sinéad's lifestream

Journal of CyberPsychology & Behavior, Vol 11, No.4: The current issue of this bimonthly journal offers access to research studies on topics such as public and private self-consciousness on social networking sites, online consumer trust, adolescent behaviour online, interactive movies, product placement in gaming, and cyberbullying.

Psychological Aspects of Cyberspace: Theory, Research, Applications: This blog contains each individual chapter from the newly published book of the same name. Readers are invited to read each chapter and comment or ask questions of the individual writers. Topics covered include privacy and trust online, internet abuse, flow states, cybertheraputic theory and techniques and sexual activities online. It’s wonderful to see an entire book on the topic of Cyberpsychology readily available online and open to discussion. Very much looking forward to reading all of these chapters.

For your eyes only: Custom interfaces make computer clicking faster, easier: University of Washington engineers discuss a new approach to software design. They propose that instead of standard off the shelf user interface designs, that by putting the user through a brief skills test a mathematically-based version of the user interface could be generated that is optimized for the user’s vision and motor abilities. This research is especially important for the disabled, elderly or anyone that has difficulty using a computer mouse.

The Effects of Background Television on the Toy Play Behavior of Very Young Children: This research study found that background television, disrupts very young children’s play behavior even when they pay little overt attention to it and even when tuned to adult themed shows. Background television was found to cause short play episode lengths, which are a marker for poor developmental outcome. These findings are important because play is directly related to healthy cognitive and social development. Related Article: TV Really Might Cause Autism

Internet users refuse to put up with intrusive ads: From 1000+ internet users sampled 59% indicated that they had stopped visiting a website because of irrelevant, annoying and intrusive online ads (including pop-ups that cover web content, loud noises and ads that were difficult to close, minimise or click away from). This study relates back to my own undergraduate research on pop-up advertisements, where I found that the more experienced a user the more likely they are to actively attempt to remove pop-ups from their online experience. Web designers need to start paying attention to research and surveys such as these, or as demonstrated, users will stop visiting certain websites completely.

If anyone has anything they’d like to contribute to the next digest, or related articles for this volume, feel free to drop me a comment or an e-mail – Sinéad.

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4

As part of the Darklight Festival over the weekend a number of symposiums were held to discuss and debate various popular topics related to the online world. I was invited to be a member of the audience by the organisers and found the experience to be rather… interesting.

Privacy vs. Publicity in the Virtual World

Daniel Solove, author of “The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor and Privacy on the Internet” (available for free here) opened this discussion with various anecdotes pertaining to the negative effects of personal details being shared online, either on purpose i.e. through your personal blog, or without the person’s consent e.g. the Star Wars Kid. Coming from a background in law, Solove suggests that the only way to curtail personal details being posted online without your consent is by the threat of legal action being more heavily employed.

“Be responsible”

Solove suggests that allowing anonymity online is irresponsible as it removes any control we have over our personal data (e.g. intimate personal details being posted online without consent) and that the law can only do so much to provide protection. For example, while it may be possible for a photographer to have an unapproved photo removed from an unlicensed website, the individual in the photo has no legal standing. This is because copyright law is much more powerful than privacy law.

“Intertwined with the lives of others”

Solove described how we all have expectations of privacy and anonymity in public, despite always being exposed and how this notion of privacy is mistakenly expected online. Claiming that 50% of bloggers were under the age of 19, he described these Internet users as “Generation Google” – individuals that have had their lives chronicled online, leaving behind fragments of their past that are pervasive and destructive to their future.

Opinion

I disagree with Solove’s judgment that anonymity is irresponsible on the part of ISP’s and websites that encourage and allow it. Anonymity online has always provided Internet users with a constructive means for liberal expression and play, without the risk of social impairment. Though anonymity provides users the facility to post lies online without any apparent risk (except in a serious case where your IP address might be used against you), the power of an anonymous message is certainly not as strong as a message coming from a reputable source.

