Social Media Commons^™

#Diydiabetes: Type One Diabetes, Stigma, And Control In Digital Networks Of Diy Looping, Sophia M. Shelley

Culture, Society, and Praxis

The general public’s awareness of type one diabetes is often lacking and filled with misinformation that can lead to stigma around the disability. Often type one diabetics have to fend for themselves through the means of “DIY diabetes.” The delay in technological innovations and the slow approval rate of Health Canada, compared to the US Food and Drug Administration, makes improving the lives of those with diabetes much more challenging. The self-management of the disability enables diabetics to take agency of their treatment plan and is the primary reason for DIY diabetes. The main reason for this research is to …

Ai, Celebrities, And Their Fans: The Cyber-Pseudo-Event*, Gabbie Iorio

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Tech companies often use celebrities to facilitate adoption of new technologies, and they’re doing the same with AI. For example, Meta is employing celebrities to attract users to their AI products, not only to adopt the technology, but to provide the company data for testing and optimizing the products. Fan communities, such as Nicki Minaj’s Barbz, have also taken up AI technology as a new medium for fandom expression. This paper will explore the varying degrees of success of these applications of AI technology, while putting them in conversation with scholarship on images, celebrity, and fandom.

*Top Graduate Paper

Ethics In Digital Marketing: A Gen-Z’S Perspective, Suruchi Bhatt

School of Business

Almost 72% of Americans report they have a sense of being tracked online through their cellphones, by their advertisers or companies they follow, around 20% think their activities across their days are tracked, with almost 47% reporting the government tracks their cellphones, behaviors, and everything they do online. (Atske, 2019) It is no secret that when people say privacy is a myth, it is upon the behaviors of the companies to inform the customers of what, where, and why their activity is being tracked. Answering how the activity is tracked and when it will be tracked are key factors that …

Perceptions Of Stem Education And Artificial Intelligence: A Twitter (X) Sentiment Analysis, Demetrice Smith-Mutegi, Yoseph Mamo, Jinhee Kim, Helen Crompton, Matthew Mcconnell

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Background, context, and purpose of the study: Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly prevalent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, holding promising potential for supporting the design and implementation of quality STEM education. However, there is a lack of data-based research studying the diverse perceptions of AI in STEM education as conveyed on social media, the factors that influence those perceptions, or the change in those perceptions over time among public audiences. Results, the main findings: The purpose of this study was to examine public perceptions of AI in STEM education by analyzing X posts (Tweets) between 04/28/2020 …

Zeitgeist Of The 2010s And Impact On Fashion Trends, Sophie Scott Anderson

Senior Theses

The zeitgeist of the 2010s can be examined through shifts in technology, politics, economy, environment, religion, and entertainment. This research explores how fashion serves as both a mirror and a driver of societal change during this transformative decade. Trend diffusion itself evolved from the traditional theories of trickle-up and trickle-down because of the prominence of influencer culture, giving average consumers the platform to influence numerous like-minded consumers. Defining the 2010s zeitgeist requires an analysis of the significant patterns in the technological and sociocultural environment through as many sources as possible for a holistic approach. Sociologically, fashion has been accepted as …

Refigured: Separations In Portraiture, Caroline Myers

All Theses

Utilizing traditional painting techniques embedded with digital syntaxes, Refigured: Separations in Portraiture, serves as a catalog of my experiences with communication in a hyperconnected world. Processing illegible information caused by my hearing loss informs the process of imposing similar boundaries within my paintings. Like a technical glitch, these obstructions create an illegible visual experience, with evidence of my process remaining as a clue for the viewer’s understanding of the image.

Though personal in nature, I expand from my experience with auditory communication to employ pertinent explorations into the sustained unpredictability of today’s ever-expanding medium that is technology. My paintings …

And The Oscar Goes To... Tiktok, Dawson Bley

Senior Honors Theses

Companies have been forced to take note of the emerging social media app, TikTok, which has attracted more than a billion users to its platform and invited businesses into an uncharted market ready to be exploited. By seeking to understand and employ the unique features which have led to TikTok’s far-reaching success, many companies can similarly improve their position. In particular, traditional movie companies, which have recently suffered blows at the box office due to factors such as competition with online streaming, could benefit from an analysis of this tech to restore lost engagement and revenue. Specifically, how can the …

Effect Of Gender And Attachment Styles On The Formation Of Parasocial Rleationships, Breanna Carlson, Frank Lien

