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Why do people use facebook?

From those I normally speak about Facebook most of them use Facebook to keep track of their children and/or grandchildren. A Facebook group of medical students mostly use the group during exam periods. In a recent article the authors did a systematic review. They selected 42 articles evidence-based studies on factors contributing to Facebook use. All of these studies examined a population sampled from undergraduate and graduate schools. These studies do not represent those Facebook users that mostly use it to keep track of their relatives.

After a description of all the possibilities with Facebook they started with the sociodemographic variables and Facebook use. All you can say about these findings is that these findings point to cultural and sociodemographic differences in FB use. Specifically, females and ethnic minorities appear to use FB more often than males and Caucasians.

According to this review the following personality characteristics were important for Facebook use.

the review of the literature on Facebook use suggests that a high level of extraversion, low self-esteem, high levels of neuroticism, narcissism, and low levels of self-esteem and self-worth are associated with high FB use. Frequent Facebook use is also associated with lower academic performance but possibly higher self-esteem and sense of belonging.

The authors propose and explain based on the existing literature that Facebook users can be divided in two categories. This proposed models consists of Facebook use motivated by the need to belong. This is the need to affiliate with others and gain social acceptance. The other motivation is the need for self representation. Which is meant by the need for a continuous proces of impression management. The authors suggest that these two motivations can be both present in Facebook users but they can also be the single cause for Facebook use. These needs are influenced by a host of other factors, including the cultural background, sociodemographic variables, and personality traits, such as introversion, extraversion, shyness, narcissism, neuroticism, self-esteem, and self-worth.

Based on these assumptions the authors propose several new questions for research on Facebook use. For instance the influence of societies on Facebook use. Collectivistic and individual societies might differ in their Facebook use as hypothesized by the authors. In collectivistic societies might show a greater need to belong, while individualistic societies encourage self representation.

ResearchBlogging.org
Ashwini Nadkarni, & Stefan G. Hofmann (2012). Why do people use Facebook? Personality and Individual Differences DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2011.11.007

 

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Analysis of a Dutch Social Network: Hyves

An interesting article in PLos One on an online networking service that is very popular in The Netherlands. It has a relatively large proportion of the population as members. The author used a dataset obtained from this Dutch service: Hyves.

Some interesting results from this extensive data analyses.

  • Young people roughly between 10 and 25 years of age are overrepresented as a share of the population, more demographic facts can be found in the free accessible article published in PLos One
  • The structure of the Hyves network follows the regularities found in other large complex networks. This can be summarized as two different kind of distributions. Core densities with the ability to a quick spreading through the whole network. In other words, small network nodes of separate small worlds in which sometimes news spreads very rapid through the whole network. The same principle as in the epidemiological literature, a core-periphery structure that is believed to facilitate the spread of diseases
  • A substantial fraction have no Friends at all. Those with friends have on average 106 friends

The short conclusion is that a comparison with other online social networks such as facebook shows that these networks show remarkable similarities.

 

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Optimize self-presentation through facebook

Research shows you can improve your self-representation through faceboook and other social media with several techniques:

  • spending more time with greater cognitive resources to edit the messages
  • carefully selecting photographs
  • highlighting your positive attributes
  • presenting an ideal self
  • having a deeper self-disclosure
  • managing the styles of your language
  • providing a set of links to other sites or associating themselves with certain people, symbols, and material objects

Presenting yourself in a more positive way on Facebook is a way to manage other’s impressions of you. According to a recent publication on research with undergraduates to the impact of Facebook on users’ perceptions toward others, it found a relationship with duration of Facebook use and time spent on Facebook.

The multivariate analysis indicated that those who have used Facebook longer agreed more that others were happier, and agreed less that life is fair, and those spending more time on Facebook each week agreed more that others were happier and had better lives. Furthermore, those that included more people whom they did not personally know as their Facebook ‘‘friends’’ agreed more that others had better lives.

Proof of shallow contact distorting perception of others and a plea for face to face interaction. This research had also shown that the more time people spent going out with their friends, the less they agreed that others have better lives and are happier. What do you think?

ResearchBlogging.org
Chou, H., & Edge, N. (2011). “They Are Happier and Having Better Lives than I Am”: The Impact of Using Facebook on Perceptions of Others’ Lives Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2011.0324

 

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Recruiting study participants through Facebook

Read an interesting article about this subject. Interesting not in the sense of costs or efficacy but mostly on how they did it. It’s done for an epidemiological study on a mother child cohort. They wanted to include pregnant women for their study with facebook beside other forms of recruitment such as: active collaboration with health personnel involved in pregnancy and childbirth who distribute leaflets or introduce the study to pregnant women, a website, links to the website on other websites dedicated to pregnant women and participation in online pregnancy related forums.

