Increasing numbers of people worldwide engage in online social networking, most notably the site of Facebook, yet little is known about the impact of online social networking as a communication and networking tool on users’ relational selves, skills and relationships. Counselling Psychology, with its emphasis on relational working with and understanding of clients, may need to develop a greater understanding of this area. This research, using a grounded theory methodology, is an exploratory study of the possible relational implications of online social networking. Semi-structured interviews (11 face to face and 3 via email) were conducted with 14 Facebook users to gather information about their experiences of the site and the impact of social networking on their relationships and relational selves. The findings, grounded in the participants’ accounts, led to theory development about the complicated relational experiences of Facebook users, which challenge their psychological state. There are indications that the loss of separation between public and private life has implications for both clients and Counselling Psychologists. Recommendations for both practice and further research conclude the thesis. Key Words: Counselling Psychology, Online Social Networking, Facebook, Relational, Internet, Technology, Paranoid-Schizoid Position, Interpersonal, Intrapsychic, Psychodynamic

This thesis explores how social networking sites are changing the way individuals socialize in everyday life, and how users mediate this social media. The hypothesis explored is that Facebook user’s perception of risk, when using the site, is related to how they frame the technology. Drawing on conceptual and theoretical tools from science studies and the sociologies of friendship, risk and surveillance, interview data is collected and analysed in order to identify the dynamics that structure Facebook use. It is concluded not only that, as hypothesized, participant’s awareness and perception of risk is based upon their framing of the social networking technology, but also that the framing processes arise from the technosocial hybrid nature of Facebook. That is to say, it is not exclusively based on technological possibility or on existing social practices but instead by a constant balance between the two.

Social media had an impactful role in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Facebook as a public sphere space was used as a powerful tool to enhance communicative action among Egyptians, dissidents, and global observers. Drawing on the philosophical and theoretical notions of individuality and the responsibilities of the state of John Locke (1689; 1690), Jean Jacques Rousseau (1762); the public sphere and communicative action of Jürgen Habermas (1981; 1989); and Manuel Castells network society and new public sphere (2004; 2006; 2008), this thesis empirically investigates the role of social media, specifically Facebook, during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Theories and concepts including the strength of weak ties, social movement theory, and Internet and organizational theory, a discussion of recent writings from both sides of the spectrum—those believing social media to hold power and those with the opposite view—inform the theoretical foundation of this thesis. The primary purpose of this thesis is to better understand what power lies in Facebook as used during the Egyptian Revolution. Using a qualitative approach, a methodological frame is employed to examine both the form and content of Facebook posts. This study concludes three major findings regarding the social power of Facebook during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution: the power of attention and momentum, the power of cooperation, and the creation of a repository of information and communication.

Personality plays an important role in various aspects of our daily life. It is being used in many application scenarios such as i) personalized marketing and advertisement of commercial products, ii) designing personalized ambient environments, iii) personalized avatars in virtual world, and iv) by psychologists to treat various mental and personality disorders. Traditional methods of personality assessment require a long questionnaire to be completed, which is time consuming. On the other hand, several works have been published that seek to acquire various personality traits by analyzing Internet usage statistics. Researchers have used Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and various other websites to collect usage statistics. However, we are still far from a successful outcome. This thesis uses a range of divergent features of Facebook and LinkedIn social networks, both separately and collectively, in order to achieve better results. In this work, the big five personality trait model is used to analyze the five traits: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The experimental results show that the accuracy of personality detection improves with the use of complementary features of multiple social networks (Facebook and LinkedIn, in our case) for openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism. However, for extroversion we found that the use of only LinkedIn features provides better results than the use of only Facebook features or both Facebook and LinkedIn features.

