Search

During COVID-19, there has been an unprecedented rise of videoconferencing use, primarily through Zoom. This increasingly popularity of Zoom has led to growing debates about its negative health impacts. In particular, 'Zoom fatigue' is a rapidly popularizing phenomena that describes the mental exhaustion or burnout arising from Zoom use. However, the specific mechanisms through which Zoom leads to Zoom fatigue are not well understood. To fill this gap, this study tested a mediated model linking Zoom use with the camera on ('ZUC') to Zoom fatigue, through the mediator of social interaction anxiety on Zoom, with a survey sample from the United Kingdom. It was also posited that self-monitoring positively moderated the effects of ZUC on social interaction anxiety on Zoom. The results demonstrated that the direct effects of ZUC on Zoom fatigue was significant and positive. The paper also showed that social interaction anxiety on Zoom increased Zoom fatigue. However, ZUC failed to indirectly increase Zoom fatigue due to the insignificant effects of ZUC on social interaction anxiety on Zoom. Self-monitoring also did not moderate the insignificant relationship between ZUC and social interaction anxiety on Zoom. These insights can guide conceptual frameworks for future research exploring the social psychological impacts of digital media on health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social prescribing is gaining traction internationally. It is an approach which seeks to address non-medical and health-related social needs through taking a holistic person-centred and community-based approach. This involves connecting people with and supporting them to access groups and organisations within their local communities. It is hoped that social prescribing might improve health inequities and reduce reliance on healthcare services. In the UK, social prescribing link workers have become core parts of primary care teams. Despite growing literature on the implementation of social prescribing, to date there has been no synthesis that develops a theoretical understanding of the factors that shape link workers' experiences of their role. Methods: We undertook a meta-ethnographic evidence synthesis of qualitative literature to develop a novel conceptual framework that explains how link workers experience their roles. We identified studies using a systematic search of key databases, Google alerts, and through scanning reference lists of included studies. We followed the eMERGe guidance when conducting and reporting this meta-ethnography. Results: Our synthesis included 21 studies and developed a "line of argument" or overarching conceptual framework which highlighted inherent and interacting tensions present at each of the levels that social prescribing operates. These tensions may arise from a mismatch between the policy logic of social prescribing and the material and structural reality, shaped by social, political, and economic forces, into which it is being implemented. Conclusions: The tensions highlighted in our review shape link workers' experiences of their role. They may call into question the sustainability of social prescribing and the link worker role as currently implemented, as well as their ability to deliver desired outcomes such as reducing health inequities or healthcare service utilisation. Greater consideration should be given to how the link worker role is defined, deployed, and trained. Furthermore, thought should be given to ensuring that the infrastructure into which social prescribing is being implemented is sufficient to meet needs. Should social prescribing seek to improve outcomes for those experiencing social and economic disadvantage, it may be necessary for social prescribing models to allow for more intensive and longer-term modes of support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accelerated development of Information and Communications Technology has had a profound impact on the education system, both online and offline. In a South East European country such as Serbia, new technologies shape information, communication, and collaboration dynamics while contributing to a persistent digital divide regarding the skills necessary to obtain, process, evaluate, and communicate information. In this article, we explore digital divides between students and teachers in higher education with a focus on tensions surrounding digital literacy and collaboration. We apply Weber’s theory of stratification to an empirical case study of the digital divide in higher education in Serbia. We draw upon international indicators, secondary statistical sources, and primary semi-structured interviews with students and teachers in higher education. Through this analysis, we illustrate how forms of stratification intervene when trying to integrate new technologies and technology-oriented practices into the classroom. We consider stratification in terms of the traditional digital divide of access as well as stratification along lines of status, politics, and motivations. We interpret educators’ reluctance to adopt new technology as a reaction to the technology’s capacity to challenge the educators’ legitimacy, expertise, and preferred teaching materials. Students compound this situation with both greater familiarity and yet less focus on source credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographies of codified knowledge have always been characterized by stark core–periphery patterns, with some parts of the world at the center of global voice and representation and many others invisible or unheard. Many have pointed to the potential for radical change, however, as digital divides are bridged and 2.5 billion people are now online. With a focus on Wikipedia, which is one of the world's most visible, most used, and most powerful repositories of user-generated content, we investigate whether we are now seeing fundamentally different patterns of knowledge production. Even though Wikipedia consists of a massive cloud of geographic information about millions of events and places around the globe put together by millions of hours of human labor, the encyclopedia remains characterized by uneven and clustered