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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
Examines the social media mechanism and how it is transforming communication in an increasingly networked society
Social Media Communication: Trends and Theories explores how social media is transforming the way people think and behave. Providing students with an in-depth understanding of the mechanism underlying social media, this comprehensive textbook uses a multidisciplinary approach to examine social media use in a wide range of communication and business contexts. Each chapter is based on original research findings from the author as well as recent work in communication studies, neuroscience, information science, and psychology.
Divided into two parts, the text first describes the theoretical foundation of social media use, discussing the impact of social media on information processing, social networking, cognition, interpersonal and group communication, the media industry, and business marketing. The second half of the book focuses on research-based strategies for effectively using social media in communication and business such as the news industry, heath care, and social movements. Offering detailed yet accessible coverage of how digital media technology is changing human communication, this textbook:
- Helps readers make the best use of social media tools in communication and business practices
- Introduces more than a dozen theories in the areas of communication, psychology, and sociology to highlight the theoretical frameworks researchers use in social media studies
- Identifies a variety of trends involving social media usage, including the app economy and patient care
- Addresses the relation between social media and important contemporary topics such as cultural diversity, privacy, and social change
- Presents 14 imperative social media topics, each with the power to change the ways you see and use social media
Social Media Communication: Trends and Theories is the perfect textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in communication, business, journalism, business, and information science and technology. It is also an invaluable resource for researchers, educators, journalists, entrepreneurs, and professionals working in media management, advertising, public relations, and business marketing.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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Social Media Communication
Trends and Theories
Bu Zhong
The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA
This edition first published 2022
© 2022 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Bu Zhong to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Zhong, Bu, author.
Title: Social media communication : trends and theories / Bu Zhong, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
Description: Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021009900 (print) | LCCN 2021009901 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119041610 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119041603 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119041597 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Social media. | Communication.
Classification: LCC HM742 .Z47 2022 (print) | LCC HM742 (ebook) | DDC 302.23/1--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009900
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009901
Cover image: © Karoon Cha/Shutterstock
Cover design by Wiley
Set in 9.5/12.5 STIXTwo Text by Integra Software Services, Pondicherry, India
Contents
Cover
Title page
Copyright
Preface
Part I: Theoretical Foundation of Social Media Use
Chapter 1: Why Study Social Media?
Overview
The Power of Social Media
Social Media in a Time of Distrust
The “Us vs. Them” Mentality
Digitization and Digitalization
Adoption Models of Media Technologies
Theory Highlight: Construal Level Theory
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 2: Media Technology and Human Civilization
Overview
Definition of Social Media
Definition of Technology
Four Eras of Human Civilization
Theory Highlight: Technology Determinism
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 3: Social Media and Computer-Mediated Communication
Overview
Social Change
Computer-Mediated Communication
Verbal and Nonverbal Cues
Interpersonal Communication
Uncertainty Reduction Theory
Social Information Processing Theory
ICT and Communication
Popularity of Social Media
Group Communication
Information Seeking
Theory Highlight: Uses and Gratifications Theory
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 4: Social Media, Judgment, and Decision Making
Overview
Media Technology and Brain Activity
Judgment and Decision-Making Research
Selective Exposure
JDM and Social Endorsement
The Power of Social Context
Social Media for Patient Support
Theory Highlight: Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 5: Social Media and Behavior
Overview
Social Media and News Consumption
Social Media and Health Behavior
The Culture of Sharing
Knowledge Collaboration
Theory Highlight: Social Cognitive Theory
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 6: Social Media and Privacy Concern
Overview
Internet Privacy Concern
Scholarly Perspectives Toward IPC
Four Epochs
Social Media Surveillance
Generation Gap in IPC
Privacy Concern at the Workplace
Privacy Risks and Coping Strategies
Theory Highlight: Need for Cognition
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 7: Social Media and Culture
Overview
Cultural Diversity
Five Dimensions of Cultural Differences
Cultural Evolution
Cultural Influence on Social Media Usage
Cultural Differences in Social Media Activities
Theory Highlight: Cultivation Theory
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 8: Problematic Use of Social Media
Overview
Warm Feelings in Social Media Use
Mechanism of PUSM
Reward System and Self-Control
FOMO and Phubbing
Cyber Troops and Social Media Manipulation
Relief of PUSM
Theory Highlight: Third-Person Effect
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Part II: Social Media for Social Change
Chapter 9: Business Use of Social Media
Overview
Business Adoption of ICT
Business Use of Social Media and Benefits
Virtual Customer Environment
Work Performance