Concordia Journal of Communication Research

New streaming services, social media platforms, and advances in talk and text are constantly developing in society today. The constant addition to new technological outlets creates a larger platform for viewers to watch and follow their favorite celebrity, television character, or influencers whenever they want. The researchers chose to investigate how a person’s attachment style affects both the likelihood and severity of forming a parasocial relationship with their favorite celebrity or T.V. personality. Specifically, the researchers explored the effect both gender and experiences affect this connection. Participants of the study attend a Lutheran, faith-based institution of college education in an …

Breaking Things: Origins And Consequences Of Racialized Hate Speech On Facebook, Katherine Herrick

International Studies Honors Projects

This thesis seeks to bring attention to the ways in which the effects of hate speech--specifically racialized hate speech--transcends digital platforms. It will begin by connecting the phenomenon of racialized hate speech on Facebook to specific psychological tendencies that the company consciously amplifies for its own financial benefit. The first chapter interrogates the common narrative that violent rhetoric indicates a flaw in the platform’s design, instead arguing that proliferation of such content is encouraged by Facebook’s algorithm. From there, the second chapter examines what happens when a technology giant leverages human psychology for corporate greed. A true worst-case scenario, the …

The Implications And Concerns Of Algorithms In The Modern World, Melody Scott, Isabella Kear, Camden Morris, Michaela Dolph

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

In an ever emerging world of technology and advancements, there should be an increase in the importance and awareness of what each user is allowing and agreeing to on the Internet. Algorithms are becoming a part of everyday life, and many individuals don’t know just how much of their data, personal information, and privacy is being violated and collected from different companies and applications that they use. There needs to be an increase in the awareness and acknowledgement of algorithms and the “F.E.A.T” principles that companies should be following. New technologies from companies, like Google and Nimo, that are considered …

Deepfakes, Shallowfakes, And The Need For A Private Right Of Action, Eric Kocsis

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

For nearly as long as there have been photographs and videos, people have been editing and manipulating them to make them appear to be something they are not. Usually edited or manipulated photographs are relatively easy to detect, but those days are numbered. Technology has no morality; as it advances, so do the ways it can be misused. The lack of morality is no clearer than with deepfake technology.

People create deepfakes by inputting data sets, most often pictures or videos into a computer. A series of neural networks attempt to mimic the original data set until they are nearly …

Positive Family Relationships In A Digital Age: Hearing The Voice Of Young People, Nicola F. Johnson, Zoe Francis

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study focused on young people's perspectives about family relationships and how they can be strengthened or weakened through digital media practices. Located in Melbourne, Australia, 20 participants aged between 13 and 17 years were interviewed about how digital devices and practices shaped the way they interacted with family. The thematic analysis points to the young people's commitment to family cohesion. This was demonstrated through responsible use of social media, admitting the need for device-free time, acknowledging the challenges of being online, and their sense of responsibility as a family member, which informed and shaped the way they individually acted.

The Evolution Of The Internet And Social Media: A Literature Review, Charles Alves De Castro, Isobel O'Reilly Dr, Aiden Carthy

Articles

This article reviews and analyses factors impacting the evolution of the internet, the web, and social media channels, charting historic trends and highlight recent technological developments. The review comprised a deep search using electronic journal databases. Articles were chosen according to specific criteria with a group of 34 papers and books selected for complete reading and deep analysis. The 34 elements were analysed and processed using NVIVO 12 Pro, enabling the creation of dimensions and categories, codes and nodes, identifying the most frequent words, cluster analysis of the terms, and creating a word cloud based on each word's frequency. The …

How Should We Regulate The Internet? A Proposal, Natalie Petruzelli

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

With the invention of the internet providing newfangled methods of spreading information around the world, misinformation has also found home in these pathways, disrupting the general public’s ability to discern fact from fiction and creating divides in society. Regulation must be enacted to stop the effects of misinformation, but the efforts of technology companies and the general public have been insufficient thus far. Regulatory control of the internet and its content should be the responsibility of the government, based on their constitutional right to intervene under certain circumstances and the fact that previous efforts by other parties to mitigate misinformation …

Overcoming The Downsides Of Personal Internet And Cell Phone Use In The Workplace: An Exploratory Empirical Analysis, Kaustav Misra, Michael D. Stackhouse, Arundhati Bagchi Misra, Gregory Berry

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The now taken-for-granted introduction of internet usage into the workplace changed the dynamics of work, productivity, and management, and this is now further complicated by the ubiquitous availability of personal cell phones, going beyond company supplied and (partially) controlled computers with internet connections. This paper studies the connection between internet and cell phone usage by employees and firm productivity. Using primary data collected via a self-reported survey, we conduct an empirical analysis utilizing information based on firm and industry characteristics. Results indicate that the level of non-work-related internet and cell phone usage is significantly associated with firm productivity. Some of …