geographies: There is simply not a lot of content about much of the world. The article then moves to describe the factors that explain these patterns, showing that although just a few conditions can explain much of the variance in geographies of information, some parts of the world remain well below their expected values. These findings indicate that better connectivity is only a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the presence of volunteered geographic information about a place. We conclude by discussing the remaining social, economic, political, regulatory, and infrastructural barriers that continue to disadvantage many of the world's informational peripheries. The article ultimately shows that, despite many hopes that a democratization of connectivity will spur a concomitant democratization of information production, Internet connectivity is not a panacea and can only ever be one part of a broader strategy to deepen the informational layers of places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As rental markets move online, techniques to assess racial/ethnic rental housing discrimination should keep pace. We demonstrate an audit method for assessing discrimination in Toronto's online rental market. As a multicultural city with less segregation and more diverse visible minorities than most US cities, Toronto lends itself to multiname audit studies. We sent 5,620 fictitious email inquiries to landlords offering apartments on Craigslist, a popular Internet classifieds service. Each landlord received one inquiry each from five racialized groups-Caucasian, Black, E/SE Asian, Muslim/Arabic, and Jewish. In our experiments, 'opportunity denying' discrimination (exclusion through nonresponse) was 10 times as common as 'opportunity diminishing' discrimination (e.g., additional rental conditions). We estimate Muslim/Arabic-racialized men face the greatest resistance, with discrimination occurring in 12 percent of experiments. The level of discrimination is modest but significant for Asian men (7 percent), Blacks (5 percent), and Muslim/Arabic women (5 percent). Discrimination was evenly spread throughout the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presentation of self (via Goffman) is becoming increasingly popular as a means for explaining differences in meaning and activity of online participation. This article argues that self-presentation can be split into performances, which take place in synchronous “situations,” and artifacts, which take place in asynchronous “exhibitions.” Goffman’s dramaturgical approach (including the notions of front and back stage) focuses on situations. Social media, on the other hand, frequently employs exhibitions, such as lists of status updates and sets of photos, alongside situational activities, such as chatting. A key difference in exhibitions is the virtual “curator” that manages and redistributes this digital content. This article introduces the exhibitional approach and the curator and suggests ways in which this approach can extend present work concerning online presentation of self. It introduces a theory of “lowest common denominator” culture employing the exhibitional approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the changes in the social media which is said to be at a rapid pace because of updates on tools, features and policies. It identifies the elements of social media practices that are prevalent across platforms, users and cultures. It notes the qualities of social media and how it integrate other forms of computer-mediated communication such as direct messaging systems like electronic mails and blogging.

This paper explores the relationship between travel behaviour, ICT use and social networks. Specifically, we outline a theory of social action that can inform how ICTs relates to social activity travel and explore the efficacy of this theory in an empirical setting. We begin by outlining two factors that influence the propensity to travel: an individual's will to initiate events with members of one's social network, referred to as agency, and the social accessibility of network members themselves. Social accessibility defines a series of practical constraints for social-activity travel and agency defines the extent to which an individual will actively work within these constraints to maintain their social network. The theoretical section first unpacks these concepts while embedding them in the research literature, finishing with an operationalisation of agency and social accessibility. Using this theory, the empirical section investigates the relationship between agency, social accessibility, and factors associated with both the respondents and their personal networks. More specifically, we examine how agency levels of interaction are related to differences in demographics, global measures of network structure and composition, and measures of media use, particularly of Internet and telephone. We conclude that individuals who are proximate or more active are more likely to maintain reciprocal relationships, and that more distant or infrequent ties require greater maintenance on the individual's part. We believe that studies of activity-travel and ICTs will benefit from a theoretical lens that articulates some of the transformative effects of ICTs on travel vis-à-vis its effects on social life. Social accessibility and agency can help focus that lens thereby enabling researchers to make potentially more elaborate and realistic models that move beyond the spatial and temporal dimensions into social dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a data collection effort designed to incorporate the social dimension in social activity-travel behavior by explicitly studying the link between individuals' social activities and their social networks. The main hypothesis of the data collection effort is that individuals' travel behavior is conditional upon their social networks; that is, a key cause of travel behavior is the social dimension represented by social networks. With this hypothesis in mind, and using survey and interview instruments, the respondents' social networks are collected using an egocentric approach that is constituted by