facebook and psychology

Dr Ciarán Mc Mahon,Dublin Business School

Department of Learning Sciences Seminar Series,Dún Laoghaire Institue of Art, Desgin &

Technology,October 28th, 2010.

Statistics (Facebook.com, 2010)• More than 500 million active users

• 50% of active users log on daily

• over 700 billion minutes spent per month

• over 900 million objects (pages, groups, events etc.)

• Average user • has 130 friends

• is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events

• creates 90 pieces of content each month

• More than 70 translations available

• 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

Academic study• 66 peer-reviewed papers thus far have

dealt with Facebook as their main topic• In 2007, 3 papers• In 2008, 16 papers• In 2009, 26 papers• Thus far in 2010, 18 papers– Analysis excludes book chapters, conference

papers etc.

Academic study• unsurprisingly, Facebook has been

discussed most in cyberpsychological/computer-mediated communication oriented journals– 8 papers in the Journal of Computer-

Mediated Communication– 7 papers in Computers in Human Behavior– and 7 papers in Cyberpsychology,

Behavior & Social Networking

Academic study• but also papers in:– Journal of Experimental Social Psychology– Journal of Media Psychology– Journal of Medical Ethics– Psychological Science– Journal of Community Psychology– Journal of Applied Developmental

Psychology

Academic study– wide variety of topics– several different methodological

approaches– a number of research programmes have

been developed• average 2.8 authors per paper

– no major debates, yet

Authors (via wordle.net)

Notable programmes• Michigan State, Dept. of Communication, – Joseph Walther, Brandon Van Der Heide,

Nicole Ellison

• Harvard, Dept. of Sociology– Kevin Lewis, Jason Kaufman

• University of Windsor, Dept. of Psychology, – Jaime Arseneault, Emily Orr, R. Robert Orr,

Notable omissions• no danah boyd• no BJ Fogg• no peer-reviewed papers on

Facebook in either case

Article titles (via wordle.net)

Population

Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe (2007)• one of the earliest published articles (earlier

presentations)• “Facebook Usage Intensity Questionnaire” later

used by many others• 268 undergrads (66% female, 44% male)• overwhelmingly used Facebook

– to keep in touch with old friends – to maintain or intensify relationships characterized by

some form of offline connection

Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of facebook "friends:" social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168.

Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe (2007)• strong association between use of

Facebook and bridging, not bonding, social capital– bonding social capital is between individuals

in tight relationships, such as family and close friends

– bridging is "weak ties," which are loose connections between individuals who may provide useful information or new perspectives for one another but typically not emotional supportEllison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of facebook "friends:"

social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168.

Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe (2007)• usage was found to interact with self-

esteem• might provide greater benefits for

users experiencing low self esteem and low life satisfaction

• supports a "poor get richer" hypothesis, as opposed to the "rich get richer"

Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of facebook "friends:" social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1143-1168.

Hargittai (2007)• Are there differences between people who:

– use social network sites and those who stay away, despite a familiarity with them?

– use different social network sites?– Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, and Friendster

• 1060 first year undergrads, 18/19 y.o. (56% f, 44%f)

Hargittai, E. (2007). Whose space? differences among users and non-users of social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 276-297.

Hargittai (2007)• 1060 first year undergrads, 18/19 y.o. (56% f,

44%f)– Hispanic s more likely to use MySpace than are Whites – Asian and Asian Americans less likely to use MySpace– Asian Americans more likely to use Xanga and Friendster

than Whites– students whose parents have lower levels of schooling

more likely to use MySpace – whereas students whose parents have higher levels of

education are more likely to be Facebook users.

Hargittai, E. (2007). Whose space? differences among users and non-users of social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 276-297.

Gangadharbatla (2009) ‘Facebook me’• reasons for joining and participation• 237 undergrads (44% male, 56% female)• positive influences on attitudes toward SNS from

– Internet self-efficacy, – need to belong, – and collective self-esteem

• no role for need for cognition

Gangadharbatla, H. (2008). Facebook me: Collective self-esteem, need to belong, and internet self-efficacy as predictors of the iGeneration's attitudes toward social networking sites. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 8 (2), 5-15.

