Jaclyn Abraham, Rebecca Roth, H. Zinzow, K. Madathil, P. Wisniewski
Viral social media challenges have erupted across multiple social media platforms. While social media users participate in prosocial challenges designed to support good causes, like the Ice Bucket Challenge, some challenges (e.g., Cinnamon Challenge) can also potentially be dangerous. To understand the influential factors, experiences, and reflections of young adults who participated in a viral social media challenge in the past, we conducted interviews with 30 college students (ages 18-27). We applied behavioral contagion theory as a qualitative lens to understand whether this theory could help explain the factors that contributed to their participation. We found that behavior contagion theory was useful but not fully able to explain how and why young social media users engaged in viral challenges. Thematic analyses uncovered that overt social influence and intrinsic factors (i.e., social pressure, entertainment value, and attention-seeking) also played a key role in challenge participation. Additionally, we identified divergent patterns between prosocial and potentially risky social media challenges. Those who participated in prosocial challenges appeared to be more socially motivated as they saw more similarities between themselves and the individuals that they observed performing the challenges and were more likely to be directly encouraged by their friends to participate. In contrast, those who performed potentially risky challenges often did not see similarities with other challenge participants, nor did they receive direct encouragement from peers; yet, half of these participants said they would not have engaged in the challenge had they been more aware of the potential for physical harm. We consider the benefits and risks that viral social media challenges present for young adults with the intent of optimizing these interactions by mitigating risks, rather than discouraging them altogether.
{"title":"Applying Behavioral Contagion Theory to Examining Young Adults’ Participation in Viral Social Media Challenges","authors":"Jaclyn Abraham, Rebecca Roth, H. Zinzow, K. Madathil, P. Wisniewski","doi":"10.1145/3538383","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3538383","url":null,"abstract":"Viral social media challenges have erupted across multiple social media platforms. While social media users participate in prosocial challenges designed to support good causes, like the Ice Bucket Challenge, some challenges (e.g., Cinnamon Challenge) can also potentially be dangerous. To understand the influential factors, experiences, and reflections of young adults who participated in a viral social media challenge in the past, we conducted interviews with 30 college students (ages 18-27). We applied behavioral contagion theory as a qualitative lens to understand whether this theory could help explain the factors that contributed to their participation. We found that behavior contagion theory was useful but not fully able to explain how and why young social media users engaged in viral challenges. Thematic analyses uncovered that overt social influence and intrinsic factors (i.e., social pressure, entertainment value, and attention-seeking) also played a key role in challenge participation. Additionally, we identified divergent patterns between prosocial and potentially risky social media challenges. Those who participated in prosocial challenges appeared to be more socially motivated as they saw more similarities between themselves and the individuals that they observed performing the challenges and were more likely to be directly encouraged by their friends to participate. In contrast, those who performed potentially risky challenges often did not see similarities with other challenge participants, nor did they receive direct encouragement from peers; yet, half of these participants said they would not have engaged in the challenge had they been more aware of the potential for physical harm. We consider the benefits and risks that viral social media challenges present for young adults with the intent of optimizing these interactions by mitigating risks, rather than discouraging them altogether.","PeriodicalId":446318,"journal":{"name":"Transactions on Social Computing","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128951257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
An emerging narrative on social media challenges the premise that the repertoire against immigrants is caused by xenophobia. We identify and propose the phenomenon of co-opted marginality or the claims of being victimized by dominant groups that are not conventionally at the margin. We examine how a controlled media environment in Singapore influences citizens (n = 36) who claim co-opted marginality when expressing anti-immigrant sentiments online. We further investigate the role of the social media techno-structure in encouraging interactions with this discourse. Contrary to prior literature, we find that social media affordances, such as curation and identification, can discourage citizens from actively engaging with prejudicial and discriminatory language while facilitating the emergence and maintenance of discursive strategies such as co-opted marginality, which conform to contextual normative constraints.
{"title":"Co-opted Marginality in a Controlled Media Environment: The Influence of Social Media Affordances on the Immigration Discourse","authors":"C. Emes, A. Chib","doi":"10.1145/3532103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3532103","url":null,"abstract":"An emerging narrative on social media challenges the premise that the repertoire against immigrants is caused by xenophobia. We identify and propose the phenomenon of co-opted marginality or the claims of being victimized by dominant groups that are not conventionally at the margin. We examine how a controlled media environment in Singapore influences citizens (n = 36) who claim co-opted marginality when expressing anti-immigrant sentiments online. We further investigate the role of the social media techno-structure in encouraging interactions with this discourse. Contrary to prior literature, we find that social media affordances, such as curation and identification, can discourage citizens from actively engaging with prejudicial and discriminatory language while facilitating the emergence and maintenance of discursive strategies such as co-opted marginality, which conform to contextual normative constraints.","PeriodicalId":446318,"journal":{"name":"Transactions on Social Computing","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122365935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yelena Mejova, Jisun An, G. D. F. Morales, Haewoon Kwak
The United States have some of the highest rates of gun violence among developed countries. Yet, there is a disagreement about the extent to which firearms should be regulated. In this study, we employ social media signals to examine the predictors of offline political activism, at both population and individual level. We show that it is possible to classify the stance of users on the gun issue, especially accurately when network information is available. Alongside socioeconomic variables, network information such as the relative size of the two sides of the debate is also predictive of state-level gun policy. On individual level, we build a statistical model using network, content, and psycho-linguistic features that predicts real-life political action, and explore the most predictive linguistic features. Thus, we argue that, alongside demographics and socioeconomic indicators, social media provides useful signals in the holistic modeling of political engagement around the gun debate.
{"title":"Modeling Political Activism around Gun Debate via Social Media","authors":"Yelena Mejova, Jisun An, G. D. F. Morales, Haewoon Kwak","doi":"10.1145/3532102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3532102","url":null,"abstract":"The United States have some of the highest rates of gun violence among developed countries. Yet, there is a disagreement about the extent to which firearms should be regulated. In this study, we employ social media signals to examine the predictors of offline political activism, at both population and individual level. We show that it is possible to classify the stance of users on the gun issue, especially accurately when network information is available. Alongside socioeconomic variables, network information such as the relative size of the two sides of the debate is also predictive of state-level gun policy. On individual level, we build a statistical model using network, content, and psycho-linguistic features that predicts real-life political action, and explore the most predictive linguistic features. Thus, we argue that, alongside demographics and socioeconomic indicators, social media provides useful signals in the holistic modeling of political engagement around the gun debate.","PeriodicalId":446318,"journal":{"name":"Transactions on Social Computing","volume":"128 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122450275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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