“Generation Google” is something that I myself am a part of, but it is a heavily constructed and thought out self, which is something anyone reading a blog or a social networking profile needs to consider. Using google search results as a basis for a decision on a job or college applicant is something that I would consider irresponsible, and lazy. Nothing we post online is a 100% true reflection of ourselves, imagine a youthful, boastful comment left on a friend’s social networking profile that might actually be sarcastic or part of an in-joke. It’s all about context, and if the context is unknown then the information is invalid. It is lazy to think otherwise.

Panel Discussion

Following this keynote address was a panel discussion chaired by Caroline Campbell, featuring Jim Carroll, Cormac Callanan, Niall Larkin (read his thoughts on this symposium here) and Damien “almost blogs for a living” Mulley. Daithí Mac Sithigh was also in the audience and has written up a great summary of the panel discussion.

“Whatever goes on the Internet stays on the Internet”

The most prevalent message from this one-sided discussion was that everything you do online is being used to build behavioural profiles for marketing and advertising. On Facebook (and probably other social networking websites) your actions are logged and combined with your profile information for contextual marketing and advertising. Sophisticated data mining tools are used in Gmail and other free online services. Law enforcement in the US use these data mining techniques to track down possible terrorists and it was suggested that all of these combined could lead to surveillance and stalking by commercial and non-commercial companies for negative reasons, debt-collection is an example used by a member of the audience.

Privacy in this instance is not about the actual collection of the data, it’s what happens to it afterwards. Suggestions were made that it would be preferable to have access to this profile and to be notified when your data is being accessed and by whom. However, when Mulley asked the audience “Who actually cares?” a minority raised their hands.

Opinion

In my opinion, many of the members of the panel seemed to be scaremongering the audience. It would have been a more interesting discussion if even one of the members of the panel was under 30 (correct me if I’m wrong). All of them seemed quite outraged by the idea that their personal details and behaviour online could be used to help companies make more money. I would argue that there are many positive things about this type of data mining, for example, attempts (unsuccessful so far) at contextualising advertising on websites such as Facebook.

Contextual ads make advertisements entertaining and informative. Personally, I’d rather this than being bombarded with irrelevant ads (like when I watch television). However, this does not mean that the advertising is more successful because of this. Despite the fear of behavioural profiles being sold to marketing and advertising executives, these sets of data are in no way accurate at predicting human behaviour. Behaviour changes on a daily basis and can’t be actualised using selective pieces of information we ourselves post into the likes of social networking websites. Our reactions to advertising and products can change based on far too many variables for a behavioural profile to predict.

Websites like Facebook and Google give us a service and our payment to them is our content. Without our content these websites are completely useless and no-one would be willing to pay for them. It’s naive for anyone to think that you can get something for nothing online and if you’ve nothing to hide, why be so afraid of a little data mining? How does this even affect your every day life? I would argue that it doesn’t. It’s a pity the panel were so strongly of the opinion that it was 100% negative. I do however agree that users signing up to these services might need to be informed more readily of the fact that their data might be used in this manner.

The question is – Do you care? (Take a second to Take the poll or leave a comment below).

Feminised gadgets – An eye for the ladylike: This article from the Telegraph Online opens with an interesting statistic, that women now spend more money on gadgets than on shoes. This is followed up with some fascinating insights into the “feminisation” of technology design and closes with an even more remarkable statistic, that two-thirds of Nintendo DS users are female. Related Link: Shiny Shiny

Vivity Labs launches online brain fitness platform: This recently launched website will draw comparisons to the Brain Training game on the Nintendo DS. Basing the platform online, however, allows for a much broader appeal. For example, by providing the ability to play against other users, a higher level of motivation to return to play is likely to be achieved, especially for the highly competitive amongst us. Related Article: Video games can make us creative if spark is right.

iReport: Online Terror & Hate: The First Decade (pdf): This report by a Jewish Human Rights group indicates that since 2007 there has been a 30% increase in the number of problmeatic hate (racist, anti-gay, anti-religious etc.) and terrorist websites. The historic roots of online hate-sites is outlined and numerous examples are highlighted. Related Article: A rallying cry against cyberbullying.

Mac users don’t like people touching their technology: A survey was conducted by Cognitive Daily to investigate how willing people were to let others try out their new gadgets. They found that there was a dramatic difference between how much PC and Mac users let friends try out their new devices. Related Article: Bad BlackBerry Manners On the Rise.

