Social network sites (SNSs) have become a common part of everyday life for billions of people worldwide. Not everyone uses the same sites, nor are sites functionally equivalent in the eyes of users. Both established platforms and new upstarts may provide novel features or access to new audiences, yet users tend to remain on a few dominant platforms, especially Facebook, the world's reigning social network site. The goal of the present study is to understand why people are committed to specific social network sites, given that no site encompasses either all of a person's social connections or all possible gratifications available from online participation. Further, individuals do not always wish to have a single real-name identity for all online interactions, thus implying the necessary use of multiple accounts or sites. To understand SNS commitment, this study employs a mixed-methods research design by combining findings from a survey of 800 respondents with 50 semi-structured interviews. The research focuses on young adults in the UK and their use of four popular SNSs: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Findings indicate that network size has only a marginal effect on commitment, whereas the effect of identity performance is more pronounced, albeit in different ways on different sites. Social and informational gratifications have the strongest effect across all four SNSs, suggesting that commitment is primarily driven by repeated habit-forming experiences. To further help explain SNS commitment, this thesis employs a typology of social media users based on attitudes towards digital technology. It is evident that attitudes explain more variation in commitment than either demographic factors or personality. Qualitative analysis reinforces this finding by showing how users employ specific gratification-based repertoires to determine which sites to use and when. These findings help advance research on affordances, self-presentation and SNS use, while also making practical recommendations for social media platforms.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-23T14:33:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao.pdf: 2872996 bytes, checksum: 65ea8697ae5a923ad998749ced102e84 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-07-08 / It deals with a conception of an integrated communication and on-line tool, FACIO , whose target is to make the written messages management easier, which are elaborated in organized chat groups by themes. This tool searchs to atack two current problems: the great volume of interactions and contacts that someone has to manage and, with the scattered way this interactions happen. The tool is within the computer mediated communication (CMC) and in relation to face to face, the tools of CMC present deficiencies connected to the loss of conversation context in the chats and the loss of social and affective perception in the groups. Among the several proposed strategies, the use of the techniques of the information visualization area is one that is discussed. The application scenario is the teaching and learning, therefore some hypothetical aspects about the social relation among the ones involved are presented and correlated to the use of the tool. Some facilitator conditions to a situation of learning, of humanistic aspect, are also commented. By intending the dominion s exploration in a comprising way and with no commitment with a particular technology. The ontologies were an instrument of support to the used methodology. About the tool s resources, the integration is an important feature. For instance, synchronized and unsynchronized chats that usually are realized by various tools can be treated in an integrated and ortogonal way with FACIO. / Trata a concepção de uma ferramenta de comunicação integrada e on-line, o FACIO, cuja finalidade é facilitar o gerenciamento de mensagens escritas, elaboradas em conversas de grupos organizados em temas. A ferramenta busca atacar dois problemas atuais: o grande volume de interações e contatos que um indivíduo deve gerenciar e a forma dispersa com que essas interações ocorrem. A ferramenta está dentro da área de comunicação mediada por computador (CMC) e em relação à comunicação face a face, as ferramentas de CMC apresentam deficiências ligadas à perda de contexto nas conversas e a perda de percepção social e afetiva nos grupos. Dentre as várias estratégias propostas, o uso das técnicas da área de visualização de informações é uma discutida. O cenário de aplicação é o ensino e aprendizagem, portanto, alguns aspectos teóricos sobre a relação social entre os envolvidos são apresentados e correlacionados com o uso da ferramenta. Algumas condições facilitadoras para uma situação de aprendizagem, de aspecto humanista, também são comentadas. Por se pretender explorar o domínio de maneira mais abrangente e escompromissada com uma tecnologia em particular, as ontologias foram um instrumento de apoio à metodologia usada. Sobre os recursos da ferramenta, a integração é um traço importante. Por exemplo, conversas assíncronas e síncronas, que usualmente são realizadas por diversas ferramentas, podem ser tratadas de maneira integrada e ortogonal no FACIO.