Chronic Customers Or Increased Awareness? The Dynamics Of Social Media Customer Service, Shujing Sun, Yang Gao, Huaxia Rui

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Despite that social media has become a promising alternative to traditional call centers, managers hesitate to fully harness its power because they worry that active service intervention may encourage excessive use of the channel by disgruntled customers. This paper sheds light on such a concern by examining the dynamics between brand-level customer complaints and service interventions on social media. Using details of customer-brand interactions of 40 airlines on Twitter, we find that more service interventions indeed cause more customer complaints, accounting for the online customer population and service quality. However, the increased complaints are primarily driven by the awareness enhancement …

Rcap Solutions Breach Management - Case Study, Eugene Adu-Gyamfi, Gio Al Muarrawi, Kwame Ofori

School of Professional Studies

Companies get hacked every day, and our in-scope company for this case study, RCAP Solution, was not an exception. Security incidents have increased both in volume and range in recent years, and cyber-attacks have become more sophisticated than ever before. There are so many reasons that drive this fact; one is that our infrastructure was not protected efficiently, but also attackers have become more knowledgeable in initiating advanced attacks at a scale. Additionally, the entrance of emerging technologies such as blockchain, machine learning, and the internet of things, added additional complexity to the already complex scene. Cybercriminals are using various …

An Analysis Of The Skill Sets Needed To Be Successful In Nonprofit Public Relations, Hannah Williamson

Honors Theses

The public relations industry is ever-changing, as it evolves to adapt to societal changes. Technological advancements and social media have largely contributed to changes in the way public relations professionals attempt to reach their target publics. In fact, research shows many public relations professionals do not think the term “public relations” will accurately define the work they will be doing in the near future. As the industry changes, the job duties of public relations professionals adapt as well.

This study researched the public relations industry to understand what skill sets professionals should possess in order to be successful. The study’s …

Navigating "Technoference" In The Family System, Kathlynn Sergent

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

This integrative literature review explores the increase of technology use in families, with a focus on how technology is disrupting in-person social interactions within the family system. Many studies have been conducted on how technology impacts a couple’s romantic relationship, and only a few have examined the relationship between the parent and child. This review is one of the first to examine how technology may affect the entire family unit from before children to raising adolescents. Each section of the family unit is examined, beginning with before children, followed by the early bonding and attachment associated with infant/childhood, and then …

The Impact Of Social Media On Improving English Learning Skills: A Case Study Of Uae, Sameer O. A Baniyassen

Dissertations

Social media are one of the current forms of media that have diverse qualities and characteristics. Today, the use of social media is growing day by day at a significant rate. It is in this domain that students can virtually meet with their classmates and their teachers. They can communicate issues that are of significance and are related to their learning process. This study aimed to explore how social media platforms could affect English learning skills and to find whether social media could improve English language skills. The current study used mixed methods involving quantitative and qualitative approaches, such as …

Iran, Diane M. Zorri

Publications

Internet access in Iran is characterized by strong censorship, limited access, surveillance, and widespread state-sanctioned propaganda. The regime in Tehran views internet freedom as a critical threat to its national security (Henry, Pettyjohn, and York 2014). Using an index of variables such as obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights, the nongovernmental organization Freedom House rates Iran’s internet access as “not free” (Freedom House 2018). On a scale of zero to one hundred, where zero is “free” and one hundred is “not free,” Freedom House scores Iran at an eighty-five, making it the least free nation …

Climate Change, Social Media, And Generation Z, Melanie Morris

Theses and Dissertations

Recent publications report that adults known as Generation Z, between the ages of 18 to 23, increasingly rely upon social media to gain knowledge of social issues. Given social media's embeddedness in Generation Z's life, this study sought to understand if or how social media has influenced and possibly empowered Generation Z to act on social issues, particularly global climate change. This study used a phenomenological research method, which focused on the commonality of Generation Z's lived experience. Emerging themes collected through a literature review and data portray Generation Z as maturing into adulthood as tech-savvy, diverse, and inclusive self-starters. …

When Humanity Meets Technology: Contemplating Neil Postman's Critique Of Advertising, Yingwen Wang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to contemplate Postman’s critique of advertising and offer insights to understand Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) in today’s mediated environment. As an essential component of IMC, the history of advertising demonstrates and documents that the medium of communication has an extensive influence on IMC practices. The concern about how communication media affect human perception, understanding, and behavior, resides within the central claim of the study of media ecology. Thus, this project investigates IMC through the lens of Postman’s media ecology perspectives, and argues that Postman’s prescient ideas provide both hope and constructive insights. Moreover, Postman’s thermostatic perspective, rooted …

