Psychology of Social Media
Examen: 4-8 open vragen
ze wilt onze mening, maar moet gebasseerd zijn op de literatuur
vb. hoe is het gedefinieerd door onderzoekers en wat is mijn kritische mening over die
definitie
Introduction
Social media are..
A topic that is of public interest for…
o Governments/politicians, parents/educators
Social Media
… a topic that is intensely studied in communication science-and beyond
More than 120 000 search results for scientific publications within the last 6 years in Wos
database
Mapping the field
Social media is at the core of communication
BUT it’s also interdisciplinary
Next week
Definition
Inconsistent conceptualizations (a lot of different definitions) threatens validity and
conversation in scholars
Lasswell’s (1948) communication model
o Who the communicator
o Say’s what the conent of the message
o In which channel the medium that transmits the message
o To whom the recipient
o With what effect? refers to the message’s outcome
very much designed for traditional media; could this be a framework for all the different
definitions
Towards a Conceptual Definition
Not all components were present in the social media environment; to whom and with what
effect were missing
social media is very different from traditional media
=> first time that you could create media yourself and diffuse it to everybody
blurred the difference between the sender and receiver
1
,None of the definitions mentioned the audience or the effects
BECAUSE the effects aren’t straight forward
WHO & To Whom
could now be ..
micro level: one person
meso: companies and brands are on social media
macro: governments are now on social media
vb. They can send you an alert when there is an tsunami
WHAT
Can be about all kind of things and comes in different mediated forms of text, audio, visuals
etc (mediated because you use something to spread the message, the radio is the medium)
In which channel?
Can be a platform, apps ..
relevant to know what the useability of this form of communication is
Why?
You have clear intensions/reasoning why you use social media (or just habit) compared to
the effect which isn’t as clear
To communicate, share, discuss, cocreate, disseminate, create, consume, exchange
Definition
Definition (El Ouirdi et al., 2014)
Who individual users, communities of people,
organizations and industries
Says what information and digital user-generated
content in several formats: words, statistic, moving
images, audio (no information on message/content)
mediated shape matters, vb. Body image vs
Instagram/twitter; the effects differ because it has
different
In which channel web-based technology vs.
platform
To whom and to what effect are no longer included in the definition
o Whom; not strange because on social media there is no line between
communicator & receiver because you can take on both roles (from passive to
active user)
o Effect: would be considered in different research and not included in the
conceptualization because effect is to broad and can be too different to put into a
single definition
2
, Why? Create, cocreate, exchange, share, discuss, modify, consume, communicate and
disseminate user-generated content; forming communities that engage in social interaction
Created a cube to categorize different media platforms taxonomy of social media
(to categorize) but doesn’t give conceptual definition of what social media is
Definition (Carr & Hays, 2015)
Second text
Problems with prior definitions
o SNS are typically social media, but not all social media are SNS
o Too technic definitions (based on site features or technical affordances) => not
enough attention to communication function
following these definitions e-mail/Skye/Netflix isn’t social media (because there is no user
generated content) but FB, Tinder is
“Social media are internet-based channels that allow users to opportunistically interact and
selectively self-present, either in real-time or asynchronously, with both broad and narrow
audiences who derive value from user-generated content and the perception of interaction
with others”
aka social media seen as tolls to form self-presentation of yourself which are highly
curated (because you only post what you want people to see positivity bias)
Characteristics (= some are affordances)
Internet-based
o Same as in the prior definition, but there is no attention whether there is
merely just the channel that is used
Disenstraint (asynchronously) / persistent (always available) channels
o It allows asynchronous (real-time) communication (you wait to respond, choose
what you will say)
Perceived interactivity
vb. parasocial relations
User-generated value
o Value of content based on likes & comments (how valuable you find this person
depends on that)
Masspersonal communication
vb. one to many communication, to broad and narrow audiences
What are and what are not social media?