the interplay between their individual social structures and their social activity behavior. More explicitly, individuals' networks are a context within which to elicit social activity-travel generation, spatial distribution, and information communication and technology use. The resultant dataset links aspects, in novel ways, that have been rarely studied together, and provides a sound base of theory and method to study and potentially give new insights about social activity-travel behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe an interview-based data-collection procedure for social network analysis designed to aid gathering information about the people known by a respondent and reduce problems with data integrity and respondent burden. This procedure, a participant-aided network diagram (sociogram), is an extension of traditional name generators. Although such a diagram can be produced through computer-assisted programs for interviewing (CAPIs) and low technology (i.e., paper), we demonstrate both practical and methodological reasons for keeping high technology in the lab and low technology in the field. We provide some general heuristics that can reduce the time needed to complete a name generator. We present findings from our Connected Lives field study to illustrate this procedure and compare to an alternative method for gathering network data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation Social influence and contact networks are extremely important for understanding health behaviour and the spread of disease. Yet, most traditional software tools are not optimized to capture these data, making measurement of personal networks challenging. Our team developed Network Canvas to provide an end-to-end workflow with intuitive interfaces to enable researchers to design and conduct network interviews. Implementation Network Canvas consists of three applications (Architect , Interviewer and Server). All applications are written in JavaScript and run on Windows, macOS and Linux; Interviewer also runs on Android and iOS. General features Network Canvas substantially reduces the complexity and technical knowledge required to collect network data via three point-and-click applications. The tool has wide applicability for measuring contact and social influence networks in epidemiology. Availability Network Canvas is open source and freely available [networkcanvas.com] under the GNU General Public License 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the impact of technology on couples in committed relationships through the lens of the couple and technology framework. Specifically, we used data from 6,756 European couples to examine associations between online boundary crossing, online intrusion, relationship satisfaction, and partner responsiveness. The results suggest that participants' reports of online boundary crossing were linked with lower relationship satisfaction and partner responsiveness. Also, lower relationship satisfaction and partner responsiveness were associated with increased online boundary crossing. The results suggest that men, but not women, who reported greater acceptability for online boundary crossing were more likely to have partners who reported lower relationship satisfaction in their relationships. Implications for clinicians, relationship educators, and researchers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexting has generated considerable public and professional interest with concerns centring on young people, and potential harms to mental and sexual health. Little research thus far has explored the practice among adults and none has focused on the cultural norms relating to the emotional experience of sexting across different ages and genders. We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of adults aged 18-59 years in Britain on the role of digital technologies in participants' sexual lives. In this paper, we draw on the accounts of 34 people with experience of sexting. We identified three main themes in participants' accounts related to the emotional aspects of sexting: (1) trust, (2) desire/intimacy and (3) shame. Under each theme, we identified motivations, 'feeling rules', and examples of 'emotion work' relating to the self, the other and the dyad. We conclude that there are shared cultural norms that constitute what appropriate sexting should feel like. Interventions aiming to minimise harms arising from sexting need to build on commonly held cultural conventions regarding the 'rules of the game' concerning feelings as well as behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once perceived as a means for those unsuccessful at traditional dating, online dating has become normalized as a way to seek sexual or romantic partners. In 2019, we interviewed 40 British adults on the role of digital technologies in their sexual lives; this paper draws on the accounts of 22 who had used such technologies for seeking partners. We analyzed qualitative accounts of online partner seeking as a social practice, drawing on a sample diverse in age, gender and sexual orientation, and informed by sexual script and social practice theory. Our theoretically informed analysis emphasized the multiple meanings and goals involved, the affordances of the technology and individuals' skills. Our study provided several novel contributions. Young heterosexual people commonly used general social media, rather than dating apps, to meet partners; meeting partners often involved complex interplays between online and offline networks and encounters. Risks were defined not merely in relation to "risky others" but in terms of one's own actions or attitudes. Participants deployed various skills in minimizing harms such as non-consensual sharing of intimate images, and used self-care skills such as setting limits to engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are now more than 3 billion Internet users on our planet. The connections afforded to all of those people, in theory, allow for an unprecedented amount of communication and public participation. The goal of this article is to examine how those potentials match up to actual patterns of participation. By focusing on