The Problem Of Technology: Human Communication In The Age Of Automation, Alyona Leontyeva

Honors Undergraduate Theses

With the introduction of technology, our existence became different. Today we use technology for every aspect of our lives. We can study, work, communicate, and entertain ourselves. We find it very convenient to communicate via e-mail, text messaging, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Myspace, and Snapchat to connect with people in work, school, social and familial networks. Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that Facebook's new mission is to "bring the world closer together" (Zuckerberg, 2017). The means of accomplishing that is through technological communication. According to research on close relationships and the use of technology as a way of communication, "mobile phone-based channels …

Millennials And The Increasing Use Of Social Media: Impact On The Employee Life Cycle, Sarah M. Pryor

Student Publications

The millennial generation is a generation of society that values technology, media, and connections, all three being equally important. This paper studies and theorizes the implications that social media has had on the workplace throughout the employee life cycle and how the traditional processes of this cycle have been altered. In the workforce, this aspect of the employee life cycle incorporates all different stages an employee goes through. From networking to being hired, to forming connections with co-workers, to working hard and performing well, to being fired, social media has impacted each stage of this cycle. Social media is a …

Dimensions Of Online/Offline Social Communication: An Extension Of The Hyperpersonal Model, Devin Joseph Kelly

ETD Archive

With the rise of technology it becomes important to measure and analyze the communication patterns that are emerging from these changes. Technologies open up different communication patterns for individuals to use (Tomas & Carlson 2015; Walther, 1996; Wei & Leung, 1999). Thus, this study develops the “ASOHIO” perspective, which incorporates a range of new and old communication patterns, online communication, offline communication, synchronous communication, asynchronous communication, interpersonal communication, and hyperpersonal communication. This work also looks to extend the hyperpersonal model greatly by developing an actual multi-item scale to measure the construct at the individual level. Walther’s (1996) basic description of …

Digital Mindfulness: An Emerging Field Of Inquiry And Practice, Sherri Henderson

Mindfulness Studies Theses

This two-part paper explores digital mindfulness as an emerging field of inquiry and practice into the integration of technology and contemplative practices. The first part surveys the growing research on the effects of technology on health and well-being. Investigating Buddhist teachings leads to a more balanced and aware approach towards integrating mindfulness with the digital world. Digital mindfulness encourages meaningful engagement while online. It also encourages thoughtfulness, awareness and intention. Digital mindfulness also reshapes and encourages conversations in our homes, schools, and proposes digital responsibility and digital citizenship. The second part of the paper proposes a framework for a workshop …

Information Sharing, Transparency, And E-Governance Among County Government Offices In Southeastern Michigan, Lawrence Bosek

All NMU Master's Theses

The Internet has given rise to the availability of information at our fingertips. While the public, particularly consumers, are more commonly described as being the leading users and beneficiaries of electronic information services, businesses and governments are also players in the arena for sharing official information. Information can be easily stored on Internet websites for the public, businesses, and other governmental offices to search and peruse when needed. This study examined the ease of locating county governmental information, such as contact information for public officials and financial reports, and surveyed elected county officials for purposes of identifying how information is …

Connections With The Current Generation Of College Students Using Digital Marketing Practices, Michael Galindo

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Higher education professionals in college and university admissions utilize various forms of communication in enrolling their fall class. The problem with the digital generation, also known as the Millennials, is that students have disconnected from the personal touch - the connection that is established between the student, their admissions counselor and the institution. Often it is found that this connection helps prospective students find that perfect fit in selecting a college.

This study identifies several technological approaches and evaluates their effectiveness in undergraduate admissions recruitment. A review of the literature revealed that recent technological advances such as social media, personal …

Connecting The Dots: How Iot Is Going To Revolutionize The Digital Marketing Landscape For Millennials, Chloe E. Spilotro

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The growing phenomenon of the Internet of Things (IoT), which is that any item capable of being connected to the Internet will be, presents an unprecedented opportunity for businesses. Using an extensive literature review, the current research examines the significant shift in marketing strategies that need to take place to target the millennial generation of as they adopt IoT. Most research defines the Millennial generation as those born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. As individuals in this generation grow older, there are two behavioral implications: 1) their acceptance of technology suggests they will be quick to adopt …