Social Capital
Information Benefits in Social Networks
Government Use of Social Media
Theory Highlight: Social Network Theory
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 10: Social Media Reshape the News Industry
Overview
News Consumption Habit Change
The Power of News Media
News Decision Making
The Power of Facebook Algorithms
Fake News and Misinformation
Declining Trust in News Media
News Media and Social Media Giants
Theory Highlight: Agenda-Setting Theory
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 11: Social Media and Healthcare
Overview
Health Information on Social Media
Patients’ Use of Social Media
Health Professionals’ Use of Social Media
Values of Social Media Support Groups
Health Information Support
Trust in Doctors
Theory Highlights: Health Belief Model and Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Model
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 12: The App Economy and Artificial Intelligence
Overview
1. The App Economy
Apps Promote Business
The App Intelligence
App Store Optimization
Trends of App Development
Trends of Mobile Commerce Apps
Discussion
References
Overview
2. Artificial Intelligence
AI Helps Social Media Penetration
AI-Powered Business Solutions
The Algorithm Experience
Social Media and AI
AI Empowers Marketers
Theory Highlight: Knowledge Gap Hypothesis
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 13: Social Media and Social Movement
Overview
Social Media Speed Up Social Movements
New Path to Social Power
Mobilization and Coalition Building
Networked Publics
Social Media and Democracy
Theory Highlight: Diffusion of Innovation Theory
Summary
Looking Ahead
Discussion
References
Chapter 14: The Future of Social Media
Overview
Young and Old Fish
Two Premises
The Model of Two-Stage Development
Digital Skills at the Workplace
Ethical Social Media Sites
Fake News on Social Media
Social Connectivity
Summary
Discussion
References
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Title page
Copyright
Table of Contents
Preface
Begin Reading
Index
End User License Agreement
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Preface
It is never easy to live a year in a foreign city that is 8,000 miles away from home, especially for a 10-year-old.
Following his father’s sabbatical leave to Asia, Skyler, 10, left his American school to attend, reluctantly, his 5th grade year in Guangzhou, China. This was the biggest challenge he has had so far. He was old enough to know that living there for a year could be quite different from visiting it for a couple of days. Unsurprisingly, Skyler’s initial adjustment to his Guangzhou school was a disaster due to language barriers, cultural shocks, a different pedagogy, and “endless” homework, even on holidays.
The most unbearable, above all, was the detachment from his American friends, causing him a kind of “social pain.” Social pain can be as bad as physical pain, if not worse. This is well supported by a growing body of evidence from studies by neuroscientists and psychologists (Almehmadi et al., 2013; Stafford & Bell, 2012; Viale, 2011). By analyzing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results, Matthew Lieberman (2013), a professor of psychology and biobehavioral sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that both physical and social pains were linked to the same brain region. Looking at MRI scans from two studies side by side, one on physical pain and the other on social pain, Lieberman and colleagues could detect little difference between them. Next time he felt down, he said he might reach for Tylenol (Lieberman, 2013).
Skyler did not need Tylenol to relieve social pain. He felt better as soon as he made new friends. The pain was completely gone after he returned home one year later. Recalling the experience, he said the most scaring part was being there without “old” friends. His experience clearly exemplifies the importance of staying social. We all are essentially social beings that are driven by deep motivations to be connected with others (Lieberman, 2013). The mutual influence is critical to one’s well-being.
This helps explain why social media have become such an integral part of modern life, transforming the world in almost every aspect, in particular, communication and business. The popularity of social media, to many, might be plausibly attributed to the influx of new media technologies. The vital driving force behind it, however, is nothing but the trait of people being socially wired. This is consistent with the ample evidence from psychologists, who have discovered that the desire to form and maintain interpersonal attachments – the need to belong – is a fundamental human motivation (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).
Fundamentally, our minds are hardwired to be social.
Nowadays, social media are an essential multifunctional platform for us to obtain information and knowledge, share thoughts and ideas, and, simply, communicate with one another. As we live much of our lives on social media, the knowledge of online tools is not just something “nice to have,” but a capability we need to survive and excel in this social media era. At an individual level, social media know-how contributes to one’s success in the twenty-first century, while at the societal level, the know-how adds up to “a more thoughtful society” (Rheingold, 2012, p. 2).
In other words, what you do not know may be too much to afford. However, a good knowledge concerning how social media work, especially the mechanism of social media use, does not happen to us automatically. Social media have brought about new ways of communication humans did not experience before. This is not to say that they have totally replaced the old ways. We may not be completely wired to social media, but there is no doubt that social media are playing a critical role in our daily lives.
This book is thus designed to explore the power of social media, how social media evolve and change the human mind and behavior, how they affect information processing, the media industry and business marketing, as well as interpersonal and group communication. In other words, it is about how people live and work through, with, and around social media in various communication and business contexts.