Your Blog Can Be Group Therapy: This CNN.com article highlights some examples of the positive aspects of personal blogging, with some interesting commentary from both bloggers and psychologists. Related Article: The Internet and Suicide ; Related Link: The Lives of Others.

If anyone has anything they’d like to contribute to the next digest, or related articles for this volume, feel free to drop me a comment or an e-mail – Sinéad.

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4

I’m constantly coming across academic journal articles, news stories and blog articles that are directly related to Cyberpsychology that are incredibly interesting, controversial, questionable and are often a source of inner debate. Therefore, I’ve decided to start sharing them here in the hopes of highlighting the importance of applying psychological research and theory to various technology related fields. I’m planning on making this a monthly post and if anyone has anything they’d like to contribute, or even related articles, feel free to drop me a comment or an e-mail.

Cyberpsychology Digest Volume 1

Can Grand Theft Auto improve social skills?: Some media attention was given to this story and at first I was quite skeptical, that was of course until I read the original article on the University of Sunderland website. Chris Whitehead, the final year Psychology student, points out how previous research has focused on the adverse effects of violent video games on children, when such games are actually targeted towards adults and can have positive effects upon their intended audience. Related article: Link between online gaming and violence killed off

Early Sexual Experiences: The Role of Internet Access and Sexually Explicit Material: This study reports that participants who had access to the Internet during the ages of 12 and 17 reported engaging in sexual intercourse at a younger age than those that did not have Internet access.

Mobile Phones are more important than Wallets and Keys: Nortel have conducted some extensive survey based research into global uses of communications technologies. The most interesting information derived from this is how survey respondents indicated that the one item they would choose to bring with them when leaving the house for 24 hours or more would be their mobile phone, choosing their mobile phone over their wallet or keys.

Exploring the Role of the Reader in the Activity of Blogging: Most research on the topic of blogging has focused on sociability (i.e. the blogosphere). This study investigated the behaviour of blog readers, discovering that blog reading often becomes similar to e-mail checking – i.e. less content orientated and habitual. Also of note is the conclusion that readers put pressure on themselves to produce worthwhile comments. An interesting study, however, a small criticism – the majority of participants were also blog writers, would be far more interesting to see this study applied to non bloggers. Related article: Are You Educating Your Readers About Blogging?

Being Human: Human Computer Interaction in the Year 2020: Findings from a HCI conference hosted by Microsoft which gives recommendations for the future of HCI to ensure that human values inform future development. For example, educating young people on the impact of technological advances and recognising the importance of specialists from other disciplines (e.g. psychology, sociology, arts) whom can offer more insightful perspectives. The report also argues for the need of proper monitoring and assessment to ensure that we individually and collectively stay in control of ourselves and the world around us. Related article: In a User Centric Web I get to control my data

If anyone has anything they’d like to contribute to the next digest, or related articles for this volume, feel free to drop me a comment or an e-mail – Sinéad.

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4

At the start of March I seemed pretty intent on beginning an ambitious post graduate research paper on trust formation online. Since then I have done extensive research into the topic and had to narrow down my research area, this is of course due to time/resource constraints (and the discovery of a very similar study published just recently).

Whilst researching trust online, I was quite drawn to all of the research on blogs. The deeper I researched it on an international level (looking at American, Japanese and European literature) the more I realised how interesting it was that as a nation we have not embraced it. Especially considering the overwhelming statistics: In 2007 it was estimated that there were between 50 and 85 million blogs and at their current rate of growth, by 2010 there will be over 500 million blogs. Yet, it has been estimated that there are only about 3,000 or 4,000 Irish bloggers, in comparison to the 12 million bloggers in American or the 8 million bloggers in Japan. Even in the IT industry in Ireland, there is a severe lack of business blogging, despite the obvious benefits.

