Cyberpsychology

Mind And Internet Relationship

Juan Moisés De La Serna, Sebastian Bolivar

• Publisher: Tektime
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9788835400066
• Topic: Informatique
• Subtopic: Aspects sociaux de l'informatique

This book addresses the new branch called Cyberpsychology, which shows how there has been a change in the person-technology relationship, analyzing how new developments affect the day-to-day life of the person, as well as the mental health of its users. All this backed by an extensive bibliography on the latest research conducted in this area. The objective of the book will serve as a first approach to the up and coming branch of psychology known as Cyberpsychology.
So, it treats the most relevant topics offering results of the latest studies conducted this past two years across the globe about this subject.
All this explained with simple and easy to read language, away from technical terms explaining each concept so it can truly work as an initiation guide.

CHAPTER 5. THE PSYCHOLOGY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

Social networks have become the most common form of communication among young people, where they can share and comment on what they think or feel.

This option is growing day by day, and new social networks are created that try to bring new users together.

The advantage of these networks compared to other media such as blogs or forums, is the immediacy of communication.

My experience in social networks is relatively recent, just 2 years old and all following a job interview, in which I was offered to be the director of a Psychology department, but the person who interviewed me thought strange of me by my null presence on the Internet.

At that time my interest in social networks was null, since I kept my contacts through e-mails or on my phone. Although in the end I did not pass the interview, it made me think and reflect that I was missing something, my presence on the Internet, and that it could have negatively influenced the assessment of my curriculum.

So, within a few days I created profiles on Twitter, Facebook and Google+, where I maintain an intense activity, which has been “rewarded” by a multitude of contacts and followers.

In addition, and as part of my commitment to scientific dissemination, I have a blog called Novelties in Psychology, where every article I publish in my blog about the latest advances in the different areas of psychology and neurosciences. Then I share them through my social networks, getting thousands of followers that translate into an average of one thousand visits a day on the blog.

But perhaps the work that I personally feel most proud of is that one achieved on LinkedIn, which unlike the previous ones is a professional network, where I have more than three thousand five hundred mental health professionals who follow me to know the latest publications I do.

Social networks where we dedicate time and energy to respond, share and like, to keep up to date on the latest publications on topics of interest or simply to be in touch with the people we are interested in.

All this is a human activity, which can and should be analyzed, to help us understand and describe what happens in cyberspace, better said, on the Internet.

Currently, a large amount of data is being developed that can be analyzed on the frequency of use, in which networks we spend more time, what we do in each network, with whom we contact, something that in principle does not seem to be of interest, it has been observed that it serves to understand what kind of person we are.

The latest research indicates that, just as everyone is in reality, this is how they will behave on the Internet, so that the study can be done backwards, knowing how they behave on a network we can find out how each one is.

An essential tool for social sciences, such as sociology or social psychology, since it allows us to observe how groups change on the Internet, their interaction, and with it the society where they are.

But it is also of interest at the psychological level, both when detecting psychopathologies and to be able to offer personalized solutions to the user.

Below, the latest psychological research on the Internet is set out according to the social network under study and analysis.

Facebook

Every day we spend more time being connected through the different social networks, either by keeping up to date, or to simply share with others.

If something has characterized this last decade it has been in the inclusion of life of all kinds of social networks aimed at facilitating life. You can talk to a best friend or a colleague on the other side of the world at the stroke of a mouse, while receiving the latest news about what is happening in Japan.

Few things are those that currently cannot be done through social networks, whether they are connected to a chat, a forum, or a discussion group on the topic of interest, where anyone can share and comment on that topic.

Something that has been seen as a danger among minors, since they are who spend more time on social networks, can sometimes have a negative impact on the student’s academic performance. But are social networks a reflection of who we are?

This is precisely what Monash University (Malaysia) is investigating, whose results have been published in the scientific journal Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace.

One hundred fifty-eight university students participated in the study, aged between eighteen and twenty-four, of which 77% were women. Of all the social networks used by these young people, it was decided to choose the social network Facebook, due to the extension and popularity in its use. Para This evaluated the level of intrusion of this social network in daily life through a standardized questionnaire called F.I.Q. (Facebook Intrusion Questionnaire).