Fogel & Nehmad (2009) ‘risk taking, trust, and privacy’

• Myspace and Facebook• face-to-face survey (collected 2007)• 205 undergrads (103 male, 102 female!)• SNS users had significantly greater risk

taking– men had significantly greater risk taking scores than

women.– women had significantly greater scores than men for

privacy concerns

• but there were no gender differences for privacy behavior or privacy attitudes.Fogel, J., & Nehmad, E. (2009). Internet social network communities: Risk taking, trust, and privacy concerns. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(1), 153-160.

Population

Grasmuck, Martin & Zhao (2009) – ‘ethno-racial identity displays on Facebook’

• content analysis of 83 Facebook profiles• supplemented by 63 in-person interviews (34

m, 29f)• African Americans, Latinos, and Indian

ancestry students– revealed more intensive production of

identity construction • White and Vietnamese students

– showed much less involvement

Grasmuck, S., Martin, J., & Zhao, S. (2009). Ethno-racial identity displays on Facebook. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(1), 158-188.

Grasmuck, Martin & Zhao (2009) – ‘ethno-racial identity displays on Facebook’

• Quotations –– African Americans

• infused with inspirational quotations about racial injustice

– Latino • religious and inspirational quotes• untranslated Spanish quotes

– Indian • long entries involving thoughtful and humorous themes• ethnic pride often signaled through Gandhi

– White and Vietnamese • almost never selected quotes that signaled racial or

even ethnic identificationGrasmuck, S., Martin, J., & Zhao, S. (2009). Ethno-racial identity displays on Facebook. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(1), 158-188.

Judd & Kennedy (2010) Five-year study of campus internet use

• Australian five-year study (2005–2009) of biomedical students’ on-campus use of the Internet

• Internet usage logs• Email primary method of electronic

communication– steep drop in use during 2006 and 2007

• Corresponds with rise in Facebook usage– only minimal use of other social networking sites

Judd, T., & Kennedy, G. (2010). A five-year study of on-campus internet use by undergraduate biomedical students. Computers & Education, 55(4), 1564-1571.

Your Profile

Buffardi & Campbell (2008)• Does narcissism predict activity on Facebook?

– 129 subjects (100 female?)– 128 raters coding webpages (86 females, 42 males)– scores on Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin

& Terry, 1988) compared to raters’ assessment of participant’s narcissism on Facebook profile pages

Buffardi, L. E., & Campbell, W. K. (2008). Narcissism and social networking web sites. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(10), 1303-1314.

Buffardi & Campbell (2008)• Narcissism related to

– higher levels of social activity in the online community (sexier photographs, more self-promoting content etc)

– correlation with quantity of text in ‘About Me’ lower than elsewhere

Buffardi, L. E., & Campbell, W. K. (2008). Narcissism and social networking web sites. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(10), 1303-1314.

Mehdizadeh (2010) ‘narcissism and self-esteem’

• 100 Facebook students (50 male, 50 female)– undergraduate project

• Rosenberg self-esteem & Narcissism Personality Inventory (NPI)-16.

• Facebook pages content analysed (single coder!) for ‘self-promotion’

Mehdizadeh, S. (2010). Self-presentation 2.0: Narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook. CyberPsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 13(4), 357-364.

Mehdizadeh (2010) ‘narcissism and self-esteem’

• Number of times Facebook checked and time spent on Facebook– positively correlated with NPI-16– negatively correlated with self-esteem– Males displayed more self-promotional information in

the About Me and Notes– women displayed more self-promotional Main Photos.

Mehdizadeh, S. (2010). Self-presentation 2.0: Narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook. CyberPsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 13(4), 357-364.

Back et al. (2010) ‘Facebook profiles reflect actual personality’

• 236 (ages 17–22 years) from the United States (Facebook; N = 133, 52 male, 81 female) and Germany (StudiVZ, SchuelerVZ; N = 103, 17 male, 86 female).

• self-reports & reports from 4 well-acquainted friends & ideal self-reports, and profile observer reports

Back, M. D., Stopfer, J. M., Vazire, S., Gaddis, S., Schmukle, S. C., Egloff, B., & Gosling, S. D. (2010). Facebook profiles reflect actual personality, not self-idealization. Psychological Science, 21(3), 372-374.

