abstract: Previous research used the context-free Big Five model of personality traits to predict social media behaviors. The perspective implicit in this research assumes that expression of the Big Five is free of situational context. This thesis challenges this assumption to address whether people express the same Big Five on social media as offline. In two studies, this thesis addressed three issues: (1) whether there are self-reported differences in the Big Five between social media/online and offline contexts, (2) whether a five-factor structure replicates in the offline and social media context reports, and (3) whether the predictive validity of the Big Five is the same between offline and social media contexts. College students (total N = 2102) reported their offline and social media Big Five. Main findings reveal that, first, all of the Big Five have lower expressions in social media/online than offline, except for those in the lowest quartile of offline trait expressions; possible explanations include regression towards the mean or the environmental impact of social media. Second, a similar factor structure appeared with openness, extraversion, and neuroticism items being the most robust between offline and social media contexts. However, some conscientiousness and agreeableness items did not apply across offline and social media contexts. Third, the Big Five had different predictive patterns of social media behaviors depending on the context. These findings inform that future research may better serve to specify the context of Big Five expression to understand social media behavior. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2020

There’s no denying the ever increasing presence of social networking in our daily lives. Every day, people share what they are thinking, doing, and experiencing. But even more so, they check their favorite networks to see what the people in their lives are sharing. Social networking has become so prevalent that most applications incorporate it since it keeps users engaged and beckons them back to the application again and again. PolyXpress is an interactive, location-based storytelling mobile application that functions as a platform for creating and experiencing stories. Written as a research project at California Polytechnic State University, it allows users to play through stories in real-world locations by using their smart phones. However, in an age of social networking, PolyXpress falls behind the curve, as it does not contain any social features. The work in this thesis aims to test if adding social networking features to PolyX- press will increase user engagement by performing a usability study. The new social features allow users to participate in public forums about stories, message friends while playing stories, and view their friends’ experiences within the app. The results of the study indicate that the overall user experience of PolyXpress was not increased by the social networking features; however, these features are desired and liked by the users. 70% of the experimental group enjoyed using the social features, while 30% remained indifferent. The problem is that the new features disrupted app satisfac- tion, as UI satisfaction decreased from 100% with the control group to 40% with the experimental group.

This paper assesses the relationship between Social Networking Sites (SNS) and the effect of its excessive use on a user’s spelling capabilities and academic performance by using a single-factor, multi-level between subjects design (One-way ANOVA). The One way Anova was applied to SNS use (independent variable) and spelling and academic performance (dependent variables). Furthermore, the independent variable consists of three levels, a few times a month or never, a few times a week and every day. Out of a possible 107 respondents a total of 56 respondents, distributed across the various groups, completed the test. A spelling test together with the academic records was used as an instrument to measure their spelling capabilities. The findings suggest that students that make excessive use of SNS performed worse in the spelling test than students that do not make use of SNS or make use of SNS a few times a month. In addition, it is established that the SNS use has no effect on spelling. Conclusions from this study are that social networking sites have many various impacts on the youth, some being positive and others negative. Although the end result was that SNS do not “significantly” affect your spelling capabilities it is suggested that further research be carried out on this topic on a larger and more representative sample. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Psychology / MA / Unrestricted

The current research study examined the way that social networking site use impacts individuals’ self-esteem in relation to their romantic relationship, relationship satisfaction, and social comparison orientation. Previous research has established links between SNS use and negative mental health outcomes, but no current research studies SNS use, specifically time spent on SNS use, and how it relates to self-esteem, relationship satisfaction, and social comparison orientation. Using social comparison theory, this study predicted that increased time spent on SNSs would negatively impact relationship satisfaction, self-esteem, and positively predict social comparison orientation. An online survey was used to test the relationship among these variables by asking questions and using scales related to relationship satisfaction, relationship contingent self-esteem, and social comparison orientation, while looking at how time spent on SNS impacted these results, as well as how often an individual posts about their relationship impacted the results. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. This study found that increased time spent on SNS platforms did negatively impact relationship satisfaction and self-esteem, as well as positively predict social comparison orientation. Although, some of the hypotheses were not supported or were only partially supported, the findings from this study further show the importance of understanding SNS use, especially in the clinical context, so it can be assessed and utilized in the therapy setting.