What they did with facebook was creating a weekly updated facebook page and an advertising campaign on facebook. The advertisement was displayed on personal facebook pages of women aged 18 to 45 with an IP address in Italy whom were selected by 2 keywords pregnancy and delivery )in Italian). The page got a lot of fans (167-450) and during the campaign of 5 weeks 8 participants came to the study through facebook.

Compared to their other forms of recruitment it was not cheap but than again more spin off from the facebook page could not be measured. Talking money, the advertisement costs were 200 euros.

ResearchBlogging.org
Richiardi, L., Pivetta, E., & Merletti, F. (2012). Recruiting Study Participants Through Facebook Epidemiology, 23 (1) DOI: 10.1097/EDE.0b013e31823b5ee4

 

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Students use of social media

facebook patient groups

We have been trying to use twitter during lectures, especially since the group is so large about 100 to 200 can only follow the lecture from another lecture room on a monitor. It wasn’t a success, the question time during and after the lecture was hardly used. Only 8-10 questions were proposed via twitter, but we do have to say that almost every student had many followers thanks to the tiktokings team. The interaction did increase but only with those present in the same lecture room. These were bachelor med students. Next we tried facebook during a week with master med students. The number using the group was more than 100, which is probably around half of the med students.

This finding is also supported by a recent large study with health professions students. These students were in the following health professions: biotechnology, couple and family therapy, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, public health, radiologic and imaging sciences, and pharmacy.

These students (56%) prefer online media as their primary source of information and most of them used facebook (77%). Very few used twitter or linkedin.

They use facebook for keeping connected with friends but also with other med students.

It is a no-cost, viral way of getting the word out about school events and programming and can be used to keep students informed of new classes, special lectures, holiday hours, special events,
and even emergency notices. Above all, it is about being social, allowing students a virtual meeting space to connect with alumni, establish school pride, announce reunions and sporting events, talk about group projects, interact with the community, and beyond.

The authors also suggest setting up fan pages not only for traditional school information but also for leisure activities.
I fully agree with another statement made by the autors

Instead of faculty reminding students to turn off their personal Facebook pages, they can instead direct them to class Facebook pages and use this networking tool.

ResearchBlogging.org
Giordano C, & Giordano C (2011). Health professions students’ use of social media. Journal of allied health, 40 (2), 78-81 PMID: 21695367

 

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How Facebook saved the day for an emergency department

facebook patient groups

A 34 year old female was brought in to the emergency department Friday afternoon. She was a mother and a quick search of her belongings
provided her business card. It was the card of a obviously successful businesswoman; however, it did not provide any further useful information to explain her presentation. The family doctor was contacted. She explained that besides a remote history of a short depressive episode the patient was quite healthy. She was unable to assist in contacting any family members.

The patient was displaying ‘‘bizarre behavior,’’ along with refusing to open her eyes for an examination. A psychiatric cause was probable after careful diagnostic procedures. The team decided to look up her and her man’s name on Google and via Facebook they were able to contact him. He went to pick up their child from daycare and then to the ED to support his spouse in distress.

The use of Google and Facebook as a last resort went very well in this case, nevertheless in the same journal a med student nearly got sent away from med school after posting an inappropriate statement as a comment on facebook.

My posting on Facebook was brought to the attention of some of the administrators at our institution as a violation of its honor code, and it nearly ended my status as a medical student and my dream of becoming a doctor. As a result of my actions, I was required to make an appearance before the Student Promotions Committee to explain what had happened and to explain why I should be allowed to continue my medical studies. Needless to say, it was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever been through.

It’s time for “social media competence” in med school, with a course during the curriculum. What do you think?

ResearchBlogging.org
Ben-Yakov, M., & Snider, C. (2011). How Facebook Saved Our Day! Academic Emergency Medicine DOI: 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2011.01199.x

Strausburg, M. (2011). How Facebook Almost Ended My Career With a Single Click Academic Emergency Medicine DOI: 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2011.01198.x

 

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Why Is Facebook So Successful

Because Facebook use can evoke a positive emotional state. Researchers have esthablished these positive responses during an expirement in which they measured several psychophysiological measures. They recorded skin conductance, blood volume pulse, electroencephalogram, electromyography, respiratory activity, and pupil dilationstate. They measured these psychophysiological patterns in 30 healthy subjects during relaxation condition, showing slides of the subject’s personal Facebook account, and a stress condition.

