Use of Social Networking Sites by LIS Professionals in Higher Education Institutions in India: A Study

The study investigates how library and information science professionals working in higher education institutions in India integrate social networking sites (SNS) into their routine work. It was revealed through the questionnaire that the majority of respondents are members of the institution's official group on the SNS, whereas only one fifth are members of an unofficial student group. These information professionals use SNS to socialize, keep themselves up-to-date, find jobs, and acquire information about conferences and seminars in their respective fields. Some of the legitimate concerns of library and information science professionals are privacy and cyberbullying. To increase use, social networking applications must be incorporated into the curriculum of master's degree courses for library and information science.     

Networked counterpublics and discursive contestation in the agonistic public sphere: political jamming a police force Facebook Page

Drawing from agonistic public sphere perspectives, this study examines the jamming of the Hong Kong Police Force Facebook Page by users from its establishment in October 2015 to March 2016. 203 posts accounting for 96,791 comments were analyzed using a mixed-method approach. Findings showed that the early posts were heavily jammed with three types of counterpublic comments: (1) calls for justice regarding alleged police brutality during the Umbrella Movement one year prior, (2) emotional statements with impolite tone, and (3) accusations of comment deletions by the Page administrators. But, the relative intensity of the three types of counterdiscourses diminished over time. Moreover, despite the extensive use of embedded YouTube videos as counterdiscourses in the comments, there were few URL linkages to Hong Kong's dynamic counterpublic sphere. This study highlights the opportunities and constraints of Facebook's technological architecture for activists and networked counterpublics to challenge dominant discourses in situ.     

Teachers’ Facebook use: their use habits,intensity, self-disclosure,privacy settings,and activities on Facebook

This study investigated K12 teachers’ Facebook usage habits, intensity, self-disclosure, privacy settings and activities. A multi-method design was employed by collecting quantitative data from 616 teachers with a Facebook account using an online questionnaire and qualitative data from 32 teachers using online open-ended questions. The results of the study showed that Facebook seems to be part of teachers’ daily routines. Moreover, they revealed that teachers were less likely to share sensitive and potentially stigmatising personal information on Facebook. Teachers were also found to set most of their Facebook privacy settings as “Friends” by taking intimacy, unwanted contacts and potential threats into consideration. Furthermore, the findings indicated that teachers felt themselves less comfortable when parents and students viewed their Facebook profiles. In addition to social engagement, teachers pointed out several ways in which Facebook was used to support educational and professional development practices. Implications, limitations and directions to further studies are discussed.     

A pilot study examining risk behavior in facebook posts for maltreated versus comparison youth using content analysis

BackgroundSocial Media use is highly prevalent among contemporary adolescents yet, no studies have examined the similarity in risk content (e.g., substance use, sexual behaviors) between the online posts of maltreated youth and their friends.ObjectiveThe current study examined the risk content of Facebook posts among a sample maltreated and comparison youth and compared the rates of risk content produced by the participants versus their Facebook friends.Participants and SettingData were from a sample of maltreated (n = 56) and comparison (n = 62) youth. At the time of data collection participants were in young adulthood (M = 21.78 years; SD = 1.45), but the timeframe of their Facebook profiles captured mid adolescence to young adulthood.MethodsData were downloaded from the Facebook profiles of all participants and the posts and comments were coded for references to alcohol, marijuana, hard drugs, partying, and sexual content.ResultsThe results showed that maltreated and comparison youth were similar in the amount of risky content they posted on Facebook as well as in the amount posted by their Facebook friends. Correlations between participant’s and friends’ posts showed stronger associations for posts about alcohol use for the maltreated group but stronger associations in the comparison group for posts about marijuana, hard drug, and sexual references. Gender differences were also examined, with males producing more online risky content than females.ConclusionsNext steps should incorporate a more nuanced analysis to determine which online friends are the sources of risky content.     

Using Facebook groups to support social presence in online learning

Building interpersonal connections in asynchronous online learning is important, but it is harder to achieve compared to face-to-face learning experiences due to its mostly text-based nature. Facebook is a popular social media platform and has been used as an outside-class communication space in formal learning contexts to supplement cognitive and affective aspects of learning. In this study, we used Facebook groups as supplemental social spaces in two asynchronous online master’s-level courses to understand if it impacted students’ perceptions of social presence (i.e., copresence, immediacy, and intimacy), learning interaction with faculty and peers, as well as sociability of the online learning environment. The results indicated that students felt more positively about social presence and learning interactions with other classmates and their instructor and perceived the course as having more sociability after they joined the class Facebook group. Findings have implications for supporting social impression formation in online learning.     

