Week 1 ROSM PDF

**Week 1:** **Computer mediated communication is the process of exchange of meaning (communication) between 2 or more humans through digital channels.** **Technological determinism: Assumes that technologies are the cause of major societal and historical changes of social structures/processes. Say...

**Week 1:** **Computer mediated communication is the process of exchange of meaning (communication) between 2 or more humans through digital channels.** **Technological determinism: Assumes that technologies are the cause of major societal and historical changes of social structures/processes. Says that technology shapes society.** **Social determinism: assumes that technology is completely subject to how people inteact with it. People do not use technology as it was intended. Society shapes technology.** **Social realism: technology shapes society and society shapes technology** **CFO says that CMC does not facilitate the rich, interpersonal and social exchanges of FTF and is a poor medium for interpersonal exchange. Supported by social presence theory, the degree which individuals perceive the presence of others during communication.** **CFI says that CMC does facilitate rich interpersonal excjhanges, because people use it without socioemotional cues or use other cues.** **\ Electronic propinquity: perception of psychological closeness towards another person.** **Social information processing theory shows that media users form rich impressions of others, regardless of medium. Given enough time, users adapt their verbal communication online to accommodate for loss of nonverbal cues.** **Hyperpersonal model says that CMC can become hyperpersonal because it exceeds FTF. There is faster sense of equality, people can strategically edit their presentation.** **The features of a social media platform are more important than the platform itself.\ TAMT model distinguishes between ephemeral/persistent messages and private/public messages** **Social media is:** 1. **Internet based, persistent and disentrained** 2. **Masspersonal communication** 3. **Facilitates perceived interaction** 4. **Derives from value from UGC** **Something goes viral when it shows amusement or anxiety. Or both.** **SNS allow us to:** 1. **Construct a semi public profile** 2. **Make list of users with whom we are connected** 3. **View our connection within the system** **People use social media to:** 1. **Find and keep in touch with others** 2. **Give and receive social support** **\ Strong ties** **Weak ties** **Latent ties** **U&G: people actively select media to fullfill their specific needs. Biggest needs are social interaction, information seeking, pass time, entertainment. Such as also participating in social media challenges.** **Intrapersonal communication: communication we have with and within ourselves.** **Identifiability: the source is distinguishable and persistent. People know who the sender is, the message that is connected to the sender. This allows us to present ourselves in the way we want to. We do not deviate too much from reality.** **Pseudonmity: source is distinguishable and persistent, but not faithful to the offline sender. It is a fictious alternative identity, but it is consistent.** **This allows users to experiment with identity trail/exploration that offline may not be possible. Makes people less concerned about their online actions.** **Anonymity: source is unknown and unspecified. Nothing connects sender to message, and we do not know whether other messages are from same/different source. Being anonymous leads to online disinhibition effect. This is a phenomenon where people behave more boldly or expressively online. Such as hate speech.** **Identity: your identity can influence what/how you post.** **People can creater image that they want to show to others. This is self-presentation. Process by which individuals attempt to control/shape impressions of others.** **Actual self: who you are** **Ideal self: who you want to become** **Ought self: the self you think you should be** **Actual self is not ideal self.** **Identity shift: process of self-transformation occurring when someone makes a claim about themselves.When you write about a certain part of you, it is more likely to act that way later.** **Identity shift is related to self-perception theory: people's attitudes are developed by observing their own behavior.** **CMC has changed our social relationships by:** 1. **Speeding up transmission and receipt of messages** 2. **How we actually communicate, deliberateness and effort involved in transmitting message** **\ Dyadic** **Lightweight** **Phatic interaction** **SIPT: helps explain emergence and use of paralinguistics for interpersonal communication online.** **Paralinguistic digital affordances: Emojis, likes, comments.** **Warranting principle: the less information is perceived to be controllable by the person to whom it refers, the more weight it holds.** **Experiment by Walther et al says that other-generated statements had an effect on judgments, but the effects did not override self-generated information.** **Other experiment by Walther said that testimonials of others influenced judgments of physical attractiveness.** **System-generated information also had little effects. Other-generated information had more effect.** **Users are more interested in maintaining ties with existing contacts rather than making new ones.** **CMC is used more as we get geographically more distant from friends, family.** **Uncertainty reduction theory: people must receive information about other parties to reduce their uncertainty. When people get more information, they like others more.