Background: Suicidal young adults often confide their distress to peers. It is unclear, however, what types of assistance a friend may offer in response to various symptoms of distress as well as whether the sex of either individual affects responses. Aims: We examined open-ended responses to e-mail vignettes from a fictitious friend exhibiting depressed, irritable, or overtly suicidal communications. Method: College student participants (n = 106) read e-mail messages from a fictitious friend, to which they composed a reply. Replies were coded to reflect the presence/absence of mention of professional help, problem-oriented (personal) help, and social support. Results: Problem-oriented help was offered the most across conditions; professional help was offered least in response to depressed or irritable vignettes. Women were more likely to offer any type of help than men. Patterns of help-giving and sex differences in help-giving varied by condition. Conclusions: Results indicate students’ preferences for solving peer problems personally rather than professionally. Campus prevention and intervention efforts should focus on enhancing students’ peer support and referral skills.

<p>This dissertation is a study of social interaction in virtual worlds and virtual world design. A virtual world is a synchronous, multi-user system that offers a persistent spatial environment for iconically represented participants. Together, these form an example of social interaction design. I have applied an arena perspective on my object of study, meaning that I focus on these socio-technical systems as places.</p><p>I have investigated the persistent qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds. What I have found is that virtual worlds are as real as the physical world. They are filled with real people interacting with each other evoking real emotions and leading to real consequences. There are no fixed boundaries between the virtual and physical arenas that make up a participant’s lifeworld.</p><p>I have found that participants in virtual worlds are not anonymous and bodiless actors on a level playing field. Participants construct everything needed to create social structures such as identities and status symbols. The qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds cannot be measured against physical interaction. Doing so conceals the qualities of virtual interaction. Through the concepts of levity and proximity, I offer an alternative measure that better captures the unique properties of the medium. Levity is related to the use of avatars and the displacement into a virtual context and manifests itself as a kind of lightness in the way participants approach the interaction. Proximity is my term for the transformation of social distances that takes place in virtual worlds. While participants perceive that they are in the same place despite being physically separated, the technology can also create barriers separating participants from their physical surroundings. The gap between the participant and her avatar is also of social significance.</p><p>As a theoretical foundation for design, I have used Michael Heim’s writings and practices as a base for a phenomenologically grounded approach, which provides an alternative to the dominating perspectives of architecture and engineering. Based on an explorative design project and the earlier mentioned findings regarding social interaction, I have formulated a model for virtual world design called interacture. This model takes the interaction between participants as the fundamental building material and the starting point of the design process. From there, layers of function and structure are added, all the time balancing the design between fantasy and realism.</p><p>I have explored the possibilities of using ethnographic studies as the foundation for a participant centered design approach. I have aimed for an inside view of my object of study both as an ethnographer and as a designer. One outcome of this approach is that I have come to understand virtual worlds not just as places but also as processes where the experience of participating can change drastically over time as the participant reaches new stages in the process.</p><p>In conclusion, the method of integrating ethnography with design and the understanding of social interaction as the fundamental building material is woven into a general approach to the study and design of socio-technical systems called social interaction design.</p>

<p>- ABSTRACT –</p><p>Title: Winners of the Web ( Webbens vinnare)</p><p>Number of pages: 35 (including enclosures)</p><p>Author: Lydia Kellam</p><p>Tutor: Else Nygren</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C</p><p>Period: Fall Semester 2006</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science</p><p>Purpose: The aim of the research paper was to see Internet and the digital techniques impact on marketing communication and consuming behavior on the Web. By understanding the relationship between marketing communication and consumer behavior my intentions were to comprehend how consumer behavior on the web could be understand. The purpose of this paper is to understand how different marketing activities on the Internet are followed by consumption.</p><p>Material/Method: By using focus group interviews I wanted to study how individuals act on the Internet. How different activities such as communication and participation on the web could lead to consumption on the Internet. As a method, focus group interviews capture the social interactions and participants affect each other. The social effect, in particularly, gained the results and the analysis of this paper.</p><p>Main Result: Consumer on the Internet experience that commercial messages on the Web are overloaded, and use consumer powered sites an alternative. Consumer driven websites increases and so is the influence of the consumer,since users on the web reject the commercial messages, a strategy where the interaction between companies and consumer is supportive for both parties is demanded. There fore a more individual aim on the marketing communication on the Internet is required. For example commercial messages that are directed to a specific consumer, and that relate to the interactive possibilities on the Web.</p><p>Keywords: Internet, New Media, Web 2.0, Marketing Communication, Computer Mediated Communication, Consumer behavior, Social Interactions, Digital marketing, Digital consumption.</p>