Back et al. (2010) ‘Facebook profiles reflect actual personality’

• results were consistent with the extended real-life hypothesis– observers should be able to accurately infer the

personality characteristics of profile owners.

• neuroticism least accurate (difficult to ascertain in zero-acquaintance contexts)

Back, M. D., Stopfer, J. M., Vazire, S., Gaddis, S., Schmukle, S. C., Egloff, B., & Gosling, S. D. (2010). Facebook profiles reflect actual personality, not self-idealization. Psychological Science, 21(3), 372-374.

Zhao, Grasmuck & Martin (2008) ‘Identity construction’

• 63 Facebook accounts (students)• coding scheme developed for content analysis• identities on Facebook compared to those in the

nonymous offline environments or the anonymous online environments

• claim their identities implicitly rather than explicitly

• stress group and consumer identities over personally narrated ones

Zhao, S., Grasmuck, S., & Martin, J. (2008). Identity construction on facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(5), 1816-1836.

Facebook is a nonymous online setting, where users are required to reveal their real names in a fixed institutional context, which explains why users tend not to treat it as a venue for expressing their ‘‘hidden selves” or marginalized or contested identities.

Zhao, Grasmuck & Martin (2008, p. 1831)

Zhao, S., Grasmuck, S., & Martin, J. (2008). Identity construction on facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships. Computers in Human Behavior, 24(5), 1816-1836.

Ross, Orr, Sisic, Arseneault, Simmering, & Orr (2009)

• university’s psychology participation pool • 97 Ss (15 men 82 women)• NEO-IP vs self-reports of Facebook use

– high Extraversion group reported membership in significantly more groups

– high on the trait of Neuroticism reported that the Wall was their favourite Facebook component,

– low on Neuroticism preferred photos– higher levels of Openness to Experience were associated

with a greater tendency to be sociable through Facebook.

• “relatively few significant findings in relation to the personality variables” (p. 582)Ross, C., Orr, E. S., Sisic, M., Arseneault, J. M., Simmering, M. G., & Orr, R. R. (2009). Personality and motivations associated with facebook use. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(2), 578-586

Amichai-Hamburger & Vinitzky (2010)• based on Ross et al. (2009); similar hypotheses• method from Zhao et al. (2008)• coding of user profiles & NEO-PI-R• 237 students (101 male, 136 female)• stronger support of Ross et al’s (2009)

hypotheses

Amichai-Hamburger, Y., & Vinitzky, G. (2010). Social network use and personality. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1289-1295.

Amichai-Hamburger & Vinitzky (2010)• extroversion and conscientiousness

– related to number of friends

• introverts – more personal information on their profiles

• high neurotic – more likely to post pictures of themselves– less likely to post other pictures

• openness linked to more expressiveness on profile

Amichai-Hamburger, Y., & Vinitzky, G. (2010). Social network use and personality. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1289-1295.

Kluemper & Rosen (2009) ‘employment selection methods’

• 63 students in an employment selection course (49% m, 51%f)

• After a 1 hour training session• raters accurately distinguished between

individuals on – four of the big-five personality traits, – intelligence, – and performance.

• Hence, it is very easy to see if someone is employable from their profile

Kluemper, D. H., & Rosen, P. A. (2009). Future employment selection methods: Evaluating social networking web sites. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 24(6), 567-580. .

Your Friends

Lewis & West (2009) ‘friending’• qualitative 16 Ss (7m, 9f)

– semi-structured interviews– London undergrads– why and how they joined and used Facebook

• all joined through peer group • all mentioned initial excitement

– looking at profiles, – and adding friends – being added as a friend,

• none admitted to competing to ‘collect’ friends

Lewis, J., & West, A. (2009). ‘Friending’: London-based undergraduates’ experience of facebook. New Media & Society, 11(7), 1209-1229

Lewis & West (2009) ‘friending’• all the respondents reported checking profiles,

also known as ‘stalking’...

