<p> Mate Poaching is one strategy used for attracting a mate. Under principles of evolutionary theory, mating strategies are driven by inter-sexual selection and intra-sexual competition creating Sex specificity in the way strategies succeed or fail. The relatively recent emergence of the Internet raises questions about its interaction with evolutionary mechanisms that people use to attract a mate. The purpose of this study was to identify whether or not Mate Poaching exists within virtual Social Networking Sites (SNS), and whether or not poaching tactics used in a Face-to-Face Environment are still considered effective in a Virtual one. This study asked whether there was an association between the environment of Mate Poaching and the Sex of a poacher in three environments (Face-to-Face, Virtual, and Blended); the study also asks whether there is a significant interaction between the environment and Sex of a poacher on the Perceived Efficacy of three Mate Poaching tactics (Enhancing Physical Appearance, Demonstrating Resources, and Humor). The study consisted of a mixed design: Part one was a causal-comparative design answered with a modified Anonymous Romantic Attraction Survey (ARAS). Part two was an experimental design, randomly assigning participants to rate the Perceived Efficacy of 42 tactics from the Expanded Acts and Tactics from Schmitt and Buss (2001). The convenience sample (N=233) was drawn from adults 18 years or older who have had at least one romantic relationship in their lifetime, and were residents of the United States. The sample, consisting of 71 males and 162 females, was 84.1% heterosexual, and split evenly on marital status; ages ranged from 18 to 78, with a mean age of 40. Data were analyzed for part one with six chi-square tests of association, and part two with three two-way factorial ANOVAs. Part one found a significant association between Sex and Environment for &ldquo;Have you ever poached?&rdquo; in the Face-to-Face and Blended Environments. The Virtual Environment and all three (Face-to-Face, Virtual and Blended) Environments for &ldquo;Have you frequently poached?&rdquo; did not find a significant association with Sex. Part two found no significant interactions between Sex and environment on the Perceived Efficacy of the three tactics; there was a main effect of Sex on both Enhancing Physical Appearance and Demonstrating Resources, further confirming previous literature. There was no main effect of Sex or environment on the tactic of Humor, consistent with mixed results around this construct in the literature.</p>

<p> <b>Purpose:</b> The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify what policies and procedures were most effective in reducing cyberbullying as perceived by a panel of middle school administrators.</p><p> <b>Methodology:</b> This Delphi study asked middle school administrators, through a series of three surveys, to determine the best policies and procedures to manage cyberbullying in a middle school setting. Through the survey process, the panel of experts delineated several policies and procedures that are implemented at various middle schools in the central valley of California. Policies and procedures were analyzed and scored by the experts using a five-point Likert scale. Results were reviewed by the panel as they determined the best policies and procedures to reduce the impact and amount of cyberbullying in the middle school arena. There has been extensive research regarding bullying in schools and there has been an increasing amount of research about cyberbullying as well. However, a review of literature has indicated a gap in research regarding effective policies and procedures implemented at the middle school aimed at limiting cyberbullying. By quantifying middle school administrators&rsquo; responses, through a Delphi study, information indicated which district generated and site generated policies and procedures best assist with the reduction in cyberbullying. The panel also had the opportunity to share their knowledge regarding the results that were generated. The aim of the study was to determine the most effective policies and procedures to limit the impact and to reduce the number of cyberbullying incidences in a middle school setting </p>

<p> Electronic and web technologies include a significant economic and social force in contemporary life and business. Commercial activities conducted over computers and mobile networks empower business processes and add value to consumers by introducing unique channels for buying and exchanging information. Whereas past research expanded knowledge about attitudes and perceptions toward e-commerce that drive consumer purchase intentions and provide a competitive advantage, the fundamental behavioral dynamics associated with m-commerce requires further investigation. Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), this quantitative, survey-based study investigates adult American users of m-commerce to measure their perceptions of performance and effort expectancies, social influence, the facilitating conditions of m-commerce trust and perceived risk. This study surveyed 177 participants to measure their perceptions of performance and effort expectancies, social influence, the facilitating conditions of m-commerce trust and perceived risk, and their m-commerce purchase intentions. The results of this study indicated that performance and effort expectancies, social influence, and the facilitating conditions of trust and perceived risk in the use of m-commerce together predicted m-commerce purchase intentions at a statistically significant level regarding competitive advantage.</p>