This dissertation is a study of social interaction in virtual worlds and virtual world design. A virtual world is a synchronous, multi-user system that offers a persistent spatial environment for iconically represented participants. Together, these form an example of social interaction design. I have applied an arena perspective on my object of study, meaning that I focus on these socio-technical systems as places. I have investigated the persistent qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds. What I have found is that virtual worlds are as real as the physical world. They are filled with real people interacting with each other evoking real emotions and leading to real consequences. There are no fixed boundaries between the virtual and physical arenas that make up a participant’s lifeworld. I have found that participants in virtual worlds are not anonymous and bodiless actors on a level playing field. Participants construct everything needed to create social structures such as identities and status symbols. The qualities of social interaction in virtual worlds cannot be measured against physical interaction. Doing so conceals the qualities of virtual interaction. Through the concepts of levity and proximity, I offer an alternative measure that better captures the unique properties of the medium. Levity is related to the use of avatars and the displacement into a virtual context and manifests itself as a kind of lightness in the way participants approach the interaction. Proximity is my term for the transformation of social distances that takes place in virtual worlds. While participants perceive that they are in the same place despite being physically separated, the technology can also create barriers separating participants from their physical surroundings. The gap between the participant and her avatar is also of social significance. As a theoretical foundation for design, I have used Michael Heim’s writings and practices as a base for a phenomenologically grounded approach, which provides an alternative to the dominating perspectives of architecture and engineering. Based on an explorative design project and the earlier mentioned findings regarding social interaction, I have formulated a model for virtual world design called interacture. This model takes the interaction between participants as the fundamental building material and the starting point of the design process. From there, layers of function and structure are added, all the time balancing the design between fantasy and realism. I have explored the possibilities of using ethnographic studies as the foundation for a participant centered design approach. I have aimed for an inside view of my object of study both as an ethnographer and as a designer. One outcome of this approach is that I have come to understand virtual worlds not just as places but also as processes where the experience of participating can change drastically over time as the participant reaches new stages in the process. In conclusion, the method of integrating ethnography with design and the understanding of social interaction as the fundamental building material is woven into a general approach to the study and design of socio-technical systems called social interaction design.

The general purpose of this thesis is to understand how participation in the activity of education relates to communication and tools. This purpose unfolds by drawing on possible conceivable consequences. In the fulfilment of this purpose communication, education, participation, and tools are analytically linked by a common denominator: human action. The commentary text expounds on these links, while the four included papers illustrate how these links operate in educational settings. The general purpose serves to frame a narrower purpose: a discussion of participation through computer-mediated communication in online settings of Swedish higher education. The theoretical departure derives from a transactional approach that embraces human action as an inseparable aspect of a dynamic whole, here defined as the activity of education. This activity is discussed in terms of its cultural, ecological, historical, and social aspects. This theoretical departure embraces ideas largely taken from ecological, pragmatic and sociocultural perspectives of human action. The papers include analyses of, variously, empirical material taken from interviews with students, online exchanges of utterances, syllabuses, and study-guides. Two of the papers are literature reviews. The findings indicate that participation in education is a complex boundless phenomenon that is best understood as a dynamic whole. In this whole, participation in education is culturally, ecologically, historically, and socially transformed by actions, agents, communication, tools, and the setting. In this thesis, concepts such as computermediated communication, communicative genres, dialogical intersections, and educational settings are utilised to reach a dynamic understanding. The dynamics of these findings, therefore, are a challenge to all dualistic conceptualisations of education, such as those building on the idea of learners operating in learning environments. Particularly, these findings challenge operationalisations of education that rely on computer-mediated communication and which build on the idea of so-called online learning environments. A more coherent understanding of participation in education is possible if educational research and design builds on a non-dualistic conceptualisation that includes the idea of participation being performed in a boundless activity.

