In the present day, excessive social media use has become synonymous with the younger generation. Prolonged social media interaction has resulted in new terminology describing the compulsive need for internet and social media use: internet addiction. This is a new term, and while it has not been defined as a clinical addiction used in acute care settings (Zahrai et al., 2022), it is important to understand its symptoms, like excessive social media use. Given the rapid speed of social media integration in modern society, it is important to investigate how excessive social media use (ESMU), as defined by Zahrai et al., 2022, affects the way information is trusted. The present study intends to contribute to the understanding of trust dynamics in the era of mass media consumption, thereby studying if college students with ESMU show signs of trust when viewing a news report from a TikTok video, or from a video emulating a traditional news presentation. Another area of investigation for the current study is if the presence of a beauty filter placed on the presenter affects the trust of the participants. Further, if sex at birth has a significant difference in TikTok compulsivity (as defined by Meerkerk et. al, 2009 internet compulsivity scale), trust in news media, and trust in the studies presentation. 94 participants, who were all aged 18 or older and undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida living in the United States, completed an online survey-based questionnaire. The study consisted of a TikTok-modified Compulsive Internet Use Scale (CIUS), a Trust in News Media Scale, and a post-experiment-questionnaire. Participants were randomly assigned one of four fake-news presentations. All the videos had the same presenter and script, but differed in orientation (either horizontal, like a news story seen on a television, or vertical, like a TikTok video) and if there was a beauty filter placed upon the presenter. This created four conditions for participants. The results suggest that there is no difference in trust between any of the video conditions, regardless of orientation or filter. Furthermore, the results indicate that males have less TikTok compulsivity compared to females. In conclusion, the results suggest that there are differences in the sexes when it comes to TikTok compulsivity, however this does not affect the way individuals trust a news presentation. Furthermore, there is no difference in sex when it comes to trusting the news media. This suggests that college students with ESMU are spending more time on TikTok, and not displaying a deferral of risk when it comes to consuming information from the news. Further, college students with ESMU are not affected by a filter or the orientation of a video when receiving news. This indicates that they are both equally distrusting and trusting of news regardless of the platform it is received.

Social applications on the Web have appeared as communication spaces for sharing knowledge and information. In particular, social applications can be considered valuable information sources because information in the applications is not only easily accessible but also revealing in that the information accrues via interactions between people. In this work, we address methods for finding relevant information in social media applications that use unique properties of these applications. In particular, we focus on three unique structures in social media: hierarchical structure, conversational structure, and social structure. Hierarchical structures are used to organize information according to certain rules. Conversational structures are formed by interactions within communities such as replies. Social structures represent social relationships among community members. These structures are designed to organize information and encourage people to participate in discussions in social applications. Accordingly, contexts extracted from these structures can be used to improve the effectiveness of search in social media relative to representations based solely on text content. To exploit these structures in retrieval frameworks, we need to address three challenges as follows. First, we should discover each structure because it is often obscure. Second, we need to extract relevant contexts from each structure because not all the contexts in a structure are relevant for retrieval. Last, we should represent each context or their combinations in a representation framework so that they can be encoded as retrieval components such as documents. In this work, we introduce an effective representation framework for multiple contexts. We then discuss how to discover or define each structure and how to extract relevant contexts from the structure. Using the representation framework, these relevant contexts are integrated into retrieval algorithms. To demonstrate that these structures can improve search in social media, the retrieval models and frameworks incorporating these structures are evaluated through experiments using data collections gathered from a variety of social media applications. In addition, we address two minor challenges related to social media search. First, it is not always easy to find relevant information from relevant objects if the objects are large. Accordingly, we address identification of relevant substructures in such objects. Second, text reuse structures are important since these structures have the potential to affect various retrieval tasks. In this thesis, we introduce text reuse structures and analyze text reuse patterns in real social applications.

Yang and colleagues (2018) found that social media comparison was related to identity distress. The purpose of the current study was to expand on their design, by examining multiple comparison factors (i.e., Ability, Opinion, Popularity, Likeness, Physical Appearance, Academic Status/Achievements, Work Status/Achievements, Relationship Status, Family Status, and Socioeconomic Status) and multiple identity development factors (i.e., Ruminative Exploration, Exploration in Breadth, Exploration in Depth, Commitment Making, and Identification with Commitment) on their ability to predict Identity Distress. College students (N= 407) in psychology courses participated in an anonymous online survey for course credit. The results were consistent with the findings of Yang and colleagues (2018) but expands upon their model and thereby adds to the literature on the effects of social media on identity, which raises some important concerns regarding identity development among today’s youth.

Trends in self-presentation in social media (i.e., Twitter and Instagram) constantly fluctuate as fads come and go, especially when one’s image is being commodified. Specifically, numerous instances of celebrities and social media influencers altering their images to fit popular online trends and “aesthetics” contribute to increased blackfishing, Asianfishing, and Hispanicfishing. Some celebrities and influencers accused of “-fishing” in the presentation of ethnicity include the Kardashians, Ariana Grande, Addison Rae, Iggy Azalea, Selena Gomez, and Gigi Hadid. The present study (N = 685) investigated gender, personality, fame appeal, self-esteem, and need to belong in relation to attitudes towards the “-fishing” culture. Gender was a significant predictor of acceptance of this phenomenon and participation in it, with males less accepting compared to females. Higher scores in any of the Dark Triad personality types, including Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, were significant predictors in participation in “-fishing,” but not in attitudes toward it. Fame appeal, self-esteem, and the need to belong were not predictors of either attitude toward or participation in “-fishing.”

