Who uses facebook? a new blog ‘review’ in progress…

In writing this for my Edublog, I was very conscious of the greying of notions of in/formality that seems appropriate for a blog, and ‘academic prose’ with formal academic language/structure/grammar and formatting.  I like my blogs with a more informal ‘chatty’ and conversational tone, shorter blocks of text, and the occasional sideline or rethink, or self talk/reflection.  Can blogs then be taken seriously, as offering anything substantial to academia?  Does a review or a critique written as a blog have any sway or influence?  Does it need to?  … (sideline… Do I care?)

Reading 1:  Ryan, T., & Xenos, S. (2011, 2011/09/01/). Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship between the Big Five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness, and Facebook usage.

From abstract:  The results [from a self selected sample of 1324 Australian Internet users] showed that Facebook users tend to be more extraverted and narcissistic, but less conscientious and socially lonely, than nonusers. Furthermore, frequency of Facebook use and preferences for specific features were also shown to vary as a result of certain characteristics, such as neuroticism, loneliness, shyness and narcissism. It is hoped that research in this area continues, and leads to the development of theory regarding the implications and gratifications of Facebook use. [my highlighting] © 2011

I am already on edge – the date of the article, the premises suggested by the title, the shifts in global social media usage and availability over the last 10+ years, and the discipline area of behaviour and personality characteristics through a psychological lens.  But I persist reading, with trepidation…

Apparently, (Ryan & Xenos, 2001 p.1659) “[r]ather than looking at the relationship between Internet use and specific traits, the majority of research in this area has been based on broad models of personality. The Five-Factor Model, otherwise known as the Big Five (Goldberg, 1990), [… which] is based on the theory that an individual’s personality can be evaluated by determining how they rank on five bipolar factors: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience (McCrae & John, 1992)”… Ok, I’m not sure I can read any more.  The idea of ‘evaluating an individual’s personality’ based on these factors is just not agreeable for a sociology inclined thinker that I am. 

After skipping through the rest of the article (we call it ‘skimming’ for a general picture, or ‘scanning’ for something worthwhile to spend more time on – see https://library.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/1924140/Reading_Skills.pdf), the most notable ‘finding’ seemed to be that “Facebook gratifies its users in different ways depending on their individual characteristics” (p.1663).  One of the sections was based on ‘specific gratifications of Facebook users’, and another on ‘Frequency of Facebook use’.  These and specific purposes or motivations for using Facebook I think would be quite different now (in 2021) than they might have been then, for a multitude of reasons. 

However, after reading, I have been prompted to think about what sort of questions I have, that I would like considered through research, particularly those relating to communication, FB (vs other social media) in less developed countries, and whether it is simply a ‘distraction from’ education, or a ‘potential tool for’ education.

Reading 2:  The effects of personality traits, self-esteem, loneliness, and narcissism on Facebook use among university students (2012, Skues et al), from the same journal.  Again it appears centred on university students as users, to be focussed on ‘personality traits’, and to be from almost 10 years ago.

Admittedly another skim read, and the feeling I need to look elsewhere for the type of research I would prefer to engage with.

Extract from Abstract:  “Interestingly, students with higher levels of loneliness reported having more Facebook friends. Extraversion, neuroticism, self-esteem and narcissism did not have significant associations with Facebook use. It was concluded that students who are high in openness use Facebook to connect with others in order to discuss a wide range of interests, whereas students who are high in loneliness use the site to compensate for their lack of offline relationships. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]”.

Again, trepidation – and a bit of self analysis, hmmm, do each of these ‘traits’ exist in isolation from others?  Pick a time of day/week/year, consider context, and I can perform all or any of the above according to psychometrics.  You can probably tell that I’m not really a fan of, or believer in psychological categorisations!

Some interesting aspects in the discussion caught my eye.  Notions such as ‘Impression management’; Facebook ‘as a means of taking a break or as a distraction from study’, ‘connect[ing] with others who share similar interest[s]’; ‘students turn[ing] to Facebook to avoid academic tasks’; and the final recommendation, ‘future research should consider whether Facebook promotes social engagement in a manner that might increase academic engagement, or whether it operates as a distraction’ (Skues et al, 2012 p. 2418). 

However, as a regular Facebook user myself, I am really not so sure that any of these ‘interesting aspects’, are really so helpful.  Facebook (and other social media sites) have a multitude of uses and purposes which are interesting and variable, but how do these findings help us in ‘facilitating online learning’?

The final article I will look at, that I have chosen myself to hopefully obtain some information that is useful for my work as an online educator, is …

Marketing           Psychology         Personality        

(Sideline/note/addendum – I went searching, post 2018, there are hundreds of thousands of articles published about FB/education/online learning …  so I’ll save the next instalment for later.  This is about it for me – and I still need to check my FB before I can go to bed … until next time 😊)

References (for now…)

Skues, J. L., Williams, B., & Wise, L. (2012). The effects of personality traits, self-esteem, loneliness, and narcissism on Facebook use among university students. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(6), 2414-2419. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.012

Ryan, T., & Xenos, S. (2011, 2011/09/01/). Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship between the Big Five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness, and Facebook usage. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(5), 1658-1664. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2011.02.004

2 thoughts on “Who uses facebook? a new blog ‘review’ in progress…”

  1. Hi Annabelle,

    Thanks for sharing your deliberations! The use of Facebook (FB) as a potential tool for education really intrigues me too, because, as far as I know, it is a non-university supported social media platform while an increasing number of my colleagues are using it. As you mentioned, this technology can be used as a “pedagogical/andragogical tool to foster communication and information exchange” (Magro et al. 2013 p. 308) and there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that FB enhances students’ learning outcomes (Balcikanli 2015).

