Social Media: Risks &
Opportunities
Anouk de Groot
Inhoud
Lecture 1: Introduction...........................................................................................................................2
Lecture 2: Experiencing online aggression: perpetrators & victims........................................................3
Lecture 3: Witnessing online aggression: bystanders...........................................................................10
Lecture 4: Celebrity bashing.................................................................................................................20
Lecture 5: Tips and tricks......................................................................................................................27
Lecture 6: Online friendships and social connectedness......................................................................30
Lecture 7: Identity and self-presentation..............................................................................................36
Lecture 8: Online activism....................................................................................................................44
College 9: Guest lecture Netwerk Mediawijsheid.................................................................................51
Lecture 10: Privacy and social media....................................................................................................52
Lecture 11: Parental mediation.............................................................................................................58
Lecture 12: Q&A...................................................................................................................................65
,Lecture 1: Introduction
Focused on individual experiences: not risks and opportunities for organizations, but for
individuals
Opportunities of social media
What do we love about social media?
Staying in contact with friends and what they are doing
Information about interests
Create content
It is hard to define what “being online” means
Risks of social media
What do you hate about social media?
Superficial, you can put a label on everything you see
Anonymity: put a mask on and do everything you want
FOMO
Online hate speech, negative commenting (seems normalized)
Why is it relevant to study what people love/hate about social media?
We spend a significant amount of time per day on it
o 50% is almost constantly online
o All teens have access to smartphone, and many to laptops
Applicable in work context: also online hate speech, also opportunities you can use to
connect with colleagues
Key terms
Social media: “websites and applications that enable users to create and share
content and/or to participate in social networking”
Risk: “a situation involving exposure to danger”
Opportunity: “a chance for something”
,Lecture 2: Experiencing online aggression: perpetrators
& victims
Introduction to online aggression: what is online aggression?
Defining online aggression
“Intentional harm delivered by the use of electronic means to a person or a group of
people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s) such acts as offensive, derogatory,
harmful or unwanted”
Defining (cyber)bullying
Bullying: “Bullying is an aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a
group or an individual repeatedly and overtime against a victim who cannot easily
defend him- or herself”
o Power imbalance
o Perpetrators are better in estimating what is accepted
Who is perpetrator?
Dark triad study
Big 5 (neutral)
3 dark personality traits: those characterized by socially offensive traits
o Narcissism: very interested in yourself, you spend a lot of time on yourself,
how you should present you online, how people see you online, you like the
attention, you find yourself important
They can take advantage of others to gain own goals
o Machiavellianism: being very manipulative
Manipulate people to achieve goals
Love to have power
More reasoned, they plan it
o Psychopathy
Style is most important: arrogant, deceitful, incentive, cold
Don’t take into account other’s emotions
More impulsive, do it immediately
o Some overlap, but also different
Is this also true for online aggression?
Study 1: Dark triad study by Pabian at al.
First to study the association between Dark Triad traits (as a combined Dark Triad
cluster) and cyber-aggression among an adolescent population
Cyber-aggression = online aggression
o Aggressive, intentional act
o Using electronic means
o To a person or a group of people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s)
such acts as offensive, derogatory, harmful or unwanted
Results cross-sectional survey (adolescents aged 14-18)
What can we learn from this model?
, The relation between each of these traits and cyber-aggression:
o Machiavellianism: n.s.
o Narcissism: n.s.
o Psychopathy: significant correlation
More psychopathy more risk in engaging in online cyber-aggression
o Can be used among all types of groups. You just score a little bit higher
o
The relationship between Facebook intensity on cyber-aggression:
o People who use Facebook more higher score on online cyber-aggression
o Can Facebook intensity mediate cyber-aggression?
Implications: as personality traits are fairly stabilized in this age group, cyber-
aggression may be used as an indicator of psychopathy in adolescent individuals
Prevention?
o Social perspective-taking skills have been proven successful in overcoming
egocentrism and antisocial behavior
o Include training of these skills in prevention programs
Limitations
o Short dark triad instrument did not allow to investigate sub-constructs of
machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy
More recently: Dark tetrad: sadism as fourth trait
o Self-reports: are children to admit that they enjoy manipulating etc. others in
the school/leisure context?
Solution: social desirability scale
To consider
o How to translate these findings into concrete implication remains difficult;
hard to change personality traits
It still feels like a black box
o Might be more informative to focus on determinants of behavior that can be
changed
o Time for the next study!
Why do people perform this risk behavior and how can we prevent/intervene this risk
behavior?