In this diploma thesis I deal with possibilities and conditions of increasing the competition abilities of companies by social networks. In the theoretical part I target essence and history of formation of social networks. I also looked at basic principles of their behaviour and discribed their sources of income. In the practical part I used various statistics of popularity and I chose social networks which can offer the highest increase of share at the market to companies which are interested. Consecutively I created analysis of penetration of chosen social networks to czech bussiness environment and I gave an objective account on this issue using case studies of the companies. At the end I suggested principles for successful managing of social networks comunity which should lead towards the increase of the ability to compete. The thesis will not be the most extensive one analysing social networks but it is a good summary of theoretical and practical knowledge and will serve as a very good inspiration for deeper research of with possibilities and conditions of increasing the competition abilities of companies by social networks.

This work shows the rate of use of Facebook of pupils aged 9 to 15 years in selected elementary schools in Prague, Brno and Ostrava. The aim of work is to describe new trends in communication of children and adolescents. The secondary objective is the prediction of the use of Facebook in the future. The aim of theoretical part is to describe what Facebook is, who the users are. I focused on psychological and social characteristics of children and adolescents, their communication, both face to face and virtual. Methodology of the practical part consists of analysis of the use of Facebook groups mentioned. It is focused mainly on determining of the research questions and hypotheses, the results of the survey and discussions.

The diploma thesis analyzes internet discussions and Facebook sites that relate to banks and banking products. This analysis has been prepared for the potential value for marketing purposes, but also for other users outside the field of marketing. The main objective is to propose a regularly administered overview containing metrics and characteristics, which would provide information about the current status of the topics that were discussed at the monitored data sources. At first are described the methods of marketing research regarding to the possibility of obtaining data based from Internet discussions. Next are described the intermediate objectives. The base is description of downloading data from the mentioned sources. There have been identified two web pages and Facebook profiles of five banks, which are the data sources. Another objective is to create Java programs for downloading data and storing them in Elasticsearch. This data is enriched by sentiment analysis of users' comments. The main objective is based on defined metrics and characteristics that will be displayed. Subsequently, the data are analyzed using the proposed visualization in the application Kibana. The resulting data are interpreted, and there is designed a form of their distribution, which is the main objective of this work. The contribution of this work is the description of the processing of data that can be obtained from the website and public Facebook profiles with emphasis on their content, and their further enrichment and finally data visualization designed for wide range of audience.

The aim of this thesis is to find a method how to test the tools for an intervention with procrastination on social networks. The thesis tests and according to a built scale evaluates if there are people who are addicted to social networks. Further, the thesis introduces tools suitable for the intervention of this addiction and states distinct suggestions on how to perform a wider research to explore the most suitable tools. The thesis compares both the software tools centered on measuring, blocking, hiding and aiming, and psychological tools centered on how to work with oneself through calming down and mindfulness or creating a personal vision. The research is aimed at the PC and smart phones Android platforms. The outcome is a suggestion to investigate both tools individually described and their variable combinations during the intervention of the addiction to social networks to closely understand the effect of their using and practical implementation.

This diploma thesis deals with various types of relations observable in social networks. First part contains survey of existing papers focused on social media data analysis and visualisations. This survey is followed by research of existing visualisation applications. The contribution of this thesis is a new look at relations on social networks, from the side of relationship between users who write posts on any given topic. To visualize these relations was chosen network graph. On the basis of established criteria existing instruments were evaluated and since any of them did not meet all requirements, I created new application for visualising relations. Thesis also includes a description of selection the appropriate libraries for its implementation, explanation of user interface and a summary of configuration options and customization. The end of the work contains analysis and visualisations made with newly-created tool.

The subject of the thesis The use of social media in marketing of retail is to analyze and evaluate success of the marketing strategy in social media used by retail. Comparing the effect of social media with competition and formulation of recommendation for analyzed company in efficient and successful communication on the social media. The theoretical part is focused on examination of performance issues. Also on examination of possibilities in using of social media in marketing strategy. Following methodic part shows used research and analythical methods. In the practical part the survey, competitive comparison and also content analysis is used to compare the effect of the analyzed company and its competitors on the social network, Facebook. Then according to the results of analysis the author suggests recommendations for better assessment of communication with customers by using social media. In conclusion, there is appreciation of the work and commenting defined hypotheses.