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Facebook is the biggest social network and therefore it is of interest to view how people get immersed into the user experience of it. Not much has been done about immersion into Facebook and how it entraps the user in a never-ending flow of impressions. Using a combination of qualitative interview studies and think-aloud walkthroughs we set out to study this phenomena. We found a varying mix of immersion, from those who couldn’t stop looking through their feeds to those who just used Facebook as a phonebook. We also found that while many wanted to reduce their usage of Facebook, none seemed able to make that plunge. From this we find design implications for both designing for immersion and avoiding entrapment. One key to the former is to have an error free environment, while the latter would be to make sure that all information is searchable.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka om användning av sociala medier är kopplad till stress. 100 personer i åldrarna 18 till 46 år besvarade två mätinstrument angående stress och sina vanor vad gäller sociala medier. Statistiska analyser visade att ju mer användning av sociala medier och Facebook desto högre stress. Resultaten visade även en signifikant effekt av kön, där kvinnorna upplevde mer stress än männen. En sammanfattande tolkning av resultaten visade att ju mer man använder sociala medier desto mer stress man har och att kvinnor är mer stressade än män.

Richard Rodriguez's works create troubling situations for many scholars. Though numerous critics see him as the penultimate Chicano writer, many others see his writing as only pandering to the elite. However, all politics and controversies aside, he is a writer whose ideas upon language and public confession have been revolutionary. Throughout the thesis, I argue that Rodriguez's ideas upon language and identity are applicable to the social media landscape that we reside in currently, especially the public confession. Also, I use deconstructionism, along with postmodern criticism, to illustrate the changing arc of Rodriguez's confession from his first autobiography to his final one. In his first memoir, Rodriguez remains in the closet upon his sexuality, and the reader only catches glimpses of the 'real' character inside his work. In the second memoir, the reader sees a better glimpse because of his coming out; yet, even in this regard, he does not do so wholly and still leaves his confession unfinished. By the third, he applies themes and problems seen in his first and second works to discuss our browning nature, and how we are all sinners and that we desire to confess our sins. In my assessment of Rodriguez, I argue throughout all my chapters upon a measure of irreconcilability between the private world of the Hispanic immigrant family and the public sphere that they are forced to inhabit because of his citizenship and education. This irreconcilability creates a drastic limiting of identity for the author that Rodriguez is forced to navigate which creates his desire for confession.

Le budget dédié au marketing sur les réseaux sociaux est en forte croissance depuis quelques années, soulignant l‘importance du Social Media Management dans la stratégie des entreprises. Dès lors, la mise en œuvre à grande échelle de cette pratique a nécessairement des effets sur les marchés, intentionnels ou non. Par quel mécanisme la pratique routinière du Social Media Management façonne-t-elle les marchés sur lesquels elle intervient ? Nous répondons à cette problématique à l‘aide de trois approches qualitatives : une étude ethnographique et documentaire de quatre ans est complétée par une étude historique et trois séries d‘entretiens semi-directifs avec des Social Media Managers. Trois chapitres empiriques mettent successivement en évidence la constitution historique des structures de représentations mobilisées par le marketing digital ; le mécanisme par lequel les Social Media Managers enchevêtrent quotidiennement plusieurs de ces structures au sein de leur routine ; le mécanisme par lequel la pratique routinière fait évoluer ces structures. Cette recherche contribue à la littérature sur les marchés en montrant comment des marketers façonnent ces derniers à travers leurs actions routinières. Ce travail donne aux managers des outils permettant d‘étudier et de mobiliser différentes structures culturelles dans leur stratégie digitale, notamment sur les médias sociaux. / Investments dedicated to Social Media Marketing have been growing for a few years, outlining the importance of Social Media in the marketing strategy. These massive investments must cause changes on markets, either intentional or not. How are markets made up by routine marketing practices such as Social Media Management? We study the impact of routine marketing practices on markets through an application to Social Media Management. We use three qualitative methods: a four years netnographical and documentary analysis, a historical study and three sessions of interviews with Social Media Managers. Three empirical chapters outline the historical constitution of representation structures involved in digital marketing practices; the mechanism through which Social Media Manager intertwine different of these structures into their routines; the mechanism through which routines make these structures evolve. We contribute to the literature on market by showing how marketing managers enact routines that make up markets. We give managers tools to study and use different cultural structures in their digital strategy, especially on Social Media.

This thesis explores themes of authenticity in the Aerie REAL branding campaign. In it, I explore how Aerie links notions of authenticity, expressed as a vocal denunciation of photo-editing techniques, with the ideal female body. To do this, I analyze Aerie’s branding materials (including social media posts on two different websites, as well as Aerie product photography) in context of its lack of photo-editing and other branding choices, including its choice of brand spokesperson. I consider these materials within a semiotic framework developed from the French school of semiotics, and analyze them both through this framework and a content analysis. I also consider concepts of Aerie’s brand personality. In this study I illuminate many of the tensions between Aerie’s explicit goals in its REAL campaign and what it has presented within the campaign. This has implications for future representations of women in advertising, as well as the use of authenticity as a brand position.