Likewise, to observe if this “reflection” of a person occurs in the network, a personality characteristic was analyzed, such as the level of obsession. For this, participants were evaluated through two standardized questionnaires, the O.C.I.-R. (Obsessive Compulsive Inventory-Revised) and O.B.Q.-20 (Obsessive Belief Questionnaire-20). The investigation tries to discover if their way of behaving Facebook will vary or not depending on the level of obsession of each person.

The results show that obsessive beliefs and behaviors will be significantly reflected in the use of Facebook. So, those students who had higher levels of obsession were also those who made more intensive use of this social network.

Despite the clarity in the results, the limitations of the study must be taken into account, since it is a very specific population with a specific idiosyncrasy such as that of Malaysia, and in addition all participants were university students, so it would require new research before being able to extrapolate the results to all young people.

Another of the limitations of this study is that the information obtained comes from the use of standardized questionnaires, based on the participant’s response, and not so much on what he/she really does. Today there are Apps, which are small programs that are installed on a smartphone and that it registers the use made through it, which allows to know exactly how much time is spent on being connected to social networks through their mobile device, which would provide a more reliable measure than the exclusive use of standardized questionnaires.

With these results, it seems clear that in the end it is expressed as each one is in what is done, either by communicating in person, face to face, or through social networks. Thus, and despite the advancement of technology we can still see people talking on the phone shaking hands to give greater impetus to the message they express, even knowing that the other person will not be able to see.

But the previous results lead to consider the following, if it is the same in the real world as in the virtual one, what happens to the roles that each one has to live? Does the network become a place of “liberation ” or not?

This is precisely what is being explored jointly from the University of New South Wales (Australia) and the University of Western England (England) whose results have been published in the scientific journal Psychology of Women Quarterly.

The study involved one hundred and fifty university students between the ages of 17 and 25, all of them women, and with a normal average weight, assessed using the weight formula divided by the squared height.

The participants were asked through an online ad-hoc questionnaire about their habits in the consumption of leisure, television, magazines, music, including social networks, for which they had to identify the number of hours dedicated to each of these activities. In the case of Facebook, they must indicate how often it was reviewed. And in the case of the magazines read they had to tell if these used to be fashionable or not.

Likewise, the tendency of each of them to be compared with the rest was evaluated through the standardized scale called Upward and Downward Appearance Comparison Scale; The same information was requested, but this time about the comparison within the Facebook network, with “friends” and users of that network. Finally, it was evaluated by S.O.Q. (Self-Objectification Questionnaire) the personal image that she had of herself, as an “object” or not.

The results show that the young university students show a high correlation between the use made of Facebook of objectifying women as an object of desire, that is, the social canons of “woman-object” continue to be maintained in the network than that in the real life, since the same results were obtained as in the relationship between women as objects of desire and fashion magazines.

This is the pressure of society that young women especially suffer from having a “pretty face” and a “perfect body”, they will suffer both in their real and virtual lives, and that said, all participants had a normal weight, but what would happen to those who are overweight?

If the same pressure is maintained or even less in the network, it is instead becoming a place of leisure and amusement, it can become a continuation of the social norms where it is seen, thus perpetuating the canons of beauty and pressure that young women feel like they are objectified.

One of the main limitations of this study is that the information was extracted through self-reports, when there are currently “tracking” programs capable of identifying what time they are connected, what social media service is used and even who is connected, all information more thorough than the previous one.

It must be taken into account that the population under study have been young university students, so it is necessary to investigate in other populations before being able to establish generalizations in this regard.

In spite of the above, the results seem clear, in that the “social canons” are transmitted and maintained on the network, thereby limiting the possibilities offered by the Internet when creating and maintaining a digital identity, independent of the “social demands” of the place where one lives.

Something that is worrisome, since it means that in the “macho societies”, the values that are instilled and imposed, will continue to remain among ...