Each chapter will center on an important topic with the power to change the ways you see and use social media, – for example, how social media evolve and affect people’s information processing, the media industry and business marketing, in particular interpersonal and group communication powered by social media. After reading the chapters in this book, the reader should have an in-depth understanding on how social media are transforming humanity, communication, and business.
This book, however, is not about the wonders of social media, even though it explores social media and their social implications. Nor does it use particular forms of social media as the focal point, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok. Otherwise the book would be instantly outdated, as social media, like it or not, never stop evolving. Hence, this book focuses on two areas – an in-depth understanding of the social media mechanism and its impact on human communication and how people may make the best use of social media in the areas of communication and business.
The first half of the book provides a multidisciplinary examination of the social media mechanism by drawing on the latest research findings in communication studies, information sciences, neurosciences, psychology and sociology. The impact of social media on information processing, social networking, cognition, media industry, and business marketing will be thoroughly discussed in this part. A solid knowledge of the social media mechanism should serve readers well in making the best use of them no matter how social media might evolve, or what new platforms could emerge in the future.
The second half of the book is devoted to research-based strategies regarding how to use social media productively in communication and business settings. Designed as a principal textbook for undergraduate and graduate-level courses in schools of communications and business, this book constitutes original research findings in all its chapters, including those from the author and his colleagues. Specifically, this book has the following major features:
The Underlying Mechanism
. This is not just another “how-to” book concerning social media use or their marketing potential. Rather, it provides an in-depth understanding of the mechanism underlying social media and their implications in various communication settings. This approach should help readers to make the best use of social media tools while recognizing the individual, group, and cultural differences involved. The latter often plays a pivotal role in global communication and business practices.
A Multidisciplinary Approach
. The book employs a multidisciplinary approach to study social media and their impacts by drawing on the latest research findings in communication studies, neuroscience, information science, and psychology. The approach should be able to empower those who have an interest in doing more research in this stream. Though this part is mainly designed for graduate students and researchers, it provides answers to anyone who likes to explore “why so” in using social media tools.
Theory Highlights
. Over a dozen of theories in the areas of communication, psychology, and sociology will be introduced. The goal is to enable readers to be acquainted with the theoretical frameworks researchers frequently employ in their social media studies. After reading the theory highlights, readers should have a good grasp of what each of the theories is about. The highlights also serve as a springboard for anyone who would like to explore more theories of interest in studying the impact of social media.
Most of the content in this book is based on the author’s research and teaching in social media at a US university in recent years. The author has designed and taught several social media courses for undergraduate and graduate students at The Pennsylvania State University and Hong Kong Baptist University. The four courses are: “Social Media for Social Change,” “Social Media Research: Trends and Theories,” “Social Media Communication,” and “Social Media Marketing,” all of which had never been taught at the two universities before, and were well received by the students who majored in communication, psychology, business, and information science and technology.
In addition to college students, this book should be a tremendous source for researchers, educators, journalists, small business owners, librarians, and practitioners in media management, advertising, public relations, and business marketing. This book, however, does not have all of the answers for social media. It is understandable that some readers wish for a book that provides all of the answers and dictates their learning about social media. Most readers still want to search out materials and answers of their own. In the latter case, the current book serves as a critical source for starting a journey to a better understanding of digital media technology and how it transforms social interaction. As media theorist Neil Postman said, “Technology doesn’t just add something, it changes everything,” though new technology can never substitute for human values (Hendrickson, 2000).
This book thus aims to provide its readers with an in-depth understanding of the social media mechanism, on which they may develop strategies in connecting with others and cope with the communication challenges in a networked society. The information benefits are manifold, including not only staying away from social pain, but also joining hands to change the world. If you care about the impact of social media – what social media usage reveals about us, what it is delivering and we fantasize it can supply, this book is for you.
References
Almehmadi, A., Bourque, M., & El-Khatib, K. (2013). A Tweet of the mind: Automated emotion detection for social media using brainwave pattern analysis.
The 2013 International Conference on Social Computing
, Alexandria, VA.
Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.
Psychological Bulletin
,
117
(3), 497–529.
https://doi.org/.10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497
Hendrickson, L. (2000). Communications technology and personal identity formation.
Educational Technology & Society
,
3
(3), 27–38.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/jeductechsoci.3.3.27.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A5ae5dcab75c12af810fa8ce76b5be48e
.
Lieberman, M. D. (2013).
Social: Why our brains are wired to connect
. Crown Publishers.
Rheingold, H. (2012).
Net smart: How to thrive online
. The MIT Press.
