Search

Adolescents are active users of Facebook and are spending an increasing amount of their daily time on its use. Several recent studies have advocated the need to integrate Facebook use into our existing educational practices. However, at the same time, scholars and educators are wary of the fact that intensive Facebook use (IFU) may not translate into educational uses, learning outcomes and academic well-being. IFU represents an important service use concept that evaluates any user's emotional attachment, connectivity and integration with Facebook use. To address this gap, the present study investigated the role of different Facebook U&G and educational affordances in predicting the IFU among adolescents. A cross-sectional study with 942 adolescent Facebook users from India was conducted. The study results suggest that content U&G did not, while process, technology and social U&G did, play significant roles in predicting IFU. In comparison to Facebook U&G, different educational affordances, namely perceptions of Facebook use in Mathematics, Science and English education, perceptions of its formal use in classrooms and academic information seeking and sharing, did not significantly predict IFU. The study concludes with various theoretical and practical implications for scholars, educational solution developers, pedagogical experts as well as education policy makers.

Prior extensive literature on Social Networking Sites (SNSs) has linked their use with psychosocial well-being. Facebook use has also been associated with different attributes of psychosocial well-being. However, the extant literature is inconclusive regarding the nature of the relationship shared by the different attributes of psychosocial well-being and Intensity of Facebook Use (IFU). Furthermore, the prior literature has also revealed inconsistent findings concerning this relationship. To address this gap, this study investigated the significant role of different attributes of psychosocial well-being associated with Facebook use, namely civic-political participation, satisfaction of life, bridging and bonding of social capital, and online sociability on IFU. A total of four cross-sectional surveys were undertaken with adolescent and young-adult Facebook users from India over a period of one year. The results suggest that online sociability was the strongest, and life satisfaction was a non-significant predictor of IFU of both adolescents and young adults across all four studies. The bonding and bridging of social capital was a significant predictor of the IFU of high social economic condition (SES) adolescents, unlike young adults. Furthermore, bridging was, but bonding of social capital was not, a significant predictor of the IFU of low SES adolescents.

The immense popularity of Facebook use among people from varying demographic groups has attracted the attention of communication scholars. While much is known about the age and gender differences in Facebook usage patterns and the general gratifications underlying its use, minimal attention has been paid to examining the age and gender differences among adolescents and young adults. Using multiple cross-sectional studies with Indian adolescent and young-adult photo-taggers, this study investigated (a) the age and gender differences in the photo-tagging gratifications of adolescents (12-18 years), (b) how photo-tagging gratifications among adolescents change over historical time, (c) the effect of different interactions among age, gender and the effect of time on the sought photo-tagging gratifications of adolescents, and (d) the age and gender differences between adolescent and young-adult photo-taggers. Theoretical and practical implications for new media research and practice are presented. Male adolescents seek higher like and comment and gain popularity gratifications.Age differences in the gratifications sought by adolescents were missing.The intensity of different gratifications sought by adolescents reduced over time.Gender differences between adolescents and young adults were missing.Significant age differences between adolescents and young adults were noticed.

The past few years have witnessed the emergence of research examining online regret experience. The presence of online regret generates negative use experience and even leads to service switching and discontinuity. However, to date, only limited research has examined the conceptualization of this new yet very important phenomenon in the field of technology use. To address this research gap, the present study has examined the relative influence of SNS brand participation, technology accessibility attributes (including Facebook usage parameters) and problematic Facebook use in predicting regret experience regarding Facebook use. A pen-and-paper cross-sectional survey was administered to 804 adolescent Facebook users (aged 13-18 years). The study results suggest that adolescent users with varying technology accessibility did not differ in their online regret experience, but excessive Facebook users and those actively participating in brand communities tended to experience higher regret. Other findings suggest that two variables, namely parents' perceptions of problematic Facebook use and conflict with friends due to Facebook use, were significant predictors of online regret experience. This study presents different theoretical and practical implications for both research and practice. Limited prior research has investigated the conceptualizations of online regret.Online regret generates leads to service switching and discontinuity.804 adolescent Facebook users participated in this cross-sectional study.Link between participation, accessibility, problematic use and regret was examined.Predictors were excessive use, active participation and problematic use of Facebook.

Flow theory is a popular theoretical framework for understanding the underpinnings of the prolonged use of information systems. While there has been an increasing interest in examining flow experience during nearly four decades, the concept of flow still suffers from various limitations concerning its use as a measurable construct in empirical research. To address these limitations, the present study developed a 26-item instrument for examining flow experience in the domain of social networking services. A cross-sectional survey was administered to 804 Facebook users. The development and validation process consisted of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, second-order factor analysis, and examination of instrument validity and reliability. The developed instrument represents six components of flow experience: skill, machine interaction, social interaction, playfulness, concentration and enjoyment. The developed instrument possesses good model fit and high validity and reliability. This paper discusses the uses and limitations of the instrument in the examination of users' experiences of social networking services, and suggests avenues for future research on the topic with a special focus on research on user-centric innovations in online service. The study develops an instrument for research on flow experience in social networking.Flow experience has been imprecisely understood in the context of social networking.Flow is a combination of skill, interaction, playfulness, concentration and enjoyment.Previously used constructs of flow suffer from inappropriate psychometric properties.The study acknowledges that contingencies in social networks affect flow experience.