    The FB virtual community can highly help the T&L of my subjects. In all subjects, FB could nurture an emotional connection and strength student community in undergraduate Path (Whittaker et al. 2014) that would promote a stronger sense of belonging (McGuckin and Sealey 2013). In my lecture-based large classes, it could facilitate communication between students, promote intrinsic motivation (Aubrey 2013) and engagement (Balcikanli 2015) while increasing teacher-student and student-student interactions (Munoz and Towner 2009) and boosting collaborative and group learning (Menzies et al. 2017; Chen 2015). For my practical classes, in which we have weekly assessments with scientific report writing, FB could significantly improves performances by making feedback more engaging (Wichadee 2013).

    However, one key learning objective in my PATH subjects is to become proficient in using scientific language and effective scientific communications skills. Research has documented that FB posts made by students do not necessarily follow rigorous academic language literacy levels. Students tend to use SMS/abbreviated language in their responses (Harran and Olamijulo 2014). Other research has also documented that a majority of students display passive (reading, viewing and watching) behaviours when scrolling through FB and avoid active (chatting, commenting and posting) behaviours (Aydin 2014). Let’s say that it is promoting digital social distancing for some students ( 😊 ). More, there is a risk of possible surveillance, an issue of educators’ dominance, and a dangerous possible breach of privacy protection. A more regulated landscape with universities policies, code of conduct, protection of personal freedom, diversity and equity should be resolved before I fell more incline in integrating Facebook as a safe learning environment. On FB, are teachers supposed to be “friends” with students? And another important aspect: how would you moderate, control, filter, assess and mark interactions on FB?

    I am still not convinced that I should integrate FB in my teaching practices, even if I know that for the next generation of biomedical researcher I teach, FB will become an important platform for communication and collaboration. Meanwhile, the use of Campuswire, ePortfolios and wikis better fit the digital ecosystem of the T&L of Pathology… but I am ready to be challenged on this during the FOL course!

    Aubry, J. (2013). Facebook-induced motivation shifts in a french online course. TechTrends: Linking Research and Practice to Improve Learning, 57(6), 81–87.

    Aydin, S. (2014). Foreign language learners’ interactions with their teachers on Facebook. System, 42, 155–163. doi:10.1016/j.system.2013.12.001.

    Balcikanli, C. (2015). Prospective english language teachers’ experiences in Facebook: Adoption, use and educational use in turkish context. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology, 11(3), 82–99.

    Chen, Y.-c. (2015). Linking learning styles and learning on mobile Facebook. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16(2), 94–114.

    Harran, M., & Olamijulo, C. (2014). Social media communication spaces to develop literacies in a higher education language classroom context. South African Journal of Higher Education, 28(2), 410–435.

    Magro, M. J., Sharp, J. H., Ryan, K., & Ryan, S. D. (2013). Investigating ways to use Facebook at the university level: A delphi study. Issues in Informing Science & Information Technology, 10, 295–311.

    McGuckin, T. A., & Sealey, R. M. (2013). Integrating Facebook into a university cohort to enhance student sense of belonging: A pilot program in sport and exercise science. Australian Educational Computing, 28(1), 83–91.

    Menzies, R., Petrie, K., & Zarb, M. (2017). A case study of Facebook use: Outlining a multi-layer strategy for higher education. Education and Information Technologies, 22(1), 39–53.

    Munoz, C., & Towner, T. (2009). Opening Facebook: How to use Facebook in the college classroom. Paper presented at the Proceedings of society for information technology & teacher education international conference.

    Wichadee, S. (2013). Peer feedback on facebook: The use of social networking websites to develop writing ability of undergraduate students. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 14(4), 260–270.

    Whittaker, A. L., Howarth, G. S., & Lymn, K. A. (2014). Evaluation of Facebook© to create an online learning community in an undergraduate animal science class. Educational Media International, 51(2), 135–145.

    1. Thanks for your thoughtful and detailed response @sophiepf – and very impressive list of references!
      It has been interesting to see the trends and responses in terms of social media and formal education, particularly in working with young(er) people. The idea of it being a ‘distraction’ from the important stuff, misused and a tool for cyber-bullying, teachers needing to retain their ‘private’ lives (within limits – even potential employers are searching FB posts, I saw one that reposted an applicant’s post from 6 years previous to their application), for young people to learn cyber-safety and the rest… I haven’t gone beyond suggesting my students can set up FB groups amongst themselves (which they were doing already) and use these to share, digest and discuss ideas – but that is in an Australian context. In other (less developed) contexts, the use of FB goes well beyond how it tends to be used here in Australia due to distances, lack of other means of communication, and diaspora.
      Thanks for your input!

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