Stafford, T., & Bell, V. (2012). Brain network: Social media and the cognitive scientist.
TRENDS in Cognitive Science
,
16
(10), 489–490.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.08.001
.
Viale, R. (2011). Brain reading social action.
International Review of Economics
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58
(3), 319–366.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12232-011-0130-0
.
Part I Theoretical Foundation of Social Media Use
1 Why Study Social Media?
LEARNING GOALS
This chapter will help you understand:
What is the power of social media?
Are social media the culprit of causing social distrust?
Why do we need to study social media?
How are traditional and digital media technology adopted differently?
KEY CONCEPTS
The “Us vs. Them” mentality
Echo chamber
Digitization
Silo effect
Information cocoon
Digitalization
THEORY HIGHLIGHT
Construal Level Theory
Overview
Even though Joe Biden won the United States presidency in 2020, Democrats in the House of Representatives suffered serious defeats in the election, falling far short of expectations and setting off infighting amongst themselves. Immediately after Election Day, some Democratic House members pointed fingers at colleagues for losing seats in the House of Representatives. One of their key concerns was lack of appreciation of the importance of social media strategies in political campaigns. No one argued about whether to incorporate social media into campaign strategies or not. Rather, they debated the consequences of failing to let social media play an important role in the political activities.
The Power of Social Media
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that it was inadequate for her Democratic colleague, Conor Lamb, to spend merely $2,000 on Facebook the week before the election, although he did manage to win in Pennsylvania (Herndon, 2020). “If you’re not spending $200,000 on Facebook with fund-raising, persuasion, volunteer recruitment, get-out-the-vote the week before the election, you are not firing on all cylinders,” said Ocasio-Cortez (Herndon, 2020). To her, digital investment and advertising on Facebook was important because that’s where voters gathered, and both positive and negative political rhetoric went viral all the time. In political campaigns, no one could afford to allow Facebook to radicalize things without fighting back, she said (Herndon, 2020).
Of course, there are many factors contributing to the success of a political campaign, but politicians agree that a major one is the way the campaign team uses social media to raise money, motivate voters, and win support. In a networked society, a revolutionary social media strategy must be an integral part of any political campaign. Despite the power of social media being widely recognized, many people lack a coherent and analytic account of why certain social media strategies work while others do not. Fewer understand the mechanism of social media usage, for instance, how political views, participation, and voter behavior may be swayed by information disseminated on social media.
Another big lesson we learned from the 2020 US election was that social media could be used as a venue to spread weaponized misinformation, making people lose confidence and faith in those with different political beliefs. There was a time of distrust after the election caused by a profound lack of trust in the US political system and the mainstream media. Some even exhibited distrust in the future, which shocked the world, as Americans have been known for their persistent optimistic belief in the future. As a hallmark of their nation, Americans have long held the rosy assumption that the arc of justice moves inexorably upwards, and that the future could be and should be brighter than the past (Short, 2020). After that optimism weakened, more people faced a fearful future filled with constant anxiety and indignation. Some people believe that social media caused the problem of social distrust.
Social Media in a Time of Distrust
Social scientists argue that social media should not be perceived as the culprit that caused a time of distrust. For many, the advantages of social media have been misdirected, which is in contrast to what we have known for decades about these information platforms. In those good old days, we marveled at how much social media had changed the way we lived. They changed how we communicated, how we consumed news and entertainment, and how we worked and conducted business. These changes have been taken for granted, especially for those who grew up with the rise of social media. However, many people fail to understand why hate speech, conspiracy theories, and other types of disinformation flourish on social media, thus compounding the surge of the exhausting period of distrust.
Hate speech is not merely a narrative that can hurt people’s feelings. Such “hate stratagems” work, like tactics of war to inflame the emotions of followers, denigrate the outclass, and inflict permanent and irreparable harm on an opponent (Kirk & Martin, 2020). The abusive, insulting, intimidating, and harassing disinformation could easily lead to violence, hatred, discrimination, or distrust. By using labels, epithets, threats, and lies, producers of misinformation could destroy political opponents, manipulate public opinion, and disrupt a democratic system like an election. Unfortunately, such misinformation and disinformation can go viral easily on social media.
The “Us vs. Them” Mentality
The proliferation of falsehood and conspiracy theories on social media is partially due to the mechanism of these platforms, which can easily promote self responses, self beliefs, and selfish recognition. Because millions of users can stay connected on social media, scholars used to applaud the fact that social media could promote the return of a “public sphere” proposed by Habermas (1991), where “private people come together as a public” for the purpose of using reason to further critical knowledge that may lead to political change (p. 27).