However, recent statistics published by Amárach claims that almost one in five Irish Internet users have started or contributed to a blog in the past year and if you look at the Alexa.com rankings, Blogger.com is the 10th most visited site by Irish Internet Users. Are there thousands more Irish bloggers out there? That are just unconnected to the blogosphere. Research has shown that some blogs are simply more connected to a blogosphere than others, with some not being connected at all. Or are Irish Internet Users bigger readers than writers? Research has shown that people are less likely to pay attention to a medium perceived as not being credible, and according to some reports trust in blogging in on the decrease (in Ireland) yet other reports show that the majority of Irish Internet users trust consumer opinions posted online.

There is a lot of conflicting data out there. So, naturally I’m fascinated.

I’ll be surveying Irish Internet Users (specifically bloggers and blog readers) to investigate their attitudes, perceptions and motivations, and comparing the results to existing international research. In order to interpret these results, I will also be applying existing social psychology, computer mediated communications and human computer interaction literature.

I’ll also be looking into issues of credibility, liability and the business implications (both positive and negative).

Any thoughts?

Becs has “tagged” me… so I am required to describe myself in 6 words (either 6 individual words or a 6 word sentence) and then “pass it on” to other people (Liam, Darragh, David – you’ve been tagged!). This is my 6 word sentence:

“Wants to know something about everything.”

I’ve only just caught up with everyone else online and have upgraded to the newest version of WordPress. In the upgrade I lost all of my tags and all of the customisation of my theme. Unfortunately, I’ll be stuck with the current blog design (which I’m not happy with at all) until I have more free time – currently trying to finish up a consumer psychology essay and write my thesis research proposal for the purposes of gaining ethical approval from the college.

As soon as college is wrapped up I think I might just build my own theme from the bottom up – it’s been a long time since I’ve had any web or graphic design projects, so it’ll be a nice challenge. If anyone has any experience in designing their own WordPress theme I would love to hear from you, or if anyone can steal Sabrina Dent‘s beautiful theme for me, that would be even better!

For the past month I’ve been using Google Reader on a daily basis. Not only have I discovered a wealth of information from the 100′s of blogs I’ve subscribed too, I’ve also discovered some wonderful functionality – some of which you can find on the sidebar of this blog.

Thanks to Elly I learned how to display an accurate selection of my currently subscribed to blogs. This is usually reserved for the WordPress links feature and came under the Blogroll heading. The difference being, my blogroll was never 100% up to date – it’s an easy thing to forget between posting new articles and tweaking the occasional feature or blog design. Today if I want to add a blog to my Blogroll I simply drag and drop it into the folders that I’ve created in Google Reader and it immediately appears on my own blog.

I went through a phase of using Digg, to social bookmark – to display a list of articles that I had read, that I found interesting and wanted to share. Google Reader has a similar feature built-in, though it doesn’t tell you how many other people have also marked an article as sharing-worthy, this might be something they will add once it has come out of beta. The last 5 articles I have marked interesting also now appear in the sidebar and the full list can be viewed here, you can even subscribe to this as it has it’s own RSS feed. If anyone else has one of these going, let me know. Sharing IS caring after all.

As I do most of my blog reading from work, I often don’t have the time to read everything, especially the longer articles. Obviously I’m not going to want to add it to my shared items if I haven’t read it, for this I can add a little star and view these starred articles on their own at a later date. This is especially practical if I find something related to my studies but don’t have the time to completely process the information. This is also great if someone posts a video or mp3 you want to watch/listen to when you’re in the comfort of your own computer.

The Dublin Community Blog posted the list of winners from last night. Here it is with links too.

I definitely think that Grannymar & Head Rambles (joint winners) deserved the award for Best Personal Blog, which was the category that this blog was nominated in. I’m also really glad that Sabrina Dent won Best Designed, because her blog is gorgeous! Well done to everyone.

Robin Blandford (winner of Best Irish Technology Blog) posted some pictures of the actual award, and it’s so very pretty.

The Irish Blog Awards are on tonight, good luck to everyone nominated. If you can’t make the physical event in the Alexander Hotel there is a Second Life party (formal attire please!) in the Dublin sim, in St. Stephen’s Green. This is tonight at 7.30pm. A big part of me (the shy part!) wishes I could go to the virtual party instead!

Kudos and thanks to Damien Mulley for applying his many skills to this.