SNS vs social media
SNS are always part of social media, yet in the literature not every social medium is a
SNS
3
, SNS always has these key characteristics: always create a profile and always have a kind
of network or context with whom you will be interacting (vb. Facebook)
Vb. Tinder, you go on a datingapp but you won’t have a real network social medium
but not an SNS
Similarities vs differences between Carr & Hayes’ definition and El Ouidi et al.
El Ouirdi: Broader in terms of the “why”(informing, dissemination, creating), while Carr
& Hayes have a way more user-oriented focus in terms of what social media does in
terms of how you communicate to each other (much more oriented about the strategic
nature when people interact with people)
Carr & Hayes: less focused on people who use social media for news consumption
Carr & Hayes: Less applicable to some social media that is available today
vb. Passively scrolling on Tiktok, then you’re not opportunistically interacting or
selectively self-presenting
El Ouirdi: broader if you’re more interested in what happens in terms of human
interpersonal oriented communication vs gives more cues about what truly changed when
we had social media
o The staged self-presentation has had a tremendous impact on how people see their
identity, which is core to human nature
o Before there were no profiles, the idea that you had to worry about how you
selectively presented yourself and which cues you share everyday with which
audiences before there was only real life
Big difference in how we define who we are today this fundamental change in
human communication is more present in Carr & Hayes definition, yet El Ouirdi et
al.’s definition is much broader and complete besides the interpersonal context
Social media: “Moving target problem”
Video that claims to be the first video to ever be posted on YouTube
The problem that there is constant technological innovation
o If you look at when you started defining social media, it’s already outdated when
the literature gets published
Shifting relevance
o Years of studying ig posts, yet today stories are the most consumed medium
Methodological challenges
o By the time you have solved the problems of studying a certain feature, a new w-
one has already been developed
o There’s way less money for research then there is for technological developments
bigger budgets would make it easier to keep up
Theoretical opportunity
o “Scholarship should consider contemporary technologies mainly as manifestations
of underlying phenomena” (Flanagin, 2020)
o Should strive for theory that especially focuses on the context of the
communication (not specifically an Instagram story or post) call it an
4
Examen: 4-8 open vragen
ze wilt onze mening, maar moet gebasseerd zijn op de literatuur
vb. hoe is het gedefinieerd door onderzoekers en wat is mijn kritische mening over die
definitie
Introduction
Social media are..
A topic that is of public interest for…
o Governments/politicians, parents/educators
Social Media
… a topic that is intensely studied in communication science-and beyond
More than 120 000 search results for scientific publications within the last 6 years in Wos
database
Mapping the field
Social media is at the core of communication
BUT it’s also interdisciplinary
Next week
Definition
Inconsistent conceptualizations (a lot of different definitions) threatens validity and
conversation in scholars
Lasswell’s (1948) communication model
o Who the communicator
o Say’s what the conent of the message
o In which channel the medium that transmits the message
o To whom the recipient
o With what effect? refers to the message’s outcome
very much designed for traditional media; could this be a framework for all the different
definitions
Towards a Conceptual Definition
Not all components were present in the social media environment; to whom and with what
effect were missing
social media is very different from traditional media
=> first time that you could create media yourself and diffuse it to everybody
blurred the difference between the sender and receiver
1
,None of the definitions mentioned the audience or the effects
BECAUSE the effects aren’t straight forward
WHO & To Whom
could now be ..
micro level: one person
meso: companies and brands are on social media
macro: governments are now on social media
vb. They can send you an alert when there is an tsunami
WHAT
Can be about all kind of things and comes in different mediated forms of text, audio, visuals
etc (mediated because you use something to spread the message, the radio is the medium)
In which channel?
Can be a platform, apps ..
relevant to know what the useability of this form of communication is
Why?