Wikipedia, the world's largest and most used repository of user-generated content, we are able to gain important insights into the geographies of voice and participation. This article shows that the relative democratization of the Internet has not brought about a concurrent democratization of voice and participation. Despite the fact that it is widely used around the world, Wikipedia is characterized by highly uneven geographies of participation. The goal of highlighting these inequalities is not to suggest that they are insurmountable. Our regression analysis shows that the availability of broadband is a clear factor in the propensity of people to participate on Wikipedia. The relationship is not a linear one, though. As a country approaches levels of connectivity above about 450,000 broadband Internet connections, the ability of broadband access to positively affect participation keeps increasing. Complicating this issue is the fact that participation from the world's economic peripheries tends to focus on editing about the world's cores rather than their own local regions. These results ultimately point to an informational magnetism that is cast by the world's economic cores, virtuous and vicious cycles that make it difficult to reconfigure networks and hierarchies of knowledge production. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There are numerous indirect ways in which socioeconomic status (SES) can advantage or disadvantage people in developing social capital. Specifically, SES affects the access individuals have to beneficial resources that indirectly affects the social capital benefits individuals receive from personal and group social networks. With the advent of social network sites like Facebook, the ability to quantify and measure the effects of SES on social capital benefits is possible to a much greater degree than ever before. This study of undergraduate students focuses on the relationship between SES and social capital. We examine the relationship between SES and three structural measures of students' social capital using online social network data: general social capital (network size), bridging social capital (number of clusters), and bonding social capital (average degree). According to our results, higher SES relates to larger and denser networks, but not to networks with more clusters. These findings suggest that SES is not related to greater opportunities for networking, but better capitalization of existing network contexts. In addition to the novel substantive contribution, this paper offers a methodological advance in the structural study of social capital, which has previously been limited in size or complexity due to recall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxford COVID-19 Database (OxCOVID19 Database) is a comprehensive source of information related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This relational database contains time-series data on epidemiology, government responses, mobility, weather and more across time and space for all countries at the national level, and for more than 50 countries at the regional level. It is curated from a variety of (wherever available) official sources. Its purpose is to facilitate the analysis of the spread of SARS-CoV-2 virus and to assess the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions to reduce the impact of the pandemic. Our database is a freely available, daily updated tool that provides unified and granular information across geographical regions. Design type Data integration objective Measurement(s) Coronavirus infectious disease, viral epidemiology Technology type(s) Digital curation Factor types(s) Sample characteristic(s) Homo sapiens [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With video game use widely accepted and practiced in a wide variety of households worldwide, it is important for researchers to understand links between video game use and romantic relational experiences. Although unexplored within gaming literature, previous research has indicated the importance of attitudes of acceptance or approval within the couple relationship with acceptance of a partner's specific behavior being linked to relational outcomes. Using dyadic data from 6,756 couples (n = 13,512) from 16 different countries, an actor-partner interdependence moderating model was employed to evaluate how acceptance of video game use moderated the link between video game use and dyadic adjustment, while controlling for mental health, relational characteristics, and other demographic variables. Results indicate that higher reports of individual video game use were linked with improved rates of partner dyadic adjustment. Furthermore, results indicated that partner-interaction effects for acceptance of video game use moderated the relationships between video game use and dyadic adjustment. This supports the importance of considering contextual factors when examining gaming use and its links with other constructs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online forums are rich sources of information about user communication activity over time. Finding temporal patterns in online forum communication threads can advance our understanding of the dynamics of conversations. The main challenge of temporal analysis in this context is the complexity of forum data. There can be thousands of interacting users, who can be numerically described in many different ways. Moreover, user characteristics can evolve over time. We propose an approach that decouples temporal information about users into sequences of user events and inter-event times. We develop a new feature space to represent the event sequences as paths, and we model the distribution of the inter-event times. We study over 30,000 users across four Internet forums, and discover novel patterns in user communication. We find that users tend to exhibit consistency over time. Furthermore, in our feature space, we observe regions that represent unlikely user behaviors. Finally, we show how to derive a numerical representation for each forum, and we then use this representation to derive a novel clustering of multiple forums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]