ABSTRACT
This study examined the effects of cognitive and affective-based trust on knowledge sharing among students, which influences learning performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey was conducted with 730 participants, and analysis was carried out using structural equation modeling (SEM) based on the uses and gratifications (U&G) theory. The results showed that cognitive and affective trust significantly affects students' knowledge sharing behavior on Facebook, which further influences learning performance. This study also showed that social media had become a tool for social interaction and learning, which is crucial to students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
The aim of the study was to identify associations between problematic social media use (PSMU), type of internet activity, various background factors, psychosocial factors (mood, fear of missing out, need to belong, social relationships) and the COVID-19-pandemic's impacts on social media use among young adults in Finland. Data were collected from 381 young adults aged 18-35 (M = 26.01;SD = 4.55) in Finland through a web-based survey conducted during the autumn of 2020. PSMU was identified using the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale. Nine types of social media platform used were considered. Information about health-related factors was assessed using Beck Depression Inventory scale and a further single question. Social factors were measured using the Fear of Missing Out scale, the Single Item Need to Belong scale, and social engagement scale. 9.8 % of participants were found to exhibit PSMU. Younger people and women were more prone to PSMU. Social networking sites were the most used platform and were more strongly related to PSMU. Social media engagement, depression, fear of missing out and the effects of the pandemic on social media use were all positively and significantly associated with PSMU. These results may facilitate the development of guidelines for healthy social media use, and early detection of PSMU.
ABSTRACT
The research aims to identify the rate of exposure of Egyptian and Saudi university youth to media campaigns on social media sites to raise awareness of the Coronavirus and to monitor the trend of young people towards the information provided about the Coronavirus. The research used the survey method in its field apartment on a sample of Egyptian and Saudi university youth, as well as the comparative approach to identify the similarities and differences in the study sample. The most important results: The (We Are All Responsible) campaign ranked first in terms of media campaigns preferred by Saudi university youth with a relative importance of (97.5%), while the "Protect Yourself, Protect Your Nation” campaign ranked first in terms of media campaigns preferred by Egyptian university youth with relative importance. The amount of (91.83%) and the Egyptian and Saudi university youth agreed to choose because it provides information about the Coronavirus and how to prevent it in the first place with a relative importance of (95.17%) in the motives for following up on media campaigns, and there are no differences between the sample members at the three socio-economic levels on a scale The trend towards the effectiveness of campaigns in raising awareness of the Coronavirus as a total degree, where the value of (t) was not significant at the 0.05. level. © 2023 DSR Publishers/ The University of Jordan.
ABSTRACT
Death has become increasingly visible on social networks, especially after COVID-19, and Facebook addresses that with double standards: while some profiles remain active, others turn into memorials. This article investigates how Facebook's system deals with dead users' profiles either to support or restrict interactions concerning users' deaths. Our qualitative analysis of data from 54 public profiles of people who died between June 2020 and March 2021 showed that (i) Facebook fails to communicate the criteria for transforming profiles into memorials;(ii) no information about their contacts of deceased users' profiles is given;(iii) the frequency of interaction with memorials and with active profiles is different;(iv) profiles' privacy settings shape interaction. Our results exemplify how a sociotechnical system influences people's interactions with dead users' profiles. We herein highlight implications for interaction design and evaluation, besides the need to consider interaction as existence, which raises big challenges to the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community.
ABSTRACT
This study explores self-reported narratives of Filipino professionals in a relationship (FPR) in terms of their online-dating practices. It examines how romantic alternatives are experienced and expressed through Instagram (IG) My Stories during the quarantine period brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the present study aims to investigate the reasons and dynamics of IG-dating practices as well as how social media usage impacts romantic alternatives. The study hopes to fill the knowledge gap on the role IG dating plays in the various stages of online-dating practices during the quarantine period. The researchers analysed responses from two semi-structured interviews, six narratives or written responses, and follow-up email interviews with all eight FPR involved in this study. Findings indicate that compared to previous findings, the FPR did not regard being in IG as an important marker of their romantic and emotional relationships as it is merely their coping and surviving mechanism against boredom at the time of quarantining and their way of escaping and diverting their worries about the pandemic;hence, ending a relationship can take place at any stage in the form of "ghosting". Furthermore, IG's main activities such as posting, reacting, replying/ commenting, and chatting can initiate and maintain these romantic alternatives, and the primary motivation of the FPR to engage in IG dating concerns face-/self -presentation and negotiation. Finally, the term "quaranfling" is proposed to describe a phenomenon pertaining to a no-strings-attached flirting during quarantine, which is basically a casual romantic relationship. The current study may be a precursor to further investigations on quaranfling and whether online platforms (e.g., social media and dating apps) can be attributed to the growing number of relationship dilemmas (e.g., cheating and breakups) among modern-day couples not only in the Philippines but also in Asia Pacific.