There is little in the existing literature that provides practical information on the link between co-creation and the internet as well as guidance on how to facilitate cocreation in the online environment. This study sought to address these gaps and particularly the lack of guidance on the practical act of co-creation and the relationship between co-creation and the online environment. A quantitative research methodology with a descriptive design was followed. The data for the study was collected by way of an internet survey. The population for the research was defined as the users of the online cycling social network, www.thehubsa.co.za. A topic explaining the purpose of the study and inviting users to participate was posted on the website. The study revealed the existence of a new two factor solution related to the separate co-creation and Web 2.0 applications constructs. In this respect the Interact and Use components (co-creation) as well as the Creating and Sharing components (Web 2.0 applications) could provide the foundation for construct validity for more comprehensive scales.The ability of a user to Author content on a website was found to be of particular practical importance in facilitating co-creation. Providing this functionality to a customer may be the key to the missing “how to” element of online co-creation. The ability of a social networking website, such as www.thehubsa.co.za, to encourage general product/service usage appears to be the main attraction to advertisers. Advertisers looking to build their brands may not necessarily obtain the same benefits from the website. Findings regarding impact on usage were inconclusive and further research is suggested. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and My Space have experience rapid worldwide growth. It is crucial that this global phenomenon be investigated within the South African context. Social networking is a relatively new trend in South Africa and there is a paucity of academic literature on the topic. This quantitative study investigated one of the most popular social networking websites to date, namely Facebook. Facebook is a social networking website which was launched in early 2004. The primary research question focused on determining the usage patterns of South African Facebook users. In specific, the study investigated the purposes for which the site was used, the self-reported substitution of Facebook usage for face-to-face interaction and the relationship between Facebook affinity and Facebook use. A survey research design was used to collect data via an electronic questionnaire posted on Facebook. The theoretical point of departure was post-positivist. Media theories applied to the phenomenon under investigation include the uses and gratifications theory and the theory of the niche. The findings suggest that Facebook is primarily used for its intended purpose of communication. The respondents reported the gratification of versatile (multipurpose) communication. Furthermore, only half of the sample reported privacy concerns regarding Facebook. There was no significant indication that Facebook is a substitute for face-to-face interaction. Half of the sample claimed that their interpersonal contact has increased as a result of Facebook use. In addition, in accordance with expectations, the more affiliated a person is to Facebook, the more they will use Facebook. The findings of this study conform to other studies concerning social networking and provide a South African view of the global phenomenon of social networking websites. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Psychology / unrestricted

Abstract The purpose of this qualitative study was to answer the questions by interviewing eight women about their experiences: How do women who have been subjected to psychological violence in close relation feel that they have been met by their social network? Why do women stay in relationships where they are subjected to psychological violence? The theoretical framework of the study includes Pierre Bourdieu's concept of social capital and Thomas Scheff's theory of social ties. A gender perspective has been used to map patriarchal structures. The results showed that the weak ties that arise in the relationship lead to the women experiencing shame and fear, which means that they remain in the relationships and that they do not tell the network about the violence. Women are treated to varying degrees but usually with understanding and empathy. It also emerged that the women tended to stay in the relationship if they lacked other people to identify with. How women's living conditions are degraded by destructive relationships is also affected by women's subordination in society. Keywords: Violence in close relationship, psychological violence, social networking, the normalization process, shame, separation

There is a fast increase of information and data generation in virtual environments due to microblogging sites such as Twitter, a social network that produces an average of 8, 000 tweets per second, and up to 550 million tweets per day. That's why this and many other social networks are overloaded with content, making it difficult for users to identify information topics because of the large number of tweets related to different issues. Due to the uncertainty that harms users who created the content, this study proposes a method for inferring the most representative topics that occurred in a time period of 1 day through the selection of user profiles who are experts in sports and politics. It is calculated considering the number of times this topic was mentioned by experts in their timelines. This experiment included a dataset extracted from Twitter, which contains 10, 750 tweets related to sports and 8, 758 tweets related to politics. All tweets were obtained from user timelines selected by the researchers, who were considered experts in their respective subjects due to the content of their tweets. The results show that the effective selection of users, together with the index of relevance implemented for the topics, can help to more easily find important topics in both sport and politics.

Startups face a wide range of opportunities and challenges when it comes to building their brand value and by extension brand image, due to possessing both limited financial and human resources. Hence, developing a distinct and enduring brand is a critical competitive imperative for them. Evidence exists to suggest that co-creating brand value is an effective means of achieving this. This paper looks at how startups can co-create brand value, through the medium of social networks, that may lead to a favorable brand image. This thesis study adopts interpretivism as its main research philosophy. The thesis is based on inductive reasoning and qualitative research methods through multiple case study research, with a combined research design of explorative and descriptive. The study uses semi-structured interviews and a literature review to collect primary and secondary data. This study suggests that co-creation is a creative and innovative strategy. It is used by companies to co-create brand value through social networks, where factors such as trust, accessibility, flexibility, and commitment, play a substantial role for engagement and brand image building through co-creation.

The main aim of this diploma thesis, that names "New challenges of the Surveillance theory", is to describe the surveillance theory in today's social network society by using information theory. Accordingly, I will verify the theory of surveillance in two case studies. First case study verifies an impact of Facebook's profiles content on the hiring decisions. The second case sudy analyzes regular day of concrete person in context of surveillance. Both case studies demonstrate surveillance in different surveillance sites.