Flow is a form of intense engagement and enjoyment, it can occur when the challenge provided by the activity is high enough but the skills of the person can still cope with the situation.

Findings from a wide range of domains, including chess playing, writing, sports, and visual arts, show a positive correlation between flow state measures and objective measurements of quality of performance. In addition, flow has been suggested to function as a reward signal to promote repetition and practice about the activity inducing flow

The Facebook experience resulted in a specific pattern of psychophysiological data, distinct from the relaxation and stress condition. During stress the sympathetic reactions are prominent, during relaxation the parasympathetic reaction is prominent in these subjects. In the Facebook condition the results reflect an higher emotional activation in combination with a moderate arousal. In short: joyous and excited. Results can be interpreted as an increased parasympathetic modulation of sympathetic activity.
Facebook and other social networking sites might be so succesful due to a specific positive affective state experienced by users.

ResearchBlogging.org
Mauri, M., Cipresso, P., Balgera, A., Villamira, M., & Riva, G. (2011). Why Is Facebook So Successful? Psychophysiological Measures Describe a Core Flow State While Using Facebook Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2010.0377

 

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Social Media and Surgery

surgeons

Surgeons not being the most social animals among doctors, I was surprised to see 7 editorials about surgery and social media. These seven editorials highlighted the use of social media and different settings for surgeons, from medical school all the way up to the American College of Surgeons. “Most tummy tucks can be divided into what would be considered a ‘full’ abdominoplasty or a ‘mini’ abdominoplasty. The full abdominoplasty is much more common”. This also influences social media, tummy tuck Sydney offers form and function restored at the same time.

The most factual contribution was about the implications of social media such as twitter, blogging and facebook on the next generation of physicians. In this editorial a recent study was cited. They found a difference in the use of social media between residents and medical students. 13% of residents and 64% of medical students at the University of Florida, Gainesville had Facebook profiles. Suggesting a 6 fold increase in the number of social media users in the next generation of physicians. I think this is an underestimation. The authors also state that from the profiles of these residents and medical students 70% contained photographs with alcohol of which 10% to 50% implied excessive drinking. Furthermore, 30% displayed inappropriate images of overt sexuality, foul language, and patient privacy violations.

As a result, residents and medical students are at a comparably high risk of having their profiles viewed by unintended persons thereby jeopardizing individual credibility as well as that of his or her institution.

More positive were the contribution of medical students and residents. Some uses of medical students of social media:

  • Communication among members of tutorial groups, the basis of the problem-based curriculum
  • YouTube video clips of physical exam maneuvers and diagnostic procedures
  • Using visual models found on YouTube for explanation of complex science concepts
  • Watching operation procedures on YouTube to prepare the operation the next day
  • Podcasts of live lectures so that they can access them out of campus, at the gym or during travel
  • Orienting towards specialties by following on facebook applicable professional organizations for their field of interest such as such as the American College of Surgeons, the American College of Physicians, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
  • Millions of people globally are now using Instagram. Instagram has made it easier to exchange experiences with residency programs. Aside from networking, you’ll use Instagram during a more efficient way of selling. Instagram may be a great promotional tool you can buy Instagram likes to increase your viewers for operation procedures.
  • and so on and so on….

Residents were very interested in physician-only online social networks. this editorial collected an impressive amount of these networks such as sermo, medscape connect, tiromed, and doctorshangout.com. They also emphasized the social aspect of social networking sites especially since they lack sufficient time to keep up with other networks than their working network.

Social networking sites can serve as an invaluable tool for keeping in touch with friends and colleagues from past educational and work experiences and for medical trainees to share news and photos with geographically distant loved ones.

All in all an interesting number of editorials in Surgery of varying optimism and content.

 

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Social Media Use By US Hospitals

From a structured review of websites of 1800 US hospitals focusing on their Facebook, Twitter and Youtube accounts:

  • 21% used social media
  • More likely to be large, urban hospitals run by nonprofit, nongovernment organisations
  • More likely to participate in graduate medical education
  • Used social media to target a general audience (97%)
  • Provide content about the entire organization (93%)
  • Announce news and events (91%)
  • Further public relations (89%)
  • Promote health (90%).

In short, used social media for unidirectional communication.

ResearchBlogging.org
Thaker SI, Nowacki AS, Mehta NB, & Edwards AR (2011). How U.S. hospitals use social media. Annals of internal medicine, 154 (10), 707-8 PMID: 21576547

 
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