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Mastery of the English language has always been major impediment to many educators and learners around the world. In this rapidly globalising world, social networking sites (SNSs) have risen to the top, especially during the unprecedented advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the review of SNSs regarding the English education field is scant, in spite of its significance for sustainability education. On that account, this systematic literature review highlights the potential benefits of using SNSs for educational practices. Using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) statement, 23 articles from 2018 to 2022 were accessed from three databases, particularly Scopus, Web of Science (WoS), and Educational Resources Information Centre (ERIC). First, the reviewed articles manifest that Facebook is the most frequently used SNSs for English educational purposes. Second, the findings indicated that SNSs have shown a positive impact in enhancing English language competency and improving learning attributes. Third, this review addressed the challenges of using SNSs in the English education field. These findings inferred that there are still research gaps related to the use of SNSs in sustaining English language education. Substantially, this review is advantageous for prospective researchers in identifying the research gaps regarding the use of SNSs for English teaching and learning. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
Social capital is the collection of social assets and resources that provide value to an individual and on which they can rely in times of need. Social networking sites (SNS) have contributed significantly to the development of social capital. A common classification of social capital is into bridging, bonding and maintained social capital. Often social capital is built and maintained in the online and offline environments together but each environment can foster social capital separately. With the constraints on physical contact and interactivity brought about by Covid-19-related restrictions, the assumption is that there would be greater reliance on SNS to develop and maintain social capital. This research examined whether, in an environment of ongoing restricted physical social contact, the use of SNS contributes positively to the establishment and development of social capital;and whether the use of different SNS exert different influences on the establishment and development of social capital. SNS use was assessed in terms of frequency and intensity of use;and social capital was assessed in terms of bridging, bonding and maintained social capital. Three SNS (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) were studied. A cross-sectional survey of 282 New Zealand residents was used to gather the data, and regression analyses were conducted to analyse the data. Findings indicated that frequency and intensity of use were key contributors to social capital, contributing mostly towards bridging social capital and the least towards bonding social capital. Additionally, intense and frequent use of Instagram contributed most towards bridging and maintained social capital, whereas intense and frequent use of WhatsApp contributed most towards bonding social capital. The research contributes to the theoretical understanding of the role of SNS, particularly with regard to the building and maintenance of social capital but also against a background of restricted physical social contact. It is furthermore of benefit to managers who have - and can - embraced the use of SNS to build and maintain team cultures, especially in terms of Covid-19-related contact restrictions. © The Authors, (2022). All Rights Reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission may be made without written permission from the individual authors.
ABSTRACT
Social networking sites (SNSs) contain a large amount of information that has been self-disclosed by users around the world because it provides a platform for millions of users to express their feelings, emotions, and even deepest thoughts. Some of these information are sensitive and private and can be used by hackers to launch social engineering attacks against the user or the company the user works for. Due to the physical restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, more people turned to social media to stay connected with each other and they spent more time on social media and disclosed much more information than the pre-COVID pandemic. The objective of this research is to study the potential security risks and privacy concerns brought by the disclosed information on SNSs during the COVID-19 pandemic. We developed an automated tool to collect and analyze publicly accessible data from Twitter API using some personal keywords such as birthday, anniversary, mental health, suicide etc. to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the disclosed sensitive information. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Due to the advent of the industrial revolution 4.0, there is now a crucial need for teachers to ensure that pupils are both skilled in English and technologically savvy. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of social networking sites (SNSs) has become compulsory. Their use has influenced the education system, which has embraced online learning. By implementing SNSs, English teachers have provided pupils with ample opportunities to learn, apply and produce knowledge, rather than simply to regurgitate it. As such, this literature review was conducted to study and summarise English teachers' perceptions of the use of SNSs in terms of their level of effectiveness, the degree to which they motivate pupils and how difficult they are to implement for teaching English. This review also sheds light on English teachers' willingness and readiness to use SNSs. The review synthesizes a total of 35 articles from 2018 to 2022, and it demonstrates that teachers feel positive about implementing SNSs in their English classrooms;according to the teachers studied, these platforms provide more advantages than disadvantages and are able to impressively enhance pupils' proficiency. This review contributes to the body of knowledge on new teaching methodologies by revealing the latest trends regarding teachers' perceptions of the use of SNSs for the teaching and learning of English. © 2023 ACADEMY PUBLICATION.