** **People gather information in 3 ways:** 1. **Passive: by observing** 2. **Active: proactively gather information, without approaching the person** 3. **Interactive: proactively gain information, while aporoaching the person** **Friendship quality is based on:** 1. **Similarity** 2. **Proximity** 3. **Social attraction** **Ambient awareness: awareness of knowledge of others by repeated and frequent exposure** **Influence:** **Social influence: symbolic efforts designed to preserve/change behavior/aspects of individual** **Persuasion: intentional effort at influencing another's mental state** **Social influence has 3 parts:** **Social norms:** rules/standards that are understood by members of a group. You look at reference groups, those are groups that influence the attitudes. **Conformity: changing one's behavior to match the responses of others** **Compliance: agreeing to do a specific request.** **\ Advertising:** nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and persuasive in nature about products, services, ideas Social media provides possibilities for interactivity. Dialogue communication shifts emphasis of communication as a tool to cocreate/negotiate instead of manage Persuasion knowledge is about the consumers knowledge/beliefs about the goals/attempts of a marketeer. It enables a person to recognize, analyze, interpret, evaluate and remember persuasion attempts. Disclosures may help improve recognition. Young adolescents need intent of the ad + the ad itself. For older adolescents, the ad itself was enough. Groups are 2 or more individuals who share a common social identification of themselves. People are often members of a lot of groups, 20 or so. Groups can be offline, such as friends, colleagues, fans, random groups\ But they can also be online, like teams, whatsapp, chatrooms, group pages. Social identity: characteristics and traits associated with a group of individuals Common bond groups: association of individuals brought together who maintain their relationships due to close interpersonal ties. Commmon identification groups: association of individuals brought together who maintain their relationships due to their affinity to the group. Social identity model of deindividuation effects: addresses how individuals affiliate with a group, distance themselves from other groups, and how they perceive others based on this Deindividuation: loss of awareness of one's self as individual, often in a group You are less concerned about consequences of your actions. People seek out and rely on social identity to guide our interactions On social media, people can feel anonymous and therefore deindividuated. Prototype willingness model: you think of what the prototype for a person who does something is. If you match this or want to be this, then you do it. Reasoned pathway predicts intention/willingness, but social reactive pathway showed value above the pathway. People disclose information about themselves because: 1. Bond with others 2. For strategic reasons 3. To add value to medium 4. Because you have to 5. Self expression You can be exposed to information in 2 ways: 1. Incidental exposure 2. Selective exposure **There is a negativity bias on the internet.\ There is also selective exposure. People want to focus on information that goes along with their way of thinking to avoid cognitive dissonance.** 88% of dutch people over the age of 12 are online daily. The daily use among people over the age of 75is also increasing sharply 95% of people between the ages of 25 and 45 use the internet everyday 90% of dutch people use a smartphone for internet access CMC is Computer Mediated Communication. This is the process of exchange of meaning (communication) among two or more humans through digital channels, such as e-mail, tiktok, Instagram, youtube, etc. Humans versus technology, who controls whom? **Technological determinism:** Assumes that technologies are the cause of: 1. Major societal and historical changes at macro level of social structures and processes 2. Subtle but profound micro-level social and psychological influences on the general use of tools. So technology shapes society. **Social determinism:** Assumes that technology is completely subject to how people interact with it: 1. Technology does not just appear 2. People do not always use technology as it was intended So society shapes technology. Technologies like computers or social media are the primary drivers of changing how people live, communicate and interact with eachother. Society adapts to technology. **Social realism:** Society shapes technology, and technology shapes society. Two types of effects of technology: First level effects: about the intended effects of digital media (the reason why something was invented). For example with email: speed and scale at which communication can take place is increased. Second level effects: about the unintended effects of digital media and what people actually do with them. Cues filtered in versus cues filtered out: Cues filtered out emphasizes the limitations of CMC compared to face-to-face communication. It argues that absence of nonverbal cues can reduce the richness. This is supported by the social presence and media richness theory that argue that richer media are better for complex interactions. Cues filtered in challenges the CFO view by suggesting that users adapt and make effective use of the cues to communicate and build relationships. For example using emojis, gifs and other things. Social information processing theory supports this view. CFO says that CMC does not facilitate the rich interpersonal Face to Face communication and is therefore a poor medium for interpersonal exchange. CMC lacks aspects of traditional communication, it is purely functional and not relational. Social presence theory argues that CMC has low interpersonal communication. Media richness theory: a media's richness refers to its capacity of: 1. Immediate feedback 2. Multiple cues 3. Natural language 4. Personalize message Richer media are better suited for understanding. Theory of electronic propinquity explains how communication technologies affect the psychological closeness between individuals. It depends on: 1. Channel bandwidth: how much information medium can transmit 2. Communication speed 3. Mutual directionality: one way, two-way or interactive. 