is Facebook A s tudy c onducted at the University of Pennsylvania Creator Richard S Lurito UPenn 12 Statistical Advisor Dr Shane T Jensen Department of Statistics The Wharton School ID: 200857
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Slide1
What is Facebook?
A
s
tudy
c
onducted at the University of Pennsylvania
Creator: Richard S.
Lurito
,
UPenn
‘12
Statistical Advisor: Dr. Shane T. Jensen, Department of Statistics, The Wharton School
Experimental Consultant: Jared S. Waxman,
UPenn
‘12,
Candidate for Master of Arts in MathematicsSlide2
Background and Basic DesignAdministered in Fall 2010
Sample: 84 Penn students, ages 18-22
Participants were randomly
selected to be part of
one
of
six
experimental groups
1 of the 6 groups was a control group
Participants in each distinct group (except the control) were prohibited from using
one
particular medium of communication for
one
week
The control group participated without
any
restrictions in media useSlide3
Background and Basic DesignThe
five
groups of media under prohibition:
Cell phone calls (both making and receiving)
Texting (includes BlackBerry Messenger)
Facebook
(all access, including
Facebook
chat)
Email
Online Messaging (AIM/
iChat
/
gChat
)
Prohibition was enforced through a variety of methods
Main method: RescueTime.com, a web-based behavioral analytics tool
Participants were then administered a comprehensive survey
Participants were paid $30 after completionSlide4
What is Facebook?
In light of the widespread interest in
Facebook
,
are we any closer to knowing what
Facebook
really is?
Is it a communications medium?How important is Facebook to users?Is it a network of friends?We will directly address these questions in presenting our data
† Indicates a statistically significant finding
‡ indicates a suggestive findingSlide5
Our RoadmapGuiding Question: What isn’t Facebook
?Slide6
Facebook: a communications medium?
Relevant Findings for Participants:
Texting
†
was
more
important than
Facebook to “stay connected with friends” The ability to call friends kept our participants more emotionally† “in touch” than
Facebook
, texting or email
Participants who went without texting and cell phone calls reported a
significantly more difficult time
† communicating with their friends than their Facebook-prohibited counterpartsSlide7
Facebook: a communications medium?
Significance of Disparities in Valuations
Our participants assessed post-study that the following monetary values constituted “fair compensation” for going without each medium for
one week
$99 / week for going without
email
†
$85 / week for going without
texting
‡ (*)
$73 / week for going without
cell phone calls
‡
$44 / week for going without
Facebook
Slide8
Facebook: a communications medium?
Additional relevant findings:
Participants who went without texting reported that they compensated by
calling
more
‡
; participants who went without calling compensated by texting more ‡Facebook-prohibited participants reported that they barely used †
alternative media to compensate for their inability to use
Facebook
No experimental group compensated through an increased use of
Facebook† Slide9
Facebook: a communications medium?
Our participants preferred
texting
†
,
email
†
and cell phone calls‡ to Facebook when asked “how do you feel personally about these media?”
Participants in the
texting-prohibited
†
and
email-prohibited† groups were “dismayed” at the prospect of the week-long prohibition, more so than their
Facebook
-prohibited counterparts
Participants in the
Facebook
-prohibited group were no more “dismayed” in their outlook than the control group
†Slide10
Facebook: a communications medium?
Based upon our evidence,
Facebook
may not be a “medium” in the traditional sense
Our study and survey showed that:
Our participants did not treat
Facebook
as a vital communication toolTo our participants, Facebook was less instrumental than other media in connecting them with their friends When deprived of other media, our participants did not use Facebook
as a substitute Slide11
Facebook: a network of friends?
Relevant Findings:
Our participants considered
only
16%
of their
Facebook
“friends” to be their real friendsOur participants considered only 1-2% of their Facebook “friends
” to be their
closest
friends
88% of our participants preferred calling or texting their closest friends over all other media68% of
our participants preferred
communicating with their
acquaintances
through
Facebook
over all other mediaSlide12
Facebook: a network of friends?If
Facebook
is a “social network”, it probably does little to connect people with their closest friends
Our study and survey showed that:
Our participants use
Facebook
to keep up with acquaintances more so than with their
real friendsOur participants prefer other media to Facebook when communicating with their real
friendsSlide13
Facebook: a social information gathering tool?
Relevant findings:
Our participants considered
Facebook
to
be very
voyeuristic
†Our participants considered the behavior of their peers’ activity on Facebook to reflect a
subconscious desire to
be a part of another reality
†
more so than they considered their own behavior to reflect such a desireOur participants considered their online profiles to more accurately reflect who they “actually are” ‡ versus the profiles of othersSlide14Slide15
Areas for Future Inquiry: A Virtual Social Interaction?
Relevant Finding:
Participants who have
low self-esteem
did not enjoy
Facebook
nearly as much as those who have
high self-esteem (self-assessment) †This finding is consistent with Dr. Megan Moreno’s studies at the University of Wisconsin*Inferences from data:The information on Facebook
elicits emotional responses
*Tanner, Lindsey. 2011. “Doctors Warn About ‘
Facebook
Depression’ in teens”.
CBS Boston.
March 28. http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/03/28/doctors-warn-about-facebook-depression-in-teens (accessed March 28, 2011)Slide16
Areas for Future Inquiry: Entertainment?
Is
Facebook
pure entertainment?
In this study, we focused mostly on the usage patterns, psychological preferences and attitudes of our participants
In future studies, we will test the hypothesis of whether or not
Facebook
is mere entertainmentSlide17
ConclusionDespite the fact that
Facebook
is probably not:
Hundreds of millions of people still use itSlide18
ConclusionTherefore, we can conclude that
Facebook
probably offers its users certain advantages which outweigh its deficiencies
We
look forward to investigating the nature of the advantages
Facebook
provides
Statistical Note: Hypothesis testing was conducted at 95% confidence. Findings involving the comparison of sample means were labeled in the following way:
† Indicates a statistically significant finding
‡ indicates a suggestive finding