Stalking has little to do with building social relationships, but two respondents called it ‘addictive’. For example, three female respondents reported that either they or their friends followed what ex-boyfriends were doing by checking their profiles. For five respondents this appeared to account for a majority of the time spent on Facebook. (Lewis & West, 2009, p. 1215)


Lewis & West (2009) ‘friending’

A male respondent told the story of a female student he had been ‘fond of’, but had not seen for many months after she left the university, even though she continued to live in London and they continued to communicate via Facebook. When he bumped into her one day on the street, he found that they had little to say – there was no catching up to do.

Lewis & West (2009, p. 1216-1217)


Lewis & West (2009) ‘friending’

Two female respondents reported that initially they had tried to fill in all the personal information boxes on their profiles, but had decided to opt for a more minimalist approach because they disliked the impression that it conveyed: ‘I tried once, re-read it and thought, “Fuck no!”’ (Hannah); this respondent added that her aim was to contact friends rather than to publicize herself.

Lewis & West (2009, p. 1222)


Adding Friends

Cohen (2008, p.10) – ‘political economy of Facebook’

On Facebook, almost all member activity can be conceived of as immaterial labour that benefits the company. A major task upon which Facebook is based is “adding” friends, which is the act of linking to other people’s profiles and forms the basic design of the site. The work of adding friends is also Facebook’s main growth strategy.

Cohen, N. (2008). The valorization of surveillance: Towards a political economy of Facebook. Democratic Communiqué, 22(1), 5-22.

Walther, van der Heide, Hamel, & Shulman (2009) – ‘warranting theory’

• Which is more important – what you say about yourself, or what others say about you?– warranting principle predicts that users attach greater

credence to information that is immune to a target’s manipulation compared to targets’ self-descriptions

• mocked up profiles to manipulate extraversion (study 1) and attractiveness (study 2)

Walther, J. B., Van Der Heide, B., Hamel, L. M., & Shulman, H. C. (2009). Self-generated versus other-generated statements and impressions in computer-mediated communication: A test of warranting theory using facebook. Communication Research, 36(2), 229-253.


• Attractive statements included – “Haven’t seen you since that great party last

weekend...my friends from home thought you were hottt!,”

– “Hey gorgeous (or “Hey mister”), you looked gr8 last night, youre bringing sexy back” [sic].



• Unattractive statements included – “dont pay attention to those jerks at the bar last night,

what matters is on the inside!”– “Im so sorry things didnt work out with that blind date

you went on, who knew she (or “he”) would turn out to be so shallow” [sic].



• some support in the extraversion condition, much stronger support in the attractiveness condition

• post-hoc analysis revealed that the profile was deemed to be – less honest when he or she claimed to be attractive

(with friends agreeing, or disagreeing) – more honest claimed to be unattractive (with friends

agreeing, or friends disagreeing)


...it appears that one’s own claims of attractiveness are suspect on Facebook. In terms of attractiveness judgments, on the other hand, one’s friends’ comments carry the weight.

Walther, van der Heide, Hamel, & Shulman (2009, p. 248)


Walther, Van der Heide, Kim, Westerman and Tong (2008) – ‘the company we keep’

• Unsurprisingly, physical attractiveness of profile owner’s friends affects the evaluation of the profile owner.– also, postings of friends affect the evaluation of the

profile owners. – statements had a significant impact on ratings of the

social attraction and credibility of the profile owner.

Walther, J. B., Van Der Heide, B., Kim, S., Westerman, D., & Tong, S. T. (2008). The role of friends' appearance and behavior on evaluations of individuals on facebook: Are we known by the company we keep? Human Communication Research, 34(1), 28-49.

Walther, Van der Heide, Kim, Westerman and Tong (2008) – ‘the company we keep’

• however, there was an unexpected gender interaction with regard to negative statements– sexual innuendo, excessive drinking

• increased desirability of the male• decreased desirability of the female

– sexual double standards alive and well on the internet!

Walther, J. B., Van Der Heide, B., Kim, S., Westerman, D., & Tong, S. T. (2008). The role of friends' appearance and behavior on evaluations of individuals on facebook: Are we known by the company we keep? Human Communication Research, 34(1), 28-49.