4. Complexity of task 5. Participant skills 6. Group size For example: video call fosters more propinquity by enabling nonverbal cues, immediate feedback and more personal interaction. It creates a sense of closeness. CMC is even friendlier and more social and intimate than face to face communication, because: 1. There is faster sens of equality, similarity leads to liking 2. Optimal self-presentation 3. Idealized impression formation According to research , more social attraction between interactants if they use text instead of videoconferencing **Week 2:** The first social media website was six degrees. It launched in 1997. Most social media sites have certain features that differentiate them from other websites. Research says we should focus on features and not on the platforms themselves. Temporality and accessibility of message types model (TAMT) distinguishes between **ephemeral** versus persistent messages, and private versus public messages. Ephemeral versus persistent is snapchat versus whatsapp/facebook messages. Private versus public is like it says. Social media is internet=based, persistent and disentrained channels of masspersonal communication facilitating perceptions of interaction and deriving value from user-generated content Social media are intrnet based, they allow us to communicate even when others are not online, so there is a stable identity. It is also disentrained because they do not require synchronous communication. It is selective self-presentation. Earlier media allowed either interpersonal or mass communication, but social media nowadays does both. You also have perceived interaction. People can like, comment, subscribe etc. Something has more chance to go viral if it increases anxiety and/or amusement. High arousal People use social media to: 1. Find and keep in touch with others. You find new relationships online and continue these on/offline. 2. We use social media to keep in touch with strong ties, weak ties and absent ties. 3. We use social media to give and receive social support. Strong ties give better support, but weak ties give more support because you have more weak ties than strong ties. Social network sites are a part of social media. They alpow users to: 1. Construct a public profile 2. Make a list of users with whom they are connected 3. View their connections within the system Difference between social network and networking sites: network is old connections, networking is new connections. Strong ties: close interpersonal relatinships between two indivuduals, often family or close friends Weak ties: acquiantances or more general friends, you have a relationship with them Absent ties: relationships that we used to have, like high school friends. Uses & Gratification theory: communication theorythat focuses on how individuals actively select media to fullfill their needs Mostly for social interaction, information seeking and passing time. People participate in social challenges for entertainment, socialization, but also seeking virality or fame, self-presentation and preserving a memory Social media does not only have effect on interpersonal relationships, but also intrapersonal, so yourself. Identifiability is important: online you can be anonymous or identifiable. Pseudonimity is a fictitious alternative identity, like Marshall Mathers for Eminem. Due to anonymity, hate speech has increased People can create the image they want to show on social media. This is self=presentation, the process by which individuals attempt to control/shape the impression of themselves to others. Actual self: who you are Ideal self: who you want to become Ought self: the self you think you should be Self perception theory: people attitudes are developed by observing their own behavior. Online identity shift can result from seeing one's own selective self-presentation But feedback of others can also enhance effects of self-presentation **Week 3:** MSN allows us to chat with others. You can also put yourself offline. We use social media to maintain relaitonships with others Computer mediated communication has: 1. Sped up the transmission of receipt of messages 2. CMC has changed how we actually communicate. Social media interactions: 1. Dyadic interaction = direct interaction = high effort 2. Lightweight interaction 3. Phatic interaction (low effort/interaction) Dyadic interaction is one-to-one communication, like dming or whatsapping. Lightweight interaction is simple and quick messages that do not necessitate significant time or cognition, like a happy birthday message on IG Phatic interaction are messages to establish mood, share acknowledgement. Like commenting an emoji on a message. Paralanguage can be things that change how you read a message, like: Tone of voice Volume of voice Speed of delivery Pauses Pronunciation Paralinguistic digital affordances: emojis, likes, emoticons Relationship escalation model: explains how relationships develop, deepen and dissolve over time. First stages are about coming together, and latter stages are about coming apart. Social media gives us information. It comes in forms of self-generated information, other-generated information and system-generated information. Warranting principle: states that credibility of information about a person's characteristics and behavior is