Need for relatedness: a self-determination approach to examining attachment styles,Facebook use,and psychological well-being

Employing attachment theory and self-determination theory, this study argues that attachment style represents essential innate needs for social connection among individuals and an important antecedent factor in social media research. Thus, attachment style influences how individuals use Facebook for social interaction to satisfy their need for relatedness and achieve psychological well-being. The results from university and national samples showed that individuals with high secure attachment gain satisfaction of the need for relatedness and perceive positive well-being, individuals with high attachment avoidance do not use Facebook for need satisfaction and perceive negative well-being, and individuals with high anxious attachment gain a sense of community through Facebook but still perceive loneliness. Indirect analyses showed that individuals with high secure and anxious attachment dimension lead to higher Facebook use, which provides a higher level of satisfaction of relatedness needs and results in more positive psychological outcomes. Additionally, communication with good friends on both Facebook and offline predicted higher well-being. These results successfully linked attachment theory to the self-determination process and extended both theories into the realm of social media. This study also provided a theoretical framework for future studies to examine the association between Facebook use and well-being. After controlling for personality traits including extraversion and self-esteem, attachment style still had considerable influence on psychological well-being, showing that attachment style is a distinct factor in predicting variances in well-being and further showing that innate need for relatedness is important when studying the need satisfaction process in social media. Future directions are discussed.     

Exploring the views of students on the use of Facebook in university teaching and learning

Facebook use among students is almost ubiquitous; however, its use for formal academic purposes remains contested. Through an online survey monitoring student use of module Facebook pages and focus groups, this study explores students’ current academic uses of Facebook and their views on using Facebook within university modules. Students reported using Facebook for academic purposes, notably peer–peer communication around group work and assessment – a use not always conceptualised by students as learning. Focus groups revealed that students are not ready or equipped for the collaborative style of learning envisaged by the tutor and see Facebook as their personal domain, within which they will discuss academic topics where they see a strong relevance and purpose, notably in connection with assessment. Students use Facebook for their own mutually defined purposes and a change in student mind- and skill-sets is required to appropriate the collaborative learning benefits of Facebook in formal educational contexts.     

Privacy in social networks: An analysis of Facebook

The only way to be aware of the risks and threats of Facebook, the most commonly used social networking site in the world and Turkey, is to be a careful user changing the default settings or simply not to have a Facebook account. In Turkey, there is still no study in which personal information shared though social networking sites has been evaluated in terms of privacy. For this reason, the findings obtained of this study have a great importance in the general picture of the current situation and drawing attention to the risks of the issue in Turkey where there are no legal arrangements effectively protecting the users from such sites. This study aims to investigate the Facebook privacy of information professionals who are members of KUTUP-L, and to determine the sensitivity and level of awareness of information professionals in Turkey. Facebook user profiles of 400 information professionals, all KUTUP-L members, have been analyzed in a study examining 32 different privacy settings. A privacy score has been calculated for each user, and the relations between privacy results have been analyzed. The findings at the end of the study show that information professionals in Turkey do pay attention to privacy, and most of the users change the default settings in order to protect their personal information.     

Expanding Beyond our Library Walls: Building an Active Online Community through Facebook

This article demonstrates how Facebook, a popular social networking Web site, provides libraries with the opportunity to develop an outreach presence and information portal within an online community. While much of the recent literature examines Facebook and defines its potential use within libraries, this article focuses on the use of Facebook's newest feature: customizable Facebook Pages. In December 2007, librarians at the State University of New York at Buffalo began exploring the use of Facebook Pages to virtually reach out to patrons and market library services. Based on user response and Page statistics, librarians found the use of Facebook Pages provided a welcome extension of services and a unique form of outreach that reached beyond the campus community. Through a University at Buffalo Libraries Page on Facebook, librarians can update and inform students, faculty, and staff of new events, workshops, library services, and resources. Librarians at the University at Buffalo maintain an active online community that reaches more than 300 fans. Fans provide discussion and feedback regarding library services, offering a more interactive extension of the Libraries homepage. This article explains the design process, including the use of third-party and custom applications. Challenges, ideas, and user response in regards to the use of Facebook Pages in a library setting are also presented.