The public sphere requires unlimited access to information, equal and protected participation, and the absence of institutional influence (Kruse et al., 2018). The idea is integral to the healthy existence of a participatory democracy, leading to action in the way of social movements (Habermas, 1991). Some scholars argued that social media are organized in ways that meet the requisites of a public sphere (Fuchs, 2008).
As shown in the 2020 US presidential election, social media have failed to promote unlimited access to information, equal access and participation, and these spaces have not been free of institutional influence. Instead, the platforms were ideal for developing an “us vs. them” mentality among users, especially in an election year. Heavy social media users are more likely to shut down media channels offering information from “their side,” reinforce selective exposure and the silo effect, and drive us into echo chambers or information cocoons.
Some go even further and believe that an unworthy other side can be a threat against “us.” They must be defeated politically, destroyed, or locked up, which requires “us” to cast aside traditional norms and commitments like trusting others and diversity. “Us vs. them” opposes these commitments as it does not fit an “us vs. them” mentality.
Digitization and Digitalization
Since the first digital message was sent out from a computer at the University of California in Los Angeles to another at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California on October 29, 1969, marking the start of the internet, the world has been significantly transformed by the internet and computer-based technologies, including social media (Zhong, 2020). It is hard to predict the future of social media and how they will advance. Problematic use of social media may be a growing social concern, for example, hate speech or cyberbullying. Social media were not originally designed to protect users from abuse, misinformation, or disinformation. As a result, people will be vulnerable to more harm on social media in the coming decades. These digital nuisances, unfortunately, will keep harassing users for a long time.
Facing the potential perils on social media, users are encouraged to search for solutions for new challenges and overcome them. One of the solutions is to study them. However, the future of social media usage can be exciting, too. There are ample positive effects associated with using them. Many researchers believe that social media usage can change the world for good. It will be interesting to witness how social media-dependent human societies will evolve in coming decades.
What is the future of social media? Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and Nobel Laurate, once said, “It is difficult to predict, especially the future.” However, if we have to predict the future of a social media-dependent human society, people in such a society will universally embrace the trend of digitization and digitalization. The use of social media represents the digital transformation development of social life, a societal process requiring people to prepare, adopt, and integrate digital changes. Meanwhile, people are subject to develop and are confronted with old and new digital models in life and business.
To understand the future of social media, it is useful to define and differentiate digitization and digitalization. Digitization describes the analog-to-digital conversion of existing data and documents, in which the data are not changed in any substantial way, but simply are encoded in a digital format. For example, when an old black-and-white movie is converted to a digital version, the resolution may be improved and even colors can be added, but the movie remains the same movie, just in a digital format. Digitization can reap efficiency benefits when the digitized data are easily circulated and shared over the internet.
In the business world, digitalization is defined as “the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business” (Garner, 2021). In this vein, we define digitalization at the societal level as the use of digital technologies to change human communication and social life, providing new benefits and value-added opportunities for human societies. Thus, digitalization moves beyond digitization (see Table 1.1), leveraging digital information technology to transform social life and business models – evaluating, reengineering, and reimagining the way we live and do business.
Table 1.1 The differences between digitization and digitalization.
Digitization
Digitalization
Definition
Digitization
describes the analog-to-digital conversion of existing data and documents, in which the data are not changed in any substantial way but simply are encoded in a digital format.
Digitalization
refers to the use of digital technologies to change human communication and social life and provide new benefits and value-added opportunities for human societies.
Examples
Converting a black–white movie into a colored one with better resolution
Scanning a paper book to a digital book
Recording a live lecture to keep as a digital file
Analyzing Google search results to understand flu season trends
Using digital tools to monitor the quality of telemedicine visits
Using analytics tools to study customers’ feedbacks on services
The synchronization of human communication in real-time through advanced digitalization has transformed our social life since the birth of the internet in 1969, causing a series of epoch-making changes in the current social media-dependent society that is dramatically different from previous eras, like the agricultural and industrial ages. In the coming decades, we should see a growing integration of multiple technologies into various aspects of our societies that will be increasingly digital. Some examples of digitalization include: smart homes, e-learning, e-healthcare, smart mobility, and smart cities, which are largely powered by computer-based technology, including information science and mobile technology.
Many domains will benefit from digitalization; cultural artifacts like artwork and historical relics can be digitized and therefore preserved and shown to the public, even if they are stolen, damaged, or are just not conveniently accessible. As more and more information and data are easily shared and accessed due to digitalization, more knowledge can be shared and produced like never before, adding new values to human societies. The widespread impact of digitalization affects everything from interpersonal communication and relationships augmented by social media and their services, to other relationships, such as how citizens interact with support services in e-government. Both digitization and digitalization are critical to the digital transformation of our social life. It is important to note that the process of digital transformation is not about data or information, but it is about people. The use of social media represents a key component of digital transformation, which in turn will define the future of social media, a topic we will revisit in the last chapter.