ABSTRACT
The primary aim of this study is to determine the purpose of social networking sites (SNS) usage and the severity of psychological distress among university students after experiencing a prolonged coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A total of 112 university students completed the questionnaire adapted from the Social Networking Usage Questionnaire (SNUQ) and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 items (DASS-21). Descriptive results showed that the university students use SNS actively for entertainment purposes, followed by academic, social, and information purposes. The students also suffered from immense psychological distress, with anxiety being the highest, followed by depression and stress. The results indicated the potential of integrating SNS in instruction and urgency in resolving the critical psychological distress issue among university students. © ICCE 2022.All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of video conferences in professional settings increased rapidly. Here, we examine how individual and situational characteristics jointly predict active behavior in video conferences (i.e., activating one's webcam, small talk, contacting other attendees) between strangers. We focus on external networking as well as proactive and reactive online networking and social anxiety as individual characteristics and investigate how these interact with social norms (operationalized as proportion of other attendees using the webcam), in predicting our outcome variable active video conference behavior. An online vignette experiment with three conditions (social norms: 25 vs. 75% of other attendees using the webcam vs. offline) was conducted to analyze the self-reported likelihood of active video conference versus active offline behavior. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses. Results indicate that external networking is a positive and social anxiety a negative predictor of self-reported active video conference behavior. Furthermore, the likelihood of engaging in active (video conference) behavior differed between the three scenarios, with highest values in the offline scenario and lowest in the online scenario with only 25% of other attendees using the webcam. However, no interaction effects of social norms with social anxiety were found. Overall, the findings suggest that individual differences in networking tendencies and social anxiety and social norms influence active behavior in video conferences independently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Social Science Computer Review is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
ABSTRACT
Social networking sites (SNSs) such as WeChat or Facebook can facilitate university students in learning, especially during a deadly epidemic period such as COVID-19. Student engagement is a challenging task for educators in internet-enabled technology-enhanced learning platforms. This research attempts to identify the relationship between student engagement and authentic learning during COVID-19 through the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a theoretical base. Quantitative data were collected (n = 285) using an online survey technique with the students from a recognized university in China. All six proposed hypotheses, including a moderating and two mediating variables, were found to be supported. The findings indicated that constructs such as affective engagement (AE) and social engagement (SE) are significant predictors of social interaction (SI) that may lead to accomplish authentic learning task (ALTask). Further, lack of attention (LAN) was found to significantly moderate social interaction and authentic learning tasks during COVID-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Fake news has led to a polarized society as evidenced by diametrically opposed perceptions of and reactions to global events such as the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and presidential campaigns. Popular press has linked individuals' political beliefs and cultural values to the extent to which they believe in false content shared on social networking sites (SNS). However, sweeping generalizations run the risk of helping exacerbate divisiveness in already polarized societies. This study examines the effects of individuals' political beliefs and espoused cultural values on fake news believability using a repeated-measures design (that exposes individuals to a variety of fake news scenarios). Results from online questionnaire-based survey data collected from participants in the US and India help confirm that conservative individuals tend to exhibit increasing fake news believability and show that collectivists tend to do the same. This study advances knowledge on characteristics that make individuals more susceptible to lending credence to fake news. In addition, this study explores the influence exerted by control variables (i.e., age, sex, and Internet usage). Findings are used to provide implications for theory as well as actionable insights. © 2022 The Author(s)
ABSTRACT
Due to the chaos and confusion caused by the sudden transition from face-to-face teaching to online and remote teaching in early 2020, numerous language teachers had no choice but to rely on online communities on social networking sites. The current study therefore examined how some language teachers were utilising online communities on Facebook during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing a mixed-methods approach, data were mainly collected through: (1) an eight-month observation of a technology-focused language teacher community on Facebook to identify different types of posts generated by its members before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 340);(2) a questionnaire to understand the community members' backgrounds and experiences of being in the community (n = 51);(3) semi-structured interviews with some of the questionnaire participants (n = 13);and (4) a post-interview questionnaire (n = 12) to get a better understanding of their responses. A content analysis of online posts and community members' responses suggest that language teacher communities on Facebook were supporting teachers during the stressful periods of the pandemic professionally and emotionally. The main findings are discussed in terms of the benefits and drawbacks of using online language teacher communities for professional purposes. The overall goal of the study is to offer much-needed answers on how pre-existing communities can be used to assist language teachers in times of a crisis.
ABSTRACT
This paper will assess the effect of social media on face-to-face (F2F) communication among students in a higher education institution. Previous scholars found that social media is a platform to connect people, especially in the current pandemic COVID-19. However, another study has shown the negative effect of social media among university students because it hampers students' real-life experiences. A literature survey has been selected to explore the effect of social media on F2F communication among students in a higher education institution. This paper also highlights the significant role of social media in higher education institutions during the pandemic of Covid19.
