Monday, November 5, 2007
Assignment 9: PIU: Facebook stalking
Facebook stalking allows people to see if their facebook friends (and sometimes other people who you might not be friends with depending on their blocking preferences) have updated their profiles. A person’s facebook friends can consist of many different people including: good friends, acquaintances, or people who you don’t even know. Some people frequently update their profile, while others rarely change their profile. Facebook stalking can be associated with PIU, but not all facebook stalkers have PIU. PIU (problematic internet use) is when there is problematic behavior related to too much time online. I think that there are individual differences between all stalkers that lead some people to develop PIU while others do not. There are certain properties of facebook stalking that are related to the internet, such as maintenance of virtual presence, locus of control, and operant conditioning (Wallace). The maintenance of virtual presence is an online factor that involves Facebook stalking. Facebook stalkers have the ability to update their own Facebook profiles to keep others informed of their interests, relationship status, pictures, etc. These internet properties are present for everyone who participates on facebook, but I think they only have a problematic impact for those with individual differences that are associated with PIU. Locus of Control is the degree to which one feels they have control over their circumstances. Facebook stalkers are in greater control over the way they present themselves in their profiles and they are anonymous in the fact that a person cannot trace who has stalked their profile. Operant conditioning is when a behavior is rewarded with a variable schedule; the behavior is more difficult to extinguish. With such an inconsistent reward schedule, the behavior is more difficult to extinguish. Finding an updated facebook profile is a great reward for those who stalk other people’s profiles. People post new items on their own profile and on other people’s profiles at random times throughout the day, therefore facebook stalkers feel even more compelled to check facebook incessantly. Davis, Flett, and Besser found that PIU is predicted on 4 dimensions including: diminished impulse control, loneliness/depression, social comfort, and distraction/procrastination. If a person is lacking social comfort she/he will be more relieved if she/he can use facebook as an online space to observe people instead of having a FTF interaction. Also, there might be a frequent need to keep looking at facebook if a person is looking for a distraction. According to Caplan’s model of problematic internet behavior, facebook stalking is problematic for those who do so compulsively. This occurs when a person cannot control their facebook stalking along with guilt about lack of control. The behavior is also problematic when stalkers check facebook profiles an excessive amount. Caplan’s model of problematic internet behavior hypothesizes that individuals who have low social competence and psychosocial problems have a preference to interact with others using the internet rather than FTF. This can cause compulsive use of the internet. In conclusion, I don’t think that all facebook stalkers have problematic internet use, only those with individual differences related to PIU, including depression/loneliness and low social competence, which prefer facebook for social interaction, who will excessively and compulsively stalk facebook profiles.
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Hi Robin, I like your post because I discussed the PIU qualities of facebook in my post as well. I think you make very interesting points throughout the post and utilize many of the readings and theories succinctly and effectively. I think you make an important point that facebook has what it takes to foster PIU, for example, the internet affordances such as anonymity, self-presentational control, intense and intimate self-disclosure, and less perceived social risk and responsibility, but it also doesn't cause or create PIU. Instead, PIU is something that comes from an individual, but can be enabled by websites such as facebook, which you mention. I also think that the reason that facebook stalking can become so problematic is that everyone does it, it's just that everyone does it to varying degrees, so it's easy for someone with PIU of facebook to dismiss their compulsive use of it as simply something that everyone does, a social norm--a cognitive dissonance type reaction, perhaps. Overall great discussion and use of the theories, good job!
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