesis posited that the social comparison motives of self-destruction and self-evaluation would exacerbate negative influences of social media use on self-esteem and identity, while self-enhancement and self-improvement motives would buffer them. Two studies were conducted, one observational with 568 participants and one experimental with 15 participants. The first study found active social media use significantly predicted identity diffusion and distress, whereas the second study determined passive social media use led to identity distress. Self-esteem was not found to mediate either relationship. Finally, self-destruction, self-enhancement, self-evaluation, and self-improvement all had differing moderating effects on social media use and the distinct identity outcomes and self-esteem. These results introduce a new concern for late adolescents still developing their identities who utilize social media, as having an online presence can further impede commitment to an identity.
ContributorsCaldera, Karla (Author) / Mickelson, Kristin D (Thesis advisor) / Hall, Deborah (Committee member) / DeLay, Dawn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The purpose of this study is to examine if there exists a discrepancy between popular Westernized notions about the role of social media and the notions of those affected by the Green Revolution in Iran in 2009 and assess how this might change the dominant discourse of cyber-utopia. The internet has most certainly transformed our lives in unforeseeable ways having various and unknown shifting effects but the purpose of this research is to view the dominant discourse of liberation in comparison with the perceived meaning and function of the internet and social media within anti-democratic regimes. The awareness of global misconceptions are imperative to move away from the popular norm and scope of research that uses framing tactics of liberation and democratization because the development, adoption and political consequences of any technological tool within any society will always tell a story. The net effect of social media was silenced soon after the Green Revolution and many Iranians are still experiencing the consequences of their actions. The dark side of internet freedom in authoritative governments will assuredly play a role in forming a more comprehensive understanding of the revolutionary narrative that is social media as well as contributing to the overall relationship of how the internet influences the political realm. Iran represents a unique situation to analyze due to its politically closed landscape and historical global misperception about Iranian society and its citizenry. Through the utilization of personal narratives of individual Iranians directly or indirectly involved within the movement and an overview of global trends of suppression of online speech, this research attempts to show that no i universal framework exists when it comes to the discourse about social media because the characteristics of a society will ultimately drive the forces that influence technological manifestation.
ContributorsRassti, Afsanieh (Author) / Parmentier, Mary Jane (Thesis advisor) / Lim, Merlyna (Committee member) / Behinfar, Renee C (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This study aimed to advance understanding of the relation between social media and adolescent alcohol use while accounting for offline peer alcohol use, exploring offline peer alcohol use separately as a covariate and as a moderator, with an additional exploratory analysis of the relation between social media and alcohol use without offline peer alcohol use in the model. A total of 868 students (55% female) in grade 7 (n = 468) and grade 8 (n = 400) at wave 1, self-reported on alcohol use, binge drinking, and social media use as well as nominated friends from their school and grade. Data from nominated peers who also completed the questionnaires were used for peer-report of alcohol use. Data were collected annually from students at grades 8, 9, 10, and 11 were used in analyses. Final structural models consisted of a cross-lagged panel design with saved factor scores for social media and peer alcohol use predicting a categorical alcohol use variable or a binary binge drinking variable. With offline peer alcohol use as a covariate in the model, social media did not prospectively relate to subsequent grade alcohol use or binge drinking. However, without offline peer alcohol use, the path from social media use to subsequent grade alcohol use was significant but not the path to binge drinking. Offline peer alcohol use did not significantly moderate the relation between social media and subsequent grade alcohol use or binge drinking.
ContributorsCurlee, Alexandria Stephanie (Author) / Corbin, William R. (Thesis advisor) / Chassin, Laurie (Committee member) / Doane, Leah D (Committee member) / Grimm, Kevin J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020