Recent research has emphasized the exponential increase in the online regret experience among online users. Such experience results in poor satisfaction, brand switching, and even service discontinuity. However, little prior research has investigated the relative influence of online platform characteristics and individual differences (such as demographics) in predicting the online regret experience. To address this gap, a pen-and-paper cross-sectional survey was organized with 804 adolescent (aged 13-17 years) Facebook users. The study utilized a theoretical framework of flow experience to understand the online regret experience and investigated the relative influence of demographic variables (age, gender, time spent, and service use experience) and flow experience components in predicting the online regret experience. Older adolescents and those spending more daily time on Facebook were more likely to experience higher online regret than their younger counterparts and those spending less daily time on Facebook. There were no significant gender-related or Facebook use experience-related differences in the tendency to experience online regret. The increase in playfulness and users' focused attention on Facebook led to higher levels of online regret experience. The practical and theoretical implications of this study for both practitioners and researchers are discussed. The study investigates the effects of online users' regret experience.Regret is linked to dissatisfaction, brand switching, and service discontinuity.Existing research has not fully explained how the regret experience can be predicted.Playfulness and user-focused attention increase the incidence of regret experiences.

Facebook users practice different strategies for managing their online self-presentation. Among the different available techniques, untagging is the most popular and frequently utilized. However, literature on the subject has not examined the untagging practices among adolescent Facebook users. In addition to this, there is no current knowledge of the differences between adolescent Facebook users who do and do not untag photos. The present study addresses this gap through a cross-sectional survey that involved 380 adolescent Facebook users (aged 12-18 years). The current study examines these differences in terms of adolescents' demographic attributes, digital imaging accessibility, online regret experience and management of digital photos. The study findings suggest that older males, extroverts, and those who perceive online information to be public, have more experience of taking and sharing photos, spend more time taking photos, practice strict protection of photos, demonstrate a negative perception of cloud storage, and rarely keep backups, are likely to untag photos. In addition to this, sociability and time lapse, in terms of realizing regretful experiences, significantly predicted the tendency among adolescents to untag photos. The study concludes by identifying various theoretical and practical implications of these findings. Limited prior research on differences between those who do and do not untag photos.Prior literature has not studied the untagging practices among adolescent Facebook users.Cross-sectional survey that was organized with 380 adolescent Facebook users (aged 12-18) years).Adolescents differed in demographics, accessibility, regret experience and management of digital photos.Sociability and time lapse in realising regretted experience predicted the tendency to untag.

Recently scholars have started examining selfie-related behaviour, with an emphasis on young women. However, little is known about age and gender differences in selfie-taking and posting patterns. To address this gap, an online survey of a sample of 3763 Norwegian social media users was carried out. This study provides the first empirical evidence on how adolescents (aged 12 to 19), young adults (20-30) and adults (31-50) differ in terms of selfie behaviour. Females were more likely to take personal and group selfies, post personal selfies, crop photos and use photographic filters compared to males. Adolescents were found to be more likely than young adults to take own and group selfies, post own selfies, and use photographic filters. Similarly, young adults were more likely to take own and group selfies, post and edit photos than older adults. The predictive effect of age was stronger among women than among men regarding selfie taking, posting and editing behaviour. The interpretations and implications of the study findings are discussed in the light of previous literature. An online survey of 3763 Norwegian social media users was carried out.First empirical study to investigate differences among adolescents' and adults' selfie behaviour.Females are more likely to take and share selfies and edit photos than males.Age differences in selfie-related behaviour were observed.Predictive effect of age was stronger on selfie behaviour among women than men.

Relationship between background, gratifications and Internet addiction.A cross-sectional survey with 1914 Indian adolescents was organized.EFA, CFA, correlations, t-tests, logistic and hierarchical regression.Social influence and approach avoidance dichotomize addicts and non-addicts.Practical and theoretical implications for IA research are presented. Although research examining Internet addiction is as old as the Internet itself, the roles of Internet users' background characteristics and sought Internet gratifications in predicting Internet addiction (IA) are still unclear. Previous literature has pointed out the urgent need to identify how Internet addicts differ from non-addicts with regard to their background characteristics and Internet gratifications. In order to provide conceptual links among IA, background characteristics and Internet gratifications, a cross-sectional survey-based research study was conducted with 1914 adolescent Internet users from India. The data were gathered from 10 junior and senior high schools from four cities in northwestern India. The data were analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson correlations, independent sample t-tests, logistic regression and hierarchical multiple regression. The study results suggest that gender (male), daily time spent on Internet use, reward seeking, and connecting and social influence gratifications dichotomize the Internet addict and non-addict cohorts. Besides these study variables, academic performance, parental attitudes towards Internet use, approach avoidance, information seeking, and exposure and coordination gratifications were found to lead to the conditioning of IA among adolescent Internet users. The practical as well as theoretical implications for IA research and other stakeholders are also discussed and presented.