a function to which this information can be manipulated by the person concerned. Self-generated information is a strategic choice of the person because you can manipulate it. Other generated not so much. According to experiment: other generated content did have effect, but did not override self-generated info. Attrativeness of friends, valence of postings and number of friends leads to perceptions of attractiveness. People would rather maintain ties with existing contacts rather than forging new ones Uncertainty reduction theory: people dislike uncertainty and unpredictability, they want information to reduce it. If you give someone more information, it makes them like you better. Friendship quality is based on: 1. Proximity 2. Similarity 3. Social attraction Friendship quality improves the longer friendship lasts. **Week 5:** Social influence: symbolic efforts designed to preserve or change behavior or aspects of other individuals. Persuasion: intentional effort at influencing another's mental state through communication in a circumstance where the persuade has some freedom This is inspired by Cialdini, with his 7 things: reciprocity, authority, scarcity, liking, consistency, social proof. Social influence, so changing behavior or aspects of other individuals, has 3 parts: 1. Social norms: rules and standards that are understood by members of a group, and that guide/constrain social behavior. Social norms has 2 parts: descriptive norm and injunctive norm. Descriptive norm is what you think most people do. Injunctive norm is qhat you think describes what most people approve or disapprove of. You look at reference groups to see what you should do. Reference groups are groups that influences attitudes of individuals that use it as a reference point, such as friends. 2. Conformity: regers to the act of changing your behavior to match responses of others. Conforming with others. Behaviorr in accordance to sociallu accepted deals. Informational conformity motivation: desire to form accurate interpretation of reality and behave correctly. Normative conformity motivation: the goal of obtaining social approval from others. 3. Compliance: agreeing to a specific request. So: 1. Social norms: established standards understood by members of a social group 2. Conformity: adjustkng behavior to match that of a group 3. Compliance: following through on a request Advertising: nonpersonal communication of information usually paid for and persuasive in nature about products services ideas One way advertising: one way communication transmitted from organization to an audience, such as emailed ads, commercials that precede/interrupt youtube/spotify, ads within social media feed, ads in sidebar. Targeting on social media: targeted online advertising includes all kinds of web advertising based on information about the ad recipients available to the advertisers. Tailoring on social media: tailored advertising is a strategy used to individually target consumers by matching messages to their personal information/preferences. This is convenient, but you invade privacy and feelings of surveillance. Social media provides possibilities for interactivity. We can cocreate and negotiate with messages. We can give feedback to the sender. Two step model: media influences opinion leaders, opinion leaders influence the masses. Word of mouth: personal communication between sender and receiver, where the receiver views the sender as non-commercial. People talk about it. Electronic WOM: same principle as offline, but reach is a lot bigger. E-WOM is important for brands. A lot of sales is based on WOM. Influencer marketing is a form of sponsored content. This is hard to avoid, less pushy and less noticeable and more trustworthy. **Week 6:** **A group is** two or more individuals who share a common social identification of themselves. Groups are usually 2 people, but can be more. People are often in around 19 groups. Groups can exists offline. Schoolfriends, colleagues, people who share a common interest, random groups like people taking same flight. But also online: teams, whatsapp groups, meme groups, chatrooms. Social identity: characteristics and traits associated with a group of individuals that often governs the group behaviors and interactions Ingroup: individuals whom you favor and identify with Outgroup: associations of individuals unlike your social groups Group communication: interactions of individuals who are associated through some shared attribute or commonality. Common bond group: association of individuals brought together and who maintain their relationship due to close interpersonal ties. Individuals like the people in the group on a personal level. Friends. Common identification groups: Association of individuals brought together and who maintain their relationships due to their affinity to the group. Fanatics of a football club. Social identity model of deindividuation effects: SIDE model: addresses how individuals affiliate with a group, distance themselves from another group and how they perceive others. Deindividuation: loss of awareness of one's self as an individual, especially in groups You are less concerned about the consequences of your actions. People seek out social identity to guide their interactions. This leads to more risky behavior. On social media, people can feel anonymous/deindividuated. It is easy to belong to a group. Many people engage in risky behaviors online, like sharing private information like location, sexting, embarrassing photos, pranks. 