Adoption Models of Media Technologies
Digital media technology, also known as information and communication technology (ICT), has a different adoption model from traditional media technologies used for manufacturing televisions, land-line phones, or boomboxes. Late users of devices powered by traditional media technology can easily catch up with early users. This means that late users can use tech products as well as early users. When a user gets a TV set a couple of years after neighbors, it is possible to learn how to use the TV remote control within a day or two and begin to use it as well as the neighbors. The same results can apply to using a land-line phone or a boombox.
However, it can be dramatically different in terms of using ICT applications like the internet, social media, or a smartphone. The early and late users of ICT applications may always have a gap between them. Think about it. Do you think your grandparents could use the internet or their smartphone as well as you can? When they increase their level of using digital media technologies, you will not always stop at the same level and, quite likely, you will have reached a higher stage. This makes it difficult for any late adopters, like your grandparents, to catch up with most early users.
As shown in Figure 1.1, A and B are early and late users of ICT. When early user A starts to use ICT applications, A’s technology level will keep going up, making B, a late user, hard to catch up. Thus, the technology levels between A and B may have a gap all the time. As for C and D, who are the users of traditional media technologies, their technology levels may easily merge at some point. This indicates that one can press the buttons of a TV remote control or a telephone as well as the other. The lesson is simple. No one can afford waiting for a long time to learn new digital technologies. Any delay could make someone a late user who would eventually have a difficult, if not impossible, time catching up with early users.
Figure 1.1 Adoption models of traditional media technology and information and communication technology (illustration by Moxin Qian).
Unlike traditional media technologies used in radio and television, social media became a global phenomenon as soon as they were developed. Both radio and television were first adopted in developed countries and then spread to developing countries. For example, color television was introduced to the United States in the 1950s, but it did not go to China until late 1970, where color television became a vmass medium in the 1980s. As social media sites were developed, they immediately won internet users around the world, making it a global phenomenon in a very short time (see Figure 1.2).
Figure 1.2 Social media are a global phenomenon (Illustration by Moxin Qian).9
Today, social media are already everywhere around us and no one can afford the consequences of delaying the learning process. At this moment, if anyone asks, “Why study social media?”
It’s the social media, stupid!
Theory Highlight: Construal Level Theory
Construal level theory (CLT) is proposed to study how people can think about events that extend beyond the immediate context. It proposes that in order to look beyond here and now and understand distal objects, humans form varyingly abstract mental construals of them. These distal entities do not occur in present time, space, social realm, or actuality. While people cannot experience what is not present, they can rely on mental constructions such as prediction, memories, and speculation to transcend beyond the immediate situation and understand psychologically distant objects (Trope & Liberman, 2010). So there is a psychological distance between what people can feel here and now and the dimensions and measurements of “distance” of future events, remote places, distant others, and alternative realities. Here “psychological distance” can be a uniquely human ability, which is about the removal of an object or event from direct experience.
In other words, the theory holds that humans have the unique capacity to think about future events, remote places, distant others, and alternative realities. The CLT research shows that regardless of the psychological distance dimensions of an object, such as time, space, social distance, or hypotheticality, the mental construal processes are quite consistent, so as to be understood as cognitively related to each other (Maglio et al., 2013).
The basic premise of CLT is based on the link between distance and the level of mental construal. Objects viewed as more distant will be understood at a higher, more abstract level, which will then bring to mind more distant objects (Trope & Liberman, 2010). This notion of abstract versus concrete construal as it relates to distance is perhaps best understood through the proverbial distinction between the trees and the forest. When standing at a physical distance from a group of trees, one sees a forest in its entirety. When this distance is reduced, the large abstraction of a forest becomes individual trees. While this example focuses solely on spatial distance, the same logic can be applied to the other dimensions of psychological distance as well. For any dimension, Trope and Liberman (2010) explain that “as psychological distance increases, construals would become more abstract, and as level of abstraction increases, so too would the psychological distances people envisage” (p. 440).
Events can differ in terms of dimensions such as time, space, social distance, and hypotheticality as they happen. Human minds tend to treat these varying dimensions of distance in a mentally similar manner. For example, although time and space may be very different types of information, CLT suggests that people treat them interchangeably. Thus, from a psychological vantage point, just as an event one month from now is more distant than an event tomorrow, an event occurring to you is more distant than one occurring directly to me. As events become psychologically closer, information about detailed specifics becomes more available and reliable. CLT suggests that people incorporate this information by engaging in a low-level construal, representing events in terms of their more concrete and idiosyncratic features.