Wang, Moon, Kwon, Evans, & Stefanone (2010) – ‘face off’

• what affects willingness to accept friendship?• compared attractive, unattractive and no-photo

conditions• both male and females were more willing to

initiate friendships with opposite-sex profile owners with attractive photos (surprise!)

• but, relatively more willing to make friends with without a photo than an unattractive photo

Wang, S. S., Moon, S., Kwon, K. H., Evans, C. A., & Stefanone, M. A. (2010). Face off: Implications of visual cues on initiating friendship on facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(2), 226-234. .

Tong, Van der Heide, Langwell & Walther (2008) – ‘too much of a good thing’

• how many friends is best?• experimented with 102, 302, 502, 702, and

902 ‘friends’• found a curvilinear relationship between

number of friends and an individual’s social attractiveness– peaks at about 300 friends

• however, no relationship found between number of friends and physical attractiveness.

Your Posts

Peluchette & Karl (2010) – ‘what were they thinking?’

• reasoning behind posting behaviour• very much tied to image user is trying to portray• Males

– were more likely to say their profile portrayed a sexually appealing image

– also more likely to post ‘problematic’ content

Peluchette, J., & Karl, K. (2010). Examining students' intended image on facebook: "what were they thinking?!". Journal of Education for Business, 85(1), 30-37..

Peluchette & Karl (2010) – ‘what were they thinking?’

• those who felt they portrayed – a hard-working image were least likely to post

‘problematic’ content– a fun or intelligent image not related to posting

of ‘problematic’ content– a sexually appealing, wild, or offensive image

were most likely to post inappropriate content

Peluchette, J., & Karl, K. (2010). Examining students' intended image on facebook: "what were they thinking?!". Journal of Education for Business, 85(1), 30-37..

Karl, Peluchette, & Schlaegel (2010) ‘Facebook Faux Pas’

• US and German sample• those high on

– conscientiousness, – agreeableness, – and emotional stability – significantly less likely to post problematic

content

• high on Compulsive Internet Use were more likely to post Facebook faux pas

• US students in general were more inclined to post problematic content

Karl, K., Peluchette, J., & Schlaegel, C. (2010). Who's posting facebook faux pas? A cross-cultural examination of personality differences. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 18(2), 174-186.

Your Privacy

Lewis, Kaufman, & Christakis (2008) ‘taste for privacy’

• large dataset 1709 profiles of university students• factors that are predictive of a student having a

private versus public profile– more likely to have a private profile if their friends and

roommates have them;– women are more likely to have private profiles than are

men; – private profile is associated with a higher level of online

activity

Lewis, K., Kaufman, J., & Christakis, N. (2008). The taste for privacy: An analysis of college student privacy settings in an online social network. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14(1), 79-100.

Lewis, Kaufman, & Christakis (2008) ‘taste for privacy’

- private profiles associated with certain ‘cultural preferences’:

- more taste in ‘popular music’- less frequent taste in classical music


Lewis, Kaufman, & Christakis (2008, p. 94)

While we have documented a number of discrete tastes associated with privacy and sets of tastes associated with publicity, the particular content of these cultural profiles is not always easy to interpret. What does Tchaikovsky, for instance, have in common with Joseph Heller or Bridget Jones with Ray Charles? Moreover, why are the former associated with public profiles and the latter with private ones?


Lewis, Kaufman, & Christakis (2008, p.94)

Consequently, students with these tastes may want them to be especially visible.... In other words, if the content of what is displayed is entwined with the propensity to display itself, online privacy is not just about those who keep Goffman’s stage curtain tightly drawn. It is also about those who throw it wide open—where a performance tells as much about the performer as about what she wants the audience to see.


Debatin, Lovejoy, Horn & Hughes (2009) ‘attitudes and behaviours’

• 119 undergrads (68% female), survey, also interview• Users claimed to understand privacy issues, yet

reported uploading large amounts of personal information.

• Risks to privacy were ascribed more to others than to the self

• Facebook engrained in daily life, benefits outweigh risks

• One interviewee had account hacked several times, deleted profile twice, and still came back..

Debatin, B., Lovejoy, J. P., Horn, A., & Hughes, B. N. (2009). Facebook and online privacy: Attitudes, behaviors, and unintended consequences. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(1), 83-108.

