People's habits when they navigate Facebook
University of Missouri School of Journalism, studied people's
habits when they navigate Facebook. Wise says previous studies on social
networking sites involved merely surveying study participants. Wise conducted
his study differently.
The Joy Is in the Social Hunt: Facebook Users More
Engaged Emotionally When Conducting Specific Searches
The popularity of social networking websites has grown
dramatically in recent years. One of the most popular sites, Facebook.com, now
boasts more than 350 million users worldwide. With so many people interacting
with each other online daily, an MU researcher is interested in the cognitive
and emotional implications of social browsing versus social searching.
Kevin Wise, an assistant professor of strategic
communication at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, studied people's
habits when they navigate Facebook. Wise says previous studies on social
networking sites involved merely surveying study participants. Wise conducted
his study differently.
"Rather than asking people to report their uses of
Facebook, we wanted to see them in action," Wise said. "We wanted to
see if there is a way to categorize Facebook use, not based on what people say
about it, but what they actually do when they are using it."
During the study, participants were seated at a computer
and told to navigate Facebook for a determined amount of time. Participants
could view anything they wished during that time, as long as they stayed on the
Facebook website. Using screen-capturing software, Wise was able to view every
action that each participant made while on the site. The researchers attached
sensors to various parts of the participants' bodies to measure potential
emotional responses as the participants navigated Facebook..
Wise categorized participants' actions into two different
groups: social browsing and social searching. He defines social browsing as
navigating the site without a targeted goal in mind. Wise says people use
social browsing when they survey the general landscape, such as their newsfeed
or wall, without looking for specific information. Wise defines social
searching as searching the social networking site with the goal of finding
certain information about a specific person, group, or event.
Wise found that participants tended to spend much more
time on social searching than social browsing. Not only did participants spend
more time on social searching, but they seemed to enjoy it more as well.
"We found a more positive response from participants
during social searching, or when they had homed in on a particular
target," Wise said. "Ultimately, it appears that Facebook use is
largely a series of transitions between browsing the environment, then focusing
in on something interesting or relevant."
Wise says that this was an exploratory study to move past
how people say they use Facebook in favor of studying their actual behavior. He
says that there are many more questions about how people use social networking
sites that he hopes to study in the future.
Kevin Wise is an assistant professor of strategic
communication and co-director of the Psychological Research on Information and
Media Effects (PRIME) Lab in the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
His research explores how different features of online media affect cognition
and emotion. This most recent study was published in the journal
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. His research has been
published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, Communication Research.
Image source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1199922
Post a Comment