CLT is a widely applicable theory that allows researchers to examine the relationship between psychological distance from an object or entity and the corresponding level of thought, as either abstract or concrete. Scholars have applied CLT to varying domains in recent years through examining the distinction between abstractness and concreteness on individuals evaluations, predictions, and behaviors, including political attitudes (Alper, 2020). Studies examining CLT and political attitudes are broad in scope and have measured how CLT’s psychological distance influences: political polarization, ideological differences, moral values, and political sophistication. Beyond political analysis, CLT has been applied to research studying new mobile and social technological use (Tseng & Hsieh, 2019; Young, 2015).
Summary
This chapter introduces the power of social media through the perspectives of some politicians. It then highlights how social media are used in a time of distrust, which may strengthen the “us vs. them” mentality. Social media are a global phenomenon, which were widely adopted by users around the world almost as soon as they were developed. For a better understanding of the social media age, digitization and digitalization are discussed in detail. Finally, the adoption models of traditional media technologies and digital media technologies are compared. The results should serve a reminder that there are serious consequences if some people choose not to study social media in a timely fashion as later users of digital media technologies may not reach the tech level of early users.
Looking Ahead
In Chapter 2, we will study “Media Technology and Human Civilization.” The chapter will define the terms “social media” and “technology.” It will then analyze the four eras of human civilization, which should lay a solid ground for studying the mechanism of social media impacts. It will also introduce the theory of technological determinism.
Discussion
Where does the power of social media come from?
How do social media affect your daily life? Please provide one or two examples.
Is the use of social media becoming more important to you this year than last year? Why so?
Some people did an experiment of staying away from social media for one full year. Can you imagine you can spend one day or one week without using any social media platforms?
Do you notice how traditional and digital media technology are adopted differently in our society?
Can you propose a research idea involving social media usage by employing the construal level theory as its theoretical framework?
References
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2 Media Technology and Human Civilization
LEARNING GOALS
This chapter will help you understand:
What are social media and their major social features?
What is technology determinism?
What are the four eras of human civilization?
KEY CONCEPTS
Social media
Agricultural civilization
Information civilization
Technology determinism
Industrial civilization
Internet civilization
THEORY HIGHLIGHT
Technological Determinism
Overview
Social media matter more today than before as they are encroaching on all sorts of human activities, for better or worse. Look around and it is evident that social media have been imposing a revolutionary effect on numerous aspects of human society, bringing us a new life largely inconceivable to those who came before. Today our lives are so saturated with social media that few could afford not to use them. How much are our lives are being changed by social media? We may not come up with a good answer to the question until we pause for a moment and see how much we rely on them every day.
Each semester when I taught a social media course, the first assignment was “Without Social Media,” requiring my students not to use social media for 24 hours and to write a reflection on it. No Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram, but they could still make phone calls, send emails or text messages, and of course, use traditional media like books, TV, and radio. Before the experiment, they were instructed to inform their parents and friends of this assignment so that no one got panicky in the hours when they were out of reach on social media.
For this project, most students in past years chose to stop using social media on a Friday night before going to bed. This made it easier for them to survive the time without social media. When they woke up the next day, about one-third of the required time was gone. Each year the one-day social media ban still stunned most students. In their reports, the students wrote that they knew it was hard not to use social media, but never expected everything would be so different and difficult without them. Most of the complaints had to do with the inconvenience, stress, anxiety, and detachment caused by the social media ban. This assignment seemed even more trying for my recent students as more of them told me, honestly, that they failed the assignment – getting back on social media sooner than required, for no particular reason. Yes, during those hours, students could make phone calls, send emails, or text messages. “But without social media, much of my life is lost,” one student concluded.
Social media, apparently, provide users with convenience in communicating with others, sharing, and accessing information. The convenience may be better viewed as a kind of freedom as many get so used to it in the twenty-first century. Without it, they no longer feel free in this networked society. On the other hand, an extensive use of social media results in dependence on technology. Once people are accustomed to the online life powered by social media, any slight disruption of the status quo becomes a major impediment. Similar dependence on prior technologies from mobile phones to cars has been well documented by researchers.
Thus, social media are not so much about media per se but more about being social.
Inherently, all forms of media are social because they store and transmit information and knowledge that originate in social relations in society (Fuchs, 2014). Social media are no exception, as they connect people and their social activities in technological artifacts by facilitating information flows between users. Sociality, in essence, is a key feature of media consumption and production. For instance, when you read the news, watch TV, send a text message, or update your Facebook status, these activities are social, as they are related to other people and their social activities. In this sense, everyone’s thinking is social as it relies on other people’s ideas.