2 models for this: Prototype willingness model: A person's prototype of someone who engages in risky behavior may influence their own willingness to engage in similar behavior. You can predict someone's favorability by looking at how they look at others and their actions. Online risk behaviors can be result of reasoned process, but are often result of social reactive processes. People self-disclose a lot of information. People do this to: 1. Bond with others, social penetration theory. People exchange functions in development. Bonds become more intimate. Self disclosure increases intimacy in relationships. 2. For strategic reasons, like career on linkedin. 3. To add value to the medium, to find your interests. 4. Because you have to to use the service. 5. Self expression / showing identity People can misuse your information. The internet has become an important source for sexual information and exploration. Adolescents may produce this content. Peer norms play a crucial role in whether adolescents post sexual pictures. If your friends do it. **Week 7:** **Social media** is used as source of imformation. U&G theory says this: people actively select media to fullfill their specific needs. People use social media for mostly social interaction, information seeking and passing time. There is a growing reliance on social media for information seeking., especially among young adults. Exposure to information is a blend of: 1. Incidental exposure: you happen to come across information, you do not actively seek it out 2. Selective exposure: you seek it, driven by personal choices, followers , algorithms. There is a negativity bias on the internet. People also tend to focus on information that comes along with their existing attitudes to avoid cognitive dissonance. We see political communication all around us online. Politics and discussions appear everywhere. There is also an erosion of third spaces. These are spaces where people chill socially beyond work and home. These third spaces turn online, like chatrooms, reddit threads, emails etc. The common perception is that online discussion about politics are toxic and not nice. If you discuss politics online you may feel more disinhibited. This is because you communicate anonymously, minimal presence of authority. Slacktivism: political activities that are easily performed, that make participants feel good. If you do not encounter oppositipnal viepoints or information, you are in a filterbubble/echo chamber. You keep hearing the same around you. Summary book Carr: Ch 1: This chapter is about the foundations of computer mediated communication. CMC is other than other forms of mediated communication, like TV or radio. It emphasizes on its interactive nature. There are two perspectives that explore the interplay of technology and society: Technological determinism: technology shapes society. The coming of smartphones has changed how our face-to-face interactions are. Social determinism: society dictates how technology is used, such as people adapting LinkedIn for professional networking. CMC is the transmission of meaning between 2 or more humans via digital technologies. Ch 3: Cues filtered out is about that CMC lacks richness of face to face communication because of absence of nonverbal cues, which can lead to misunderstandings or impersonal actions. A theory used in this chapter is the social presence theory. This proposes that perceived presence of another person impacts the interaction quality. Higher presence may increase relationship strength. Media richness theory explains how different media vary in their ability to convey info. Richer media, like video calls, are better for complex, ambiguous tasks. Lean media are sufficient for simple exchanges. This chapter also talks about CASA: Antrhropomorphizing was thinking of an inanimate object as something person-like. You have textual CASA: about the content of the messages. Computers can not only present text, but also read it. Visual CASA: tied to the design f the avatar Behavioral CASA: focuses on how technology mimics humans Ch 4: This is about the social information processing theory: argues that although CMC lacks nonverbal cues, users adapt by using verbal strategies to convey emotions, like emojis and emoticons. The hyperpersonal model: this explains why online relationshpis can sometimes surpass face-to-face connections in intimacy. 1. Selective self presentation: users control what they reveal about themselves. 2. Receiver's idealization: recipients ifll in gaps with positive assumptions. 3. Feedback loops: interactions reinforce positive perceptions, creating hyperpersonal connections. We also discuss Electronic Propinquity. This is the way that users feel connected in text/video same way they do in face-to-face settings. This closeness is essential for maintaining long-distance relationships, fostering friendships etc. For example: people in long distance relationships use video calls. They use richer channels to compensate for physical distance. It is also used for remote work. EP is the feeling of psychological closeness people feel when communicating through technology. Bandwidth + = channels capacity to carry multiple cues, such as being able to show emotion or face expression Mutual directionality + = addresses quickness of feedback Task complexity - = complexity of task Communication skills + Communication Rules + Available media choices - Ch 5: This chapter is about group dynamics. It is about the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE). This explains how anonymity in CMC strengthens group identity. People feel more stronger group norms because of the reduced accountability. Contact hypothesis: Increased intergroup interactions through CMC can reduce prejudice and foster understanding. Deindividuation is the loss of awareness of one's self as individual, while in a group. It is also about ingroup and outgroup. Ingroups are identified by who we favor. Outgroups are individuals unlike your ingroup. Common-bond group