<p> Collaborative helping via social networking conversation threads can pose serious challenges in emergency situations. Interfaces that support complex group interaction and sense-making can help. This research applies human-computer interaction (HCI), computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), and collaboration engineering in developing an interactive design, the Mega-Collaboration Tool (MCT). The goal is to reduce the cognitive load of a group&rsquo;s growing mental model, thus increasing the general public&rsquo;s ability to organize spontaneous collaborative helping. </p><p> The specific aims of this research include understanding the dynamics of mental model negotiation and determining whether MCT can assist the group&rsquo;s sense-making ability without increasing net cognitive load. </p><p> The proposed HCI theory is that interfaces supporting collaborative cognition motivate contribution and reduce information bias, thus increasing the information shared. These research questions are addressed: 1. Does MCT support better collaborative cognition? 2. Does increasing the size of the shared data repository increase the amount of information shared? 3. Does this happen because group members experience 1) a greater sense of strategic commitment to the knowledge structure, 2) increased intrinsic motivation to contribute, and 3) reduced resistance to sharing information? </p><p> These questions were affirmed to varying degrees, giving insight into the collaborative process. Greater content did not motive group members directly; instead, half of their motivation came from awareness of their contribution&rsquo;s relevance. Greater content and organization improved this awareness, and also encouraged sharing through increased enthusiasm and reduced bias. Increased commitment was a result of this process, rather than a cause. Also, MCT increased collaborative cognition but was significantly hampered by Internet performance. This challenge indicates MCT&rsquo;s system components should be redesigned to allow asynchronous interaction. These results should contribute to the development of MCT, other collaboration engineering applications, and HCI and information science theory.</p>

<p>Advertising to children has been a topic of discussion for many years. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission is still researching way to better regulate advertising to children. This thesis investigates the persuasion intent as inferred from video content strategies, themes, and descriptions associated with YouTube videos that target preschool-age children posted on the Ryan ToysReview YouTube channel. With the advancement of technology and children?s growing ability to interact with technology, including social media networks, marketing and advertising professionals are finding new ways to promote toys to children during their unsupervised time on such platforms. From the research presented in the Literature Review, persuasion intent may be presented even if it is not in traditional advertising including YouTube videos. The significance of this study is to help add to the existing research that seeks to identify how YouTube videos may contribute to what scholars understand about the way children learn new skills and behavior and believe is associated with how they are being socialized into consumers. This was done to encourage change in regulatory issues by the Federal Trade Commission as well as suggest appropriate changes or updates to skills presently taught to future advertising professionals in undergraduate advertising curricula.

<p> Social media allows people to communicate and interact with friends and acquaintances around the world. This innovative avenue of advertisement is now helping companies create content and turn information into profit. This study seeks to understand the effects of social network advertisement (focusing on Facebook) on the biggest population of Facebook users. This population between 30&ndash;36 years old is highly engaged in Facebook; spending a critical part of their time on social media channels for several reasons such as: increasing their social life, networking, locating old friends, etc. Through the uses and gratifications theory, this research was able to examine the motivations behind users social media usage and how their levels of engagement in social networking sites can influence their purchase behaviors. The purpose of this study was to show the relationship between motivations for using Facebook in the age group previously mentioned and engagement/interaction with Facebook Advertising. Statistical tests were conducted to determine the relationship between elements of uses and gratifications theory and engagement with Facebook ads.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive study was to determine how Simple Rules emerged on the Social Media sites Twitter and YouTube in the context of the 2014 South Napa, California earthquake. The conceptual theory underpinning the study was the Eoyang CDE (containers, differences, and exchanges) model. The overarching research question was How did Simple Rules emerge on the Social Media sites Twitter and YouTube in the context of the 2014 South Napa Valley, California earthquake? The sample consisted of 138,177 microblogging Tweets from Twitter and 10 videos from YouTube. Each data set was investigated using research questions designed after the Eoyang CDE model. The study method was qualitative, and the design descriptive, since the approach was the most appropriate for creating a full description of the phenomenon. A previously collected, big, Social Media data set was used to perform qualitative data analysis. The analysis included descriptive statistics, qualitative content analysis, as well as a thematic analysis based on the conceptual model. A significant finding of this study reveals Simple Rules did emerge on Social Media resulting from multi-agent communication. Practical implications from the findings indicate leaders of disaster recovery efforts should focus Social Media efforts on the platform users, and use short statements shaped like Simple Rules to communicate messages of adaptive change and adaptive support. Finally, recommendations for further research applying complex adaptive systems theory to Social Media data sets may lead to better insights into how network-based systems self-organize in the context of disaster events. </p><p>