Like other media platforms, social media are profoundly transforming our society, from accessing news to doing business. While Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram get a lot of attention in the United States, Weibo, WeChat, and Line attract millions of daily users in Asian countries like China, Japan, and Taiwan. We should also not forget the popularity of Flickr, Slack, LinkedIn, Path, Pinterest, Tumblr, Vine, and many more. An important reason behind the popularity of social media is that they facilitate a social need for people, not only to connect with others in real-time at a marginal cost but also to create and share information in a similar fashion, which has never happened before in human history.
Definition of Social Media
This book treats social media as a plural term, not a singular one, because the word media originating from Latin is the plural of medium. The word media is also taken as a plural noun not only in major English dictionaries, such as The Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Oxford English Dictionary, but in popular stylebooks used by news media, such as the Associated Press, Cable Network News (CNN), New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. Another reason is that social media in this book refer to not just one but various social network sites (SNS) and the related information and communication technologies (ICTs). Hence, this book uses a plural verb with social media despite some writers treating it otherwise, which is not necessarily wrong.
A more significant question is: How do we define social media?
Scholars have faced a recognized challenge in trying to define what constitutes social media. Researchers often adopt one or more characteristics to describe social media and other forms of new media. The characteristics they investigate include digitalization, interactivity, virtuality, dispersion, automation, variability, networking, and real-time access. Among the characteristics, digitalization is the key technology that reduces information to something that can be easily fragmented, handled, distributed, and shared, which enable networking, multimedia, collaborative, and interactive communication.
The fact that social media continue to proliferate and evolve at a surprising speed is another reason why a widely accepted definition of the term is hard to find. Some of the features that initially distinguished various forms of social media have faded in significance, while others have been reproduced by new genres of social media (Fuchs, 2014). Yet, in much of what researchers and practitioners discuss, the answer is more often assumed, rather than specifically defined. To many, it is like a kind of good art. People may not know what makes good art, but they know it when they see it.
Social media should not be called new media. Rather, they are part of new media that are powered by the advances of computer-based technologies, including ICT, mobile, and network technologies. Scholars tend to agree that new media refer to any media platforms that are not analog, like television, radio, magazines, newspapers, and books (Baym et al., 2012). New media thus consist of various digital media forms, such as online news (e.g., news content on CNN.com or NYTimes.com), user-generated content (e.g., blogs, personal podcasts), and social media (Zhong et al., 2014).
The term “social media” often overlaps with “social network sites” as there is some connection and integration between them. Both terms refer to the same media platforms and technology involved. As a result, social media users and researchers often use the two terms interchangeably (boyd, 2009). To Rodriguez (2013), for instance, “Social media encompass a diversity of tools and platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, Wikipedia, Tumblr, etc.) …” (p. 1053). Following Rodriguez and other scholars, this book uses “social media” as a catch-all term, referring to various social network sites.
Since the late 1990s, a growing number of popular SNS have been created, first in the United States and later around the globe. Launched in 1997, Six Degrees was the first modern SNS allowing users to create a profile and make friends with other users. The site had attracted almost one million members at its peak, though it was shut down in 2001, although 2003 marked an important benchmark in social media development. During that year, scholars saw SNS start to rise to a cultural significance, such as when Friendster became a popular social network site that caught media attention (Ellison & boyd, 2013). Launched in 2002, Friendster was the first SNS with over 100 million registered users, though it was redesigned in 2011 as a social gaming platform. More SNS mushroomed after that: LinkedIn was launched in 2003, Facebook in 2004, Twitter in 2006, Instagram in 2010, and the rest, as we know, is history.
Generally speaking, social media are “the collection of software that enables individuals and communities to gather, communicate, share, and in some cases collaborate or play” (boyd, 2009). As hybrid media platforms for both interpersonal and group communication, social media have key characteristics of digitalization, interactivity, and real-time access to information that can be easily created, distributed and shared by users. Specifically,
(Social media are) a networked communication platform, in which participants 1) have uniquely identifiable profiles that consist of user-supplied content, content provided by other users, and/or system-level data; 2) can publicly articulate connections that can be viewed and traversed by others; and 3) can consume, produce, and/or interact with streams of users-generated content provided by their connections on the site.
(Ellison & boyd, 2013, p. 158)
In other words, social media are the means of interactions among users, organizations, and businesses, in which users create and share information in virtual communities. In this sense, social media have relevance not only for users, organizations, and businesses, but also human society as a whole.