ABSTRACT
Social networking sites (SNSs) such as WeChat or Facebook can facilitate university students in learning, especially during a deadly epidemic period such as COYID-19. Student engagement is a challenging task for educators in internet-enabled technology-enhanced learning platforms. This research attempts to identify the relationship between student engagement and authentic learning during COYID-19 through the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a theoretical base. Quantitative data were collected (n = 285) using an online survey technique with the students from a recognized university in China. All six proposed hypotheses, including a moderating and two mediating variables, were found to be supported. The findings indicated that constructs such as affective engagement (AE) and social engagement (SE) are significant predictors of social interaction (SI) that may lead to accomplish authentic learning task (ALTask). Further, lack of attention (LAN) was found to significantly moderate social interaction and authentic learning tasks during COYID-19.
ABSTRACT
Although social networking sites have emerged as the primary source of information for young people, there is a dearth of knowledge concerning the underlying associations between differential aspects of social media overload and whether social media overload ultimately influenced people's negative coping strategies during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. In order to fill this gap in existing knowledge, the current research employed the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) theoretical paradigm to explicate social media fatigue and negative coping strategies from a technostress perspective. The study used cross-sectional methodology, whereby 618 valid questionnaire responses were gathered from WeChat users to assess the conceptual model. The obtained outcomes demonstrated that information overload and communication overload positively impacted young people's fatigue. Furthermore, these two patterns of perceived overload heighten social media fatigue, which ultimately leads to young people's negative coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings would extend the present social media fatigue and technical stress literature by identifying the value of the SSO theoretical approach in interpreting young people's negative coping phenomena in the post-pandemic time.
ABSTRACT
Due to the chaos and confusion caused by the sudden transition from face-to-face teaching to online and remote teaching in early 2020, numerous language teachers had no choice but to rely on online communities on social networking sites. The current study therefore examined how some language teachers were utilising online communities on Facebook during the COVID-19 pandemic. Employing a mixed-methods approach, data were mainly collected through: (1) an eight-month observation of a technology-focused language teacher community on Facebook to identify different types of posts generated by its members before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 340);(2) a questionnaire to understand the community members' backgrounds and experiences of being in the community (n = 51);(3) semi-structured interviews with some of the questionnaire participants (n = 13);and (4) a post-interview questionnaire (n = 12) to get a better understanding of their responses. A content analysis of online posts and community members' responses suggest that language teacher communities on Facebook were supporting teachers during the stressful periods of the pandemic professionally and emotionally. The main findings are discussed in terms of the benefits and drawbacks of using online language teacher communities for professional purposes. The overall goal of the study is to offer much-needed answers on how pre-existing communities can be used to assist language teachers in times of a crisis.
ABSTRACT
A sudden change in a person's social life, such as the adjustments caused by COVID-19, can raise social and psychological issues, with people's loneliness and boredom affecting their physical and mental well-being. Cyber ostracism (CO) refers to scenarios in which people feel that others are ignoring them over the internet, e.g., on social networking sites (SNSs) (such as Facebook and Twitter), and placing little importance on their thoughts. The study investigates the mediating role of anger between CO and discontinuous usage intention (DUI) and the moderating role of growth belief. Data were collected during three different periods from 517 Pakistani university students. Statistical procedures were conducted using a Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS). The study results reveal that anger mediates the relationship between CO and DUI of SNSs;moreover, growth belief moderates the relationship.
ABSTRACT
Social networking sites are regarded as useful catalysts for enhancing organisational work productivity and creativity. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the spin-offs associated with these particular platforms have become even more evident. Consequently, this study sought to explore the added benefits of using social networking sites to improve the work productivity and creativity of selected urban tourism-related Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the City of Tshwane, South Africa. The exploration of the research questions of the study suggests a theoretical framework that consists of key elements of diffusion and adoption of technology. As a result, Roger's Diffusion of Innovations Theory proved to be most applicable as it offers a relevant analytical framework for the dissemination and adoption of technology. The study adopted a qualitative approach by conducting interviews with a targeted population of SME service providers in the context of Pretoria (Tshwane) in the Gauteng province. The sample consisted of 50 such service providers that were selected using purposive sampling. Sampled SMEs included: 20 abed and breakfasts", 20 guest houses, and 10 tour operators. Interviews were then conducted with their relevant managers. The data were analysed using open coding, where dominant themes from the discussions were identified and discussed in detail. Findings indicate that a variety of social networking sites have been adopted by the tourism sector to enhance work productivity. These sites have changed the way SMEs operate, especially with regard to communication and marketing techniques.