Debatin, Lovejoy, Horn & Hughes (2009, p. 99)

Yet six months later, his profile was attacked again, this time with a shot at his girlfriend. The hackers used the same manipulated profile picture, but added the character Donkey from the movie Shrek and tagged Donkey as Brian’s girlfriend. Brian deleted the profile again, and set up another profile with a nonschool e-mail and strict privacy settings. The whole incident left him guessing who did it and why. He also said that he was very upset about the incident, particularly because his girlfriend became the target too. It is remarkable that Brian stayed with Facebook and kept coming back to it again and again.


Debatin, Lovejoy, Horn & Hughes (2009, p. 103)

Most users do not seem to realize that restricting access to their data does not sufficiently address the risks resulting from the amount, quality and persistence of the data they provide. After all, restricting profile visibility to ‘‘friends only’’ simply means restricting it within the visible part of the iceberg. As long as users feed the invisible part of the iceberg with extensive personal data that they update voluntarily and continually, their privacy is at risk.


From Debatin, Lovejoy, Horn & Hughes (2009, p. 88)

Christofides, Muise, & Desmarais (2009) ‘disclosure and control’

• 343 (81 men, 261 females) undergraduates• privacy, disclosure, control• participants perceived that they disclosed more information

about themselves on Facebook than in general, – but also that information control and privacy were

important to them• information disclosure and information control were

not significantly negatively correlated,• disclosure was significantly predicted by the need for

popularity• levels of trust and self-esteem predicted information control

Christofides, E., Muise, A., & Desmarais, S. (2009). Information disclosure and control on Facebook: Are they two sides of the same coin or two different processes? CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(3), 341-345.

Christofides, Muise, & Desmarais (2009, p. 343)

... these findings suggest that there is something different about the ways in which people act when interacting in the Facebook environment as compared to other means of communication. Perhaps it is because Facebook creates norms regarding what specific information information to disclose based on what others have disclosed. It is an environment where information is shared proactively and in response to others.

Christofides, E., Muise, A., & Desmarais, S. (2009). Information disclosure and control on Facebook: Are they two sides of the same coin or two different processes? CyberPsychology & Behavior, 12(3), 341-345.

The News Feed

Hoadley, Xu, Lee & Rosson (2010) – News Feed

... no new information is revealed; people are able to see changes if they choose to visit their friends’ Facebook pages. News Feed did not change restrictions on access to information.

Hoadley, Xu, Lee & Rosson (2010, p. 52)

Hoadley, C. M., Xu, H., Lee, J. J. & Rosson, M. B. (2010). Privacy as information access and illusory control: The case of the Facebook News Feed privacy outcry. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 9(1), 50-60.


• majority (68%) had at least some degree of negativity

• 29% of respondents felt ‘‘very negative”• though the new interface provides easier

information access, it was widely perceived to provide less privacy.

• even though this was not the case – why?



• found that those who changed their privacy settings afterwards were actually those who found the change most negative

• these users were also more likely to have more friends


It seems reasonable to argue that Facebook users’ privacy-related behaviors ... are more likely to be influenced by their concerns over the amount of information being accessed ..., instead of concerns over being released... This point bears repeating: users seem to be much more concerned about what personal information is likely to be accessed than what personal information it is possible to access.

Hoadley, Xu, Lee & Rosson (2010, p. 58)


Rather than blocking dissent, Facebook transforms resistance into productivity... The site incorporates users’ knowledge into its development, which retains members (perhaps instilling them with a sense of ownership in the site, or at least a sense of the importance of one’s voice) and affirms the critical importance of an active membership.

Cohen (2008, pp. 12-13)

Cohen, N. (2008). The valorization of surveillance: Towards a political economy of Facebook. Democratic Communiqué, 22(1), 5-22.

Grimmelman (2009, p. 120)

Users want and need to socialize, and they act in privacy-risking ways because of it. We cannot and should not beat these social urges out of people; we cannot and should not stop people from acting on them. We can and should help them understand the consequences of their socializing, make available safer ways to do it, and protect them from sociality hijackers.

Grimmelman, J. (2009). Saving Facebook. Iowa Law Review, 94, 1139-1205.