is association of individuals brought together who maintain relationships. Friends. Common-identity are groups who maintain relationships due to their affinity of the group. Such as fans of an artist or a sports teams. Ch 8: This chapter is about relational development. How relationships form and evolve online. Dating apps for example facilitate the initial connection between people. Social media platforms help maintain long-distance relationships. Relational maintanence and challenges: 1. Direct communication: video calls or texting to maintain strong ties 2. Ambient awareness: passive consumption of updates of others on social media to stay informed 3. Negative effects: constant connectivity can lead to jealousy or surveillance behaviors. CMC has sped up the transmission and receipt of our messages. One on one communication is dyadic interaction. Email is a form of this. Lightweight interactions are simple and quick messages, like a comment or tag. Phatic communication are messages to establish mood, share acknowledgment, etc. A challenge with online dating is the modality switch. Switching from one channel to the other. Media multiplexity = tendency of indivudlas who are connected to use more channels for communication. Ch 9: This chapter is about self perception and identity. Identifiability, synonymity and anonymity. About identity shift and proteus effect. Adopting professional avatars to look more formally. Intrapersonal communication is the communication we have with ourselves. Identifiability is knowing who you and other communicators are. When we are identifiable, the source of message is distinguishable. People know who the sender is and how this message connects to the sender. Pseudonymity is when the source of the message is distinguishable, but not faithful. It refers to an alternative identity. One opportunity of pseudonymity is identity trial. You can explore with identities without fear of messages or displays being connected back to you. Pseudonymous CMC can lead to disinhibition, where individuals are less concerned about outcomes of their actions and will act more freely. Anonymity: the sender of the message is indistinguishable. Physical anonymity: state in which one cannot determine or sense presence of physical message of a source. You know what is said, even by who, but you cant tell what the source is. This is when you are talking on the phone. You know who you are speaking to, but you cannot see them. Discursive anonymity: state in which specific comments cannot be linked to a particular sender. Identity shift: process of self-transformation that occurs when individuals makes claims about himself. This is the process of self-concept changes because of people's behavior or interactions in a digital environment. Because you can experiment with your aspects of personality, it leads to shifts in how you perceive yourself. Proteus effect: change in self-behavior and self-perception based on self-representation. When you change your thoughts and action based on how you physically see yourself. Person's behavior changes to align with appearance of their digital representation. If you use a professional avatar, you might behave more formally. Identity shift is about textual and verbal self-presentation. Proteus is about the visualization. Ch 10: This is about masspersonal communication and user generated content and privacy and security. Social media are disentrained, because they do not require synchoronous communication. This allows some degree of selective self-presentation. You can choose when you use it. Cyberbullying is a phenomenon of great concern due to masspersonal communication. Value of social media comes from user generated content. There is no gate keeping with UGC. Virality refers to content that yields large number of views. Ice bucket challenge, Gangnam style, those were viral things. One predictor of virality is the arousal of emotions the content engages. Positive content is more likely to go viral than negative, so uplifting or prosocial content is more likely to go viral. Social network sites are web based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi public profile. Social networking sites are specifically to create new connections and meet new people. Ties are relationships between 2 individuals. Social support is the verbal and nonverbal behaviors taken to help someone. People disclose information for many reasons. One is to connect more with others. If we know more about another person, our relationship with them deepens. But this comes with risks. Potential of giving away too much information is there. Ch 11: This is about social norms and memes and digital deception like catfishing. Social influence is the symbolic efforts to preserve or change behavior of another individual to maintain or modify aspects of them. Persuasion: intentional effort at influencing another's mental state through communication. This emphasizes the intentionality of efforts. Social influence considers behavioral changes as potential outcomes. Social norms: rules and standards that are understood by a group. For example: do not piss on the ground. You do something because others do it too. Social norms can exert influence through perceptions. Who you associate with can infleucne others perceptions of you. Cheerleader effect: group of people is perceived more attractively than individual members. Conformity: when real/\[perceived pressure from others causes us to act differently than we would if we were alone. You conform with the group. Compliance: agreeing to an implicit or explicit request. Memes are units of culture that spread from person to person by means of copying or imitating Advertising is the nonpersonal communication of information that is paid for to