PSYC 215 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Monthly Active Users, Neuroticism, Focus Group
16 May 2018
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Lecture 3 – The Psychology of Social Media
➢ 70% of people use some form of social media.
➢ Facebook is the most widely used platform
• On average we check Facebook for 17 hours per month.
• 76% check it on a daily basis.
• 15% check it on a weekly basis.
➢ Social media has become a part of our daily routine. About 50% of people
check Facebook the first thing as soon as they wake up in the morning.
➢ Young adults (<30) use social media at the highest rate.
➢ Social media has become more representative of the population at hand.
➢ Men and women use social media at the same rate.
➢ Fun Facts about Facebook:
• Over 2 billion monthly active users worldwide
• 5 new profiles are created every second
• 83 million fake profiles
• Highest traffic is mid-week between 1pm and 3pm
• Average time spent is 20 minutes.
➢ Why do we use Social Media?
• Relationship Maintenance: It helps us connect with people in a
way we wouldn’t otherwise we able to eg: if someone lives far
away).
▪ Reciprocity Effect: More likely to like others’ posts/photos
after they’ve likes our posts/photos
• Part of the norm; almost a social pressure to be on social media
• Self-presentation:
▪ Face to face interactions are more cognitively demanding.
▪ Gives us a way to present ourselves the way we want to (put
our ideal self out)
▪ 68% of people share posts to give others a better sense of
who they are.
• Facilitates communication with someone we just met and
provides information about that other person.
• Self-esteem:
▪ 62% of people feel better about themselves when people
react positively to what they post on social media
▪ Looking at our own Facebook profile enhances self-esteem.
▪ When in a negative mood we make downward
comparisons by looking at the profiles of people that we
see as less successful or attractive.
▪ Catching others positive mood (study by Kramer et al.,
2014). They manipulated the exposure to emotional
content in people’s newsfeeds without their knowledge.
(N=689,000; reduced exposure to either negative or
positive posts). They then examined the emotions
expressed in the status updates of the subjects after the
exposure. People exposed to less negative content used
more positive words in their posts. People exposed to less
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Document Summary
Lecture 3 the psychology of social media. 70% of people use some form of social media. Facebook is the most widely used platform: on average we check facebook for 17 hours per month, 76% check it on a daily basis, 15% check it on a weekly basis. Social media has become a part of our daily routine. About 50% of people check facebook the first thing as soon as they wake up in the morning. Young adults (<30) use social media at the highest rate. Social media has become more representative of the population at hand. Men and women use social media at the same rate. Fun facts about facebook: over 2 billion monthly active users worldwide, 5 new profiles are created every second, 83 million fake profiles, highest traffic is mid-week between 1pm and 3pm, average time spent is 20 minutes. They then examined the emotions expressed in the status updates of the subjects after the exposure.