You have clear intensions/reasoning why you use social media (or just habit) compared to
the effect which isn’t as clear
To communicate, share, discuss, cocreate, disseminate, create, consume, exchange
Definition
Definition (El Ouirdi et al., 2014)
Who individual users, communities of people,
organizations and industries
Says what information and digital user-generated
content in several formats: words, statistic, moving
images, audio (no information on message/content)
mediated shape matters, vb. Body image vs
Instagram/twitter; the effects differ because it has
different
In which channel web-based technology vs.
platform
To whom and to what effect are no longer included in the definition
o Whom; not strange because on social media there is no line between
communicator & receiver because you can take on both roles (from passive to
active user)
o Effect: would be considered in different research and not included in the
conceptualization because effect is to broad and can be too different to put into a
single definition
2
, Why? Create, cocreate, exchange, share, discuss, modify, consume, communicate and
disseminate user-generated content; forming communities that engage in social interaction
Created a cube to categorize different media platforms taxonomy of social media
(to categorize) but doesn’t give conceptual definition of what social media is
Definition (Carr & Hays, 2015)
Second text
Problems with prior definitions
o SNS are typically social media, but not all social media are SNS
o Too technic definitions (based on site features or technical affordances) => not
enough attention to communication function
following these definitions e-mail/Skye/Netflix isn’t social media (because there is no user
generated content) but FB, Tinder is
“Social media are internet-based channels that allow users to opportunistically interact and
selectively self-present, either in real-time or asynchronously, with both broad and narrow
audiences who derive value from user-generated content and the perception of interaction
with others”
aka social media seen as tolls to form self-presentation of yourself which are highly
curated (because you only post what you want people to see positivity bias)
Characteristics (= some are affordances)
Internet-based
o Same as in the prior definition, but there is no attention whether there is
merely just the channel that is used
Disenstraint (asynchronously) / persistent (always available) channels
o It allows asynchronous (real-time) communication (you wait to respond, choose
what you will say)
Perceived interactivity
vb. parasocial relations
User-generated value
o Value of content based on likes & comments (how valuable you find this person
depends on that)
Masspersonal communication
vb. one to many communication, to broad and narrow audiences
What are and what are not social media?
SNS vs social media
SNS are always part of social media, yet in the literature not every social medium is a
SNS
3
, SNS always has these key characteristics: always create a profile and always have a kind
of network or context with whom you will be interacting (vb. Facebook)
Vb. Tinder, you go on a datingapp but you won’t have a real network social medium
but not an SNS
Similarities vs differences between Carr & Hayes’ definition and El Ouidi et al.
El Ouirdi: Broader in terms of the “why”(informing, dissemination, creating), while Carr
& Hayes have a way more user-oriented focus in terms of what social media does in
terms of how you communicate to each other (much more oriented about the strategic
nature when people interact with people)
Carr & Hayes: less focused on people who use social media for news consumption
Carr & Hayes: Less applicable to some social media that is available today
vb. Passively scrolling on Tiktok, then you’re not opportunistically interacting or
selectively self-presenting
El Ouirdi: broader if you’re more interested in what happens in terms of human
interpersonal oriented communication vs gives more cues about what truly changed when
we had social media
o The staged self-presentation has had a tremendous impact on how people see their
identity, which is core to human nature
o Before there were no profiles, the idea that you had to worry about how you
selectively presented yourself and which cues you share everyday with which
audiences before there was only real life
Big difference in how we define who we are today this fundamental change in
human communication is more present in Carr & Hayes definition, yet El Ouirdi et
al.’s definition is much broader and complete besides the interpersonal context
Social media: “Moving target problem”
Video that claims to be the first video to ever be posted on YouTube
The problem that there is constant technological innovation
o If you look at when you started defining social media, it’s already outdated when
the literature gets published
Shifting relevance
o Years of studying ig posts, yet today stories are the most consumed medium
Methodological challenges
o By the time you have solved the problems of studying a certain feature, a new w-
one has already been developed
o There’s way less money for research then there is for technological developments
bigger budgets would make it easier to keep up
Theoretical opportunity
o “Scholarship should consider contemporary technologies mainly as manifestations
of underlying phenomena” (Flanagin, 2020)
o Should strive for theory that especially focuses on the context of the
communication (not specifically an Instagram story or post) call it an
4