Study 2: Theory of planned behavior study by Pabian & Vandebosch (2014)
Focus on proximal determinants of cyberbullying
Opportunities
Anouk de Groot
Inhoud
Lecture 1: Introduction...........................................................................................................................2
Lecture 2: Experiencing online aggression: perpetrators & victims........................................................3
Lecture 3: Witnessing online aggression: bystanders...........................................................................10
Lecture 4: Celebrity bashing.................................................................................................................20
Lecture 5: Tips and tricks......................................................................................................................27
Lecture 6: Online friendships and social connectedness......................................................................30
Lecture 7: Identity and self-presentation..............................................................................................36
Lecture 8: Online activism....................................................................................................................44
College 9: Guest lecture Netwerk Mediawijsheid.................................................................................51
Lecture 10: Privacy and social media....................................................................................................52
Lecture 11: Parental mediation.............................................................................................................58
Lecture 12: Q&A...................................................................................................................................65
,Lecture 1: Introduction
Focused on individual experiences: not risks and opportunities for organizations, but for
individuals
Opportunities of social media
What do we love about social media?
Staying in contact with friends and what they are doing
Information about interests
Create content
It is hard to define what “being online” means
Risks of social media
What do you hate about social media?
Superficial, you can put a label on everything you see
Anonymity: put a mask on and do everything you want
FOMO
Online hate speech, negative commenting (seems normalized)
Why is it relevant to study what people love/hate about social media?
We spend a significant amount of time per day on it
o 50% is almost constantly online
o All teens have access to smartphone, and many to laptops
Applicable in work context: also online hate speech, also opportunities you can use to
connect with colleagues
Key terms
Social media: “websites and applications that enable users to create and share
content and/or to participate in social networking”
Risk: “a situation involving exposure to danger”
Opportunity: “a chance for something”
,Lecture 2: Experiencing online aggression: perpetrators
& victims
Introduction to online aggression: what is online aggression?
Defining online aggression
“Intentional harm delivered by the use of electronic means to a person or a group of
people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s) such acts as offensive, derogatory,
harmful or unwanted”
Defining (cyber)bullying
Bullying: “Bullying is an aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a
group or an individual repeatedly and overtime against a victim who cannot easily
defend him- or herself”
o Power imbalance
o Perpetrators are better in estimating what is accepted
Who is perpetrator?
Dark triad study
Big 5 (neutral)
3 dark personality traits: those characterized by socially offensive traits
o Narcissism: very interested in yourself, you spend a lot of time on yourself,
how you should present you online, how people see you online, you like the
attention, you find yourself important
They can take advantage of others to gain own goals
o Machiavellianism: being very manipulative
Manipulate people to achieve goals
Love to have power
More reasoned, they plan it
o Psychopathy
Style is most important: arrogant, deceitful, incentive, cold
Don’t take into account other’s emotions
More impulsive, do it immediately
o Some overlap, but also different
Is this also true for online aggression?
Study 1: Dark triad study by Pabian at al.
First to study the association between Dark Triad traits (as a combined Dark Triad
cluster) and cyber-aggression among an adolescent population
Cyber-aggression = online aggression
o Aggressive, intentional act
o Using electronic means
o To a person or a group of people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s)
such acts as offensive, derogatory, harmful or unwanted
Results cross-sectional survey (adolescents aged 14-18)
What can we learn from this model?
, The relation between each of these traits and cyber-aggression:
o Machiavellianism: n.s.
o Narcissism: n.s.
o Psychopathy: significant correlation
More psychopathy more risk in engaging in online cyber-aggression
o Can be used among all types of groups. You just score a little bit higher
o
The relationship between Facebook intensity on cyber-aggression:
o People who use Facebook more higher score on online cyber-aggression
o Can Facebook intensity mediate cyber-aggression?
Implications: as personality traits are fairly stabilized in this age group, cyber-
aggression may be used as an indicator of psychopathy in adolescent individuals
Prevention?
o Social perspective-taking skills have been proven successful in overcoming
egocentrism and antisocial behavior
o Include training of these skills in prevention programs
Limitations
o Short dark triad instrument did not allow to investigate sub-constructs of
machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy
More recently: Dark tetrad: sadism as fourth trait
o Self-reports: are children to admit that they enjoy manipulating etc. others in
the school/leisure context?
Solution: social desirability scale
To consider
o How to translate these findings into concrete implication remains difficult;
hard to change personality traits
It still feels like a black box
o Might be more informative to focus on determinants of behavior that can be
changed
o Time for the next study!
Why do people perform this risk behavior and how can we prevent/intervene this risk
behavior?
Study 2: Theory of planned behavior study by Pabian & Vandebosch (2014)
Focus on proximal determinants of cyberbullying
