Posts Tagged: proposal

Definitions and Attitudes towards “Normative Social Media Behaviors” and “Deviant Social Media Behaviors”of Online Pseudo-relationships on Social Media Websites

While researching reference material for my research topic, I came across a blog site that discussed what it meant to be in a pseudo-relationship. This relatively new term was defined on the site as being a “situation of two people where they are more than friends, but not considered to be dating. It is when you do things most couples do, yet, you have no strings attached, no commitments, nothing, just your togetherness and friendship.” I found this definition interesting because when applied to online social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, it appropriately described the relationships that users have with this medium in regards to their connections to other people on the site. I don’t know how many times I have heard my friends say “I mean I don’t really know him (her), but I’m friends with them on Facebook” as if that accounts for something. It is interesting that people feel they have a connection or relationship with another just because they are linked to them through a social media website. With this said, social media websites are radically changing societal norms in regards to personal relationships, privacy, and behaviors.

In this study, I would like to try and focus on this attitude behavior towards online relationships and what is considered as “normative” behavior today. Also I’d like to extend that and study at which point these attitudes begin to shift from what is considered “normative social media behavior” to what is considered “deviant social media behavior”, such as “stalkerism”, obsession, and addiction for example. I’d also like to explore how terms such as “friends”, “stalkers”, “addicts”, “obsession”, and “connection” are reconstructed throughout this process. For example, a new issue that has come up recently is Facebook’s new idea of including a “stalker button” as a feature that people can use to literally stalk others on the site at all times. In regards to this new idea, I’d like to include this in my study and examine how people feel about this possible new feature and whether or not they think that it is pushing the limits of normative behavior. For instance, would this inclusion of this interactive button be appropriate and therefore reaffirm normative behavior or do people feel that it’s crossing the line in regards to privacy and therefore would this feature be considered more as “deviant behavior”?

I believe that this study would be relevant to our culture today for many reasons. The first and main reason is that social media websites are becoming increasingly more popular everyday. Another reason is that I feel that the aforementioned term “pseudo-relationship” accurately defines people’s online relationships with social media websites because of this idea of indirect self-disclosure. In essence, when people have a medium unto which they can express themselves with some sort of barrier or by indirect means, I believe that they feel more comfortable and are more likely to self-disclose at a quicker rate to others.

Additionally, people may feel more comfortable to express themselves while connecting and networking with other people online through these sites than they would ordinarily. These sites allow for individuals to express themselves without concerns about censorship or fears of social rejection. This is an obvious, major reason why these websites are very popular and powerful among a wide range of people and therefore highly relevant to the construction of today’s cultural and societal norms.

Social media sites are great tools to use for the previous mentioned reasons. However, I believe that these pseudo-relationships can be abused and misused. There are many people who use these social media websites for other purposes, consciously and subconsciously, that in some ways are ultimately harmful to themselves and others. As an extreme example of this, there was a recent story in the news about a famous plastic surgeon, Dr. Frank Ryan, who died in a car accident because they claimed that he was twittering while driving and drove off of a cliff in Los Angeles from lack of attention.” Although this is a pretty radical story, and we do not know if Twitter was really the cause of his death, the story still brings up this idea that there may be a problem that needs to be acknowledged in regards with behaviors such as addiction and obsession to social media. I mean there are now PSA’s and public advocacy campaigns out there highlighting the dangers of texting and tweeting while driving. This, among other reasons, is why I believe that these deviant social behaviors, such as obsession and addiction, could potentially be a problem for society today and in the future and therefore needs to be addressed. First, we must understand what society considers to be a “normative” social behavior and what they label as a “deviant social behavior” and how they do this.

Therefore, for my research paper I would like to focus on the question of “How does social media and virtual pseudo-relationships that are formed through these online communities affect and redefine what is considered to be ‘normative social media behavior’ as well as ‘deviant social media behavior’ through terms such as obsession, addiction, and stalking?” For instance, is it considered socially acceptable now to check a persons Facebook numerous times in one day? What is too much? Where can the online community draw the line? I hope that this research study can clear up some of these answers.

I would like to use an interpretive approach to the study and attempt to ask the question of how online users habits and attitudes towards social media define cultural terms now such as “obsession”, “stalker”, “addiction”, “friends”, and “connection” towards social media behaviors. In essence, what can be considered typical user behavior on a social media site in comparison to abnormal behavior in regards to these issues? When do addicts or obsessive users reach what most people define as “stalker status” or can be labeled as a “Facebook addict” or “Twitter addict”?

To do this, I believe that I will try to create and distribute a trend survey either online or to other classes on campus with questions regarding people’s usages and attitudes towards two of the most popular social media websites, Twitter and Facebook. These questions will ask what they define as normative social media behaviors, and use this to identify and compare what they consider to be deviant social behaviors using key words “stalkerism”, addiction”, “privacy”, and “obsession”. I will also use the method of content analysis to research past work and other articles on this topic.