<p> Social networking websites can have a positive and negative, psychological impact on individuals who use them, especially if these individuals have previously experienced depressive symptoms. The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) informs the curriculum in master's and doctoral level counseling graduate programs, yet the extent to which social networking websites and their psychological impacts is explored in these programs is unknown. </p><p> This is an exploratory, mixed methods study that explores the extent to which CACREP graduate programs address this topic and prepare mental health professionals to address this topic in their practice as well as exploring the extent to which, and how, mental health professionals are seeing social networking sites impact their clients. Thirty-two participants completed an online survey that consisted of open-ended and closed-ended questions. The data collected was analyzed through frequency distributions and by developing themes using in vivo coding. These themes were then used with the frequency distribution results to inform the findings in this study. </p><p> Conclusions were drawn from this study that CACREP programs are not formally addressing social networking websites psychological impacts on clients in their curriculum and mental health professionals shared that clients are being psychologically impacted by social networking websites. Mental health professionals are experiencing a need for education and/or training in this area in order to address this area with clients. Lastly, from this study there are several recommendations for additions to the CACREP curriculum in relation to social networking websites psychological impacts as well as suggestions for interventions to address these issues.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation examines digitally-mediated identity and community construction through the lens of the Otherkin, a group of several thousand people who identify as other-than-human. They recognize their biological humanness, but nonetheless experience non-human memories, urges, and sensations. I argue the Otherkin characterize a larger shift in body-identification that is underway in many industrialized countries, away from bounded, biologically defined bodies and toward a more plastic, negotiable type of embodiment I am calling <i>open-bodied identification</i>, evidenced in growing numbers of people identifying as trans*, nonbinary, fluid, and neurodiverse. </p><p> Otherkin experience can be understood as a form of animism, yet it arises out of a post-Enlightenment paradigm that rejects the infrastructural elements needed for animist thought (e.g. magic, spirits, kinship with natural elements). The industrialized West simply does not have the cultural vocabulary to comprehend the virtuality that is animist experience. What it <i>does</i> have are the virtualities of language and of Internet technology. Therefore, departing from conceptions of the body as disciplined citizen-subjectivity or an embodied politics, I approach the human body as a media platform, mediating a Self. I offer the theoretical and heuristic <i>spectrum of virtuality</i>&mdash;a sliding situation of being-in-the-Internet, between poles of the corporeal and the digital&mdash;as a way of tracing this Self-mediation, and through the virtualities of Internet space and language, I propose an experience of animism that is legible to the West, because it is articulated through its own tools. </p><p> The Otherkin experience an incongruence, i.e. "misfit" in the relationship between their corporeal bodies and their Selves, so they turn to Internet technologies to facilitate an "alignment" between the two. This dissertation traces Otherkin engagement with the techno-virtuality afforded by the Internet, along the spectrum of virtuality&mdash;through chat forums, personal blogs, 3D virtual worlds, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and Reddit&mdash;troubling conventional notions about our relationships with the virtual, our understandings of the Self, and what it means to be a human. Analyzing the Otherkin use of these technologies sheds light on the ways in which we all work to understand ourselves through the animist virtuality of the Internet.</p><p>

<p> This dissertation investigates emotional contagion in social movements within social media platforms, such as Twitter. The main research question is: How does a protest behavior spread in social networks? The following sub-questions are: (a) What is the dynamic behind the anger contagion in online social networks? (b) What are the key variables for ensuring emotional spread? We gained access to Twitter data sets on protests in Charlotte, NC (2016) and Charlottesville, VA (2017). Although these two protests differ in their triggering points, they have similarities in their macro behaviors during the peak protest times. To understand the influence of anger spread among users, we extracted user mention networks from the data sets. Most of the mentioned users are influential ones, who have a significant number of followers. This shows that influential users occur as the highest in-degree nodes in the core of the networks, and a change in these nodes affects all connected public users/nodes. Then, we examined modularity measures quite high within users&rsquo; own communities. After implementing the networks, we ran experiments on the anger spread according to various theories with two main assumptions: (1) Anger is the triggering emotion for protests and (2) Twitter mentions affect distribution of influence in social networks. We found that user connections with directed links are essential for the spread of influence and anger; i.e., the angriest users are the most isolated ones with less number of followers, which signifies their low impact level in the network.</p><p>