- ABSTRACT – Title: Winners of the Web ( Webbens vinnare) Number of pages: 35 (including enclosures) Author: Lydia Kellam Tutor: Else Nygren Course: Media and Communication Studies C Period: Fall Semester 2006 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science Purpose: The aim of the research paper was to see Internet and the digital techniques impact on marketing communication and consuming behavior on the Web. By understanding the relationship between marketing communication and consumer behavior my intentions were to comprehend how consumer behavior on the web could be understand. The purpose of this paper is to understand how different marketing activities on the Internet are followed by consumption. Material/Method: By using focus group interviews I wanted to study how individuals act on the Internet. How different activities such as communication and participation on the web could lead to consumption on the Internet. As a method, focus group interviews capture the social interactions and participants affect each other. The social effect, in particularly, gained the results and the analysis of this paper. Main Result: Consumer on the Internet experience that commercial messages on the Web are overloaded, and use consumer powered sites an alternative. Consumer driven websites increases and so is the influence of the consumer,since users on the web reject the commercial messages, a strategy where the interaction between companies and consumer is supportive for both parties is demanded. There fore a more individual aim on the marketing communication on the Internet is required. For example commercial messages that are directed to a specific consumer, and that relate to the interactive possibilities on the Web. Keywords: Internet, New Media, Web 2.0, Marketing Communication, Computer Mediated Communication, Consumer behavior, Social Interactions, Digital marketing, Digital consumption.

Parents and children increasingly spend time living apart due to marital separation and work travel. I investigated parent--child separation in both of these contexts to find that current technologies frequently do not meet the needs of families. The telephone is easy-to-use and ubiquitous but does not provide an engaging way of communicating with children. Videochat is more emotionally expressive and has a greater potential for engagement but is difficult to set up and cannot be used by a child without the help of an adult. Both telephone and videochat fail to meet the needs of remote parenting because they focus on conversation rather than care and play activities, which are the mechanism by which parents and children build closeness. I also saw that in both types of separation the motivation to connect at times conflicted with desire to reduce disruption of the remote household. To address some of these issues, I designed a system called the ShareTable, which provides easy-to-initiate videochat with a shared tabletop activity space. After an initial lab-based evaluation confirmed the promise of this approach, I deployed the ShareTable to four households (two sets of divorced families). I collected data about the families' remote interactions before and during the deployment. Remote communication more than doubled for each of these families while using the ShareTable and I saw a marked increase in the number of communication sessions initiated by the child. The ShareTable provided benefits over previous communication systems and supported activities that are impossible with other currently available technologies. One of the biggest successes of the system was in providing an overlapped video space that families appropriated to communicate metaphorical touch and a sense of closeness. However, the ShareTable also introduced a new source of conflict for parents and challenged the families as they tried to develop practices of using the system that would be acceptable to all involved. The families' approach to these challenges as well as explicit feedback about the system informs future directions for synchronous communication systems for separated families.

This study examines the functions of phrases with the word missverstehen in any inflected form in German discussion groups. The corpus consists of about 600 different messages with a phrase containing the verb missverstehen from all kinds of discussion groups speaking the German language. The hypothesis is that those phrases do not always refer to a factual misunderstanding in the communication. There is no such thing as total understanding in communication, since people cannot fully know how other people are thinking. Instead understanding is a social construct. Misunderstanding occurs when a group member cannot interpret a message so that it correlates with what the sender has meant. This understanding contains both the discussed theme as well as the relation between the group members. Relevance occurs when interpretable information is communicated through contextualization cues. Some cues carry information about the discussed theme, others communicate face work. A misunderstanding is caused by missing contextualization cues, i. e. the message is irrelevant. The study shows how the communicators can construct a disagreement as a misunderstanding, which it in turn has an impact on face work. The phrase is then being used together with added contextualization cues in order to construct a common understanding. Thereby the communicators can influence the interaction. This is done in a sequence in the discussion group. Hence the script theory (Schank/Abelson 1977) aims to describe the phenomenon of how a phrase with the word missverstehen can be used for different purposes. One script is defined for each purpose. The difference between the scripts is being maintained by the contextualization cue that carries the information about how the relations between group members are interacted.