promote products services or ideas. Advertising is typically one way. Advergames: advertisements in the form of games. Astroturfing: manipulating others to present you deceptively. False statements, reviews, comments to sway sentiment. For example a company creating fake positive reviews. Ch 12: This is about disinhibition and polarization. Engagement and slacktivism. Third spaces are places where we congregate socially beyond home and work. But these plays are slowly going away. Online discussions may feek more disinhibited. Freer to communicate without feer of personal or social repurcussions. Ingroup influence is important in this. Slacktivism are political activities that are easily performed. Papers: Bleize about group centrality: Mobile messaging apps like whatsapp have become integral in the lives of adolexcents. These platforms provide positive interactions but also problematic behaviors like cyber aggression. These behaviors are often group-based, where individuals conform to the aggressive norms of their peer groups. This study examines whether effects are moderated by individual differences in susceptibility to peer pressure. Group centrality refers to the degree to which individuals perceive their group as important to their self-concept. Strong identification with a group can lead to conformity with its norms, which includes aggressive behavior. Groups with close social ties are high in centrality and may induce higher conformity. Accountability is the expectation that one's actions will need to be justified by others. If you are not held accountable, they are more likely to conform to group norms. A significant effect of accountability on conformity was found in both experiments. Adolescents who believed they would need to discuss their responses (accountability) conformed less to cyber aggressive norms than those who did not discuss their responses. No significant effects of group centrality were found. Accountability is the critical factor in reducing conformity to cyber aggression. Increasing external monitoring in messaging apps can reduce harmful behavior. **How age and disclosures of sponsored videos affect adolescents knowledge of persuasion and persuasion:** This study is about how age and disclosure content (advertising vs advertising and intent) in influencer marketing videos affect the persuasion knowledge and the responses to persuasion of adolescents. Early adolescents require extensive disclosure to activate their persuasion knowledge, while middle adolescents respond to simpler disclosures. Middle adolescents also exhibit negative attitudes toward brands and influencers after disclosure. Influencer marketing is a subtle form of advertising that adolescents fail to recognize because of their underdeveloped persuasion knowledge. For early adolescents, only detailed disclosures about the ad (explained the ad and the intent) activated recognition and understanding. For middle adolescents, explaining the ad was enough. Middle adolescents had more negative attitudes towards the brand and influencers. Purchase intentions did not change for both groups. **Risky behavior via social media: role of reasoned and social reactive pathways** This study focuses on understanding the factors that influence social media to engage in risky online behaviors. It uses the Prototype Willingness model (PWM) which explains decision making through 2 ways: reasoned pathway (deliberate, analytical decisions) and social reactive pathway (impulsive, emotionally driven decisions). 4 risky behaviors were examined, sharing embarrassing photos, location, participating in stunts and risky pranks, engaging in sexting. Social reactive pathway (impulsive and emotionally driven decisions) enhances the prediction of risky behavior. How positive or negative someone perceived the person doing the risky behavior is also a predictor. If someone who you like does it, you are more likely to do it. Adolescents showed greater reliance on reactive pathways, due to their impulsivity. Adults are more likely to use reasoned pathways. With age comes more analytical and deliberate thinking. Risky behaviors like location sharing and embarrassing photos were considered less impulsive and more reasoned. The others were more reactive. Social reactive pathways enhance the prediction of risky behaviors, especially in adolescents. Prototype favorability is a key factor influencing willingness. If typical users of a risky behaviors are like you, you will do it. **News literacy, social media behaviors and skepticism towards info on social** media This study investigates the role of news literacy in shaping behaviors and perception of news and political content on social media. People with higher news literacy tend to see and share less content, but are more skeptical of the information quality on social media. Frequency of seeing/posting such content does not correlate with skepticism. Media literacy is seen as a solution to improve critical media consumption and reduce spread of low quality/false information. On twitter, higher self perceived media literacy leads to greater exposure to news and political content. On facebook and youtube, higher news literacy correlates with lower exposure to such content. Higher value for media literacy and news literacy are associated with less posting of enws and political content. Higher skepticism is linked to: 1. Need for cognition 2. Valueing media literacy 3. Actual news literacy Lower skepticism is associated with self perceived media literacy. Confidence in ML may not equate to critical evaluation skills. While self perceived media literacy boosts confidence, it does not tranalate into better critical thinking or skepticism. News literacy does improve skepticism and critical evaluation.