Disclosure

Health sciences

Concerns from medicine

Even with cautious privacy settings, physicians should not assume they can use online forums for social purposes only, as unforeseen breaches of privacy barriers may have a significant impact on their professional roles and relationships.

Guseh, Brendel & Brendel (2009, p. 585)

Guseh, J. S., Brendel, R. W., & Brendel, D. H. (2009). Medical professionalism in the age of online social networking. Journal of Medical Ethics: Journal of the Insitute of Medical Ethics, 35(9), 584-586.


By creating a new environment for individual and group interaction, social-networking sites also create new challenges for those who work in clinical settings. Take, for example, ... the dermatology resident who is asked on a date by a clinic patient after he learns from her online profile that she is single — information that he would have hesitated to draw out of her in person.

Jain (2009, p.650)

Jain, S. H. (2009). Becoming a physician: Practicing medicine in the age of facebook. The New England Journal of Medicine, 361(7), 649-651.

Concerns from medicine• MacDonald, Sohn, & Ellis (2010)– 338 recent medical graduates in New Zealand– 65% had Facebook accounts– 24% were publicly accessible

• group of interest • 66% still active online in the preceding week • high proportion of users revealed location

MacDonald, J., Sohn, S., & Ellis, P. (2010). Privacy, professionalism and facebook: A dilemma for young doctors. Medical Education, 44(8), 805-813.


... a notable minority belonged to ... groups that we defined as potentially unprofessional (e.g. ‘F*** medicine – I want to be a ninja’, which was ‘dedicated to medics who are sick and tired of the prospect of a hideously long training time, lack of respect, poor hours and rectal exams on elderly gentlemen’.

MacDonald, Sohn, & Ellis (2010, p. 809)

MacDonald, J., Sohn, S., & Ellis, P. (2010). Privacy, professionalism and facebook: A dilemma for young doctors. Medical Education, 44(8), 805-813.

Concerns from psychiatry

For psychotherapy, one of the reasons to avoid self-disclosure to patients is to minimize interference with transference, which may be an essential component of the therapeutic process. If patients connected to psychotherapists on a social networking site are able to see pictures, videos, comments, and browse through the different relationships of their therapist, the transference process will be more challenging if not impossible.

Lou (2009, p. 20)

Lou, J.S. (2009). The Facebook phenomenon: Boundaries and controversies. Primary Psychiatry, 16(11), 19-21

Concerns from clinical psychology• Taylor, McMinn, Bufford & Chang (2010)

– online survey of licensed psychologists and psychology graduates

– 695 participants, (114 male, 580 female)– majority appeared to be graduates– a majority of the survey’s respondents reported

thinking about the ramifications of ethical behaviour on Facebook

– also that they had either rejected or ignored friend requests from clients

– but also often posted photographs or videos of themselves online

Taylor, L., McMinn, M. R., Bufford, R. K., & Chang, K. B. T. (2010). Psychologists’ attitudes and ethical concerns regarding the use of social networking web sites. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 41(2), 153-159.

Concerns from clinical psychology

Some respondents noted that they occasionally found pictures of clients on the Web sites of their friends or family members, and that they had no prior knowledge of these relationships. A few participants even reported that they had been matched to current or former clients through anonymous dating Web sites.

Taylor, McMinn, Bufford & Chang (2010, p. 158)Taylor, L., McMinn, M. R., Bufford, R. K., & Chang, K. B. T. (2010). Psychologists’ attitudes and ethical concerns regarding the use of social networking web sites. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 41(2), 153-159.

Concerns from clinical psychology

... psychologists with the least amount of professional experience will be facing some of the most complex situations regarding the distinction between professional and private information. Normally, early career psychologists could look to more experienced psychologists in situations such as this, but if the more experienced psychologists do not understand the nuances of SNWs, they are not likely to be able to provide helpful consultation on this matter.

Taylor, McMinn, Bufford & Chang (2010, p. 157)Taylor, L., McMinn, M. R., Bufford, R. K., & Chang, K. B. T. (2010). Psychologists’ attitudes and ethical concerns regarding the use of social networking web sites. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 41(2), 153-159.

‘Like’ is a noun

‘Friend’ is a verb

Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.