Use and views on social networking sites of pharmacy students in the United Kingdom

Objective. To investigate students' use and views on social networking sites and assess differences in attitudes between genders and years in the program.

Methods. All pharmacy undergraduate students were invited via e-mail to complete an electronic questionnaire consisting of 21 questions relating to social networking.

Results. Most (91.8%) of the 377 respondents reported using social networking Web sites, with 98.6% using Facebook and 33.7% using Twitter. Female students were more likely than male students to agree that they had been made sufficiently aware of the professional behavior expected of them when using social networking sites (76.6% vs 58.1% p=0.002) and to agree that students should have the same professional standards whether on placement or using social networking sites (76.3% vs 61.6%; p<0.001).

Conclusions. A high level of social networking use and potentially inappropriate attitudes towards professionalism were found among pharmacy students. Further training may be useful to ensure pharmacy students are aware of how to apply codes of conduct when using social networking sites.

Systematically retrieving research in the digital age: Case study on the topic of social networking sites and young people’s mental health

Online information seeking has become normative practice among both academics and the general population. This study appraised the performance of eight databases to retrieve research pertaining to the influence of social networking sites on the mental health of young people. A total of 43 empirical studies on young people’s use of social networking sites and the mental health implications were retrieved. Scopus and SSCI had the highest sensitivity with PsycINFO having the highest precision. Effective searching requires large
generic databases, supplemented by subject-specific catalogues. The methodology developed here may provide inexperienced searchers, such as undergraduate students, with a framework to define a realistic scale of searching to undertake for a particular literature review or similar project.

Extending Customer Relationship Management into a Social Context

Informed by the resource-based view, this study draws on customer relationship management (CRM) and value co-creation literature to develop a framework examining the impact of social networking sites on processes to manage customer relationships. Facilitating the depth and networked interactions necessary to truly engage customers, social networking sites act as a means of enhancing customer relationships through the co-creation of value, moving CRM into a social context. Tested and validated on a data set of hotels, the main contribution of the study to service research lies in the extension of CRM processes, termed relational information processes, to include value co-creation processes due to the social capabilities afforded by social networking sites. Information technology competency and social media orientation act as critical antecedents to these processes, which have a positive impact on both financial and non-financial aspects of firm performance. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed accordingly.

Towards a general framework for social media research using big data

The increasing adoption of cloud computing, social networking, mobile and big data technologies provide challenges and opportunities for both research and practice. Researchers face a deluge of data generated by social network platforms which is further exacerbated by the co-mingling of social network platforms and the emerging Internet of Everything. While the topicality of big data and social media increases, there is a lack of conceptual tools in the literature to help researchers approach, structure and codify knowledge from social media big data in diverse subject matter domains, many of whom are from nontechnical disciplines. Researchers do not have a general-purpose scaffold to make sense of the data and the complex web of relationships between entities, social networks, social platforms and other third party databases, systems and objects. This is further complicated when spatio-temporal data is introduced. Based on practical experience of working with social media datasets and existing literature, we propose a general research framework for social media research using big data. Such a framework assists researchers in placing their contributions in an overall context, focusing their research efforts and building the body of knowledge in a given discipline area using social media data in a consistent and coherent manner.

Upholding the convention on the rights of the child: a quandary in cyberspace

Put in place to protect the rights of the child, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is a set of non-negotiable standards. A core principle underpinning the Convention is the child's right to participate fully in social arenas and to access sources of social support without excessive interference. Juxtaposing this is the right of the child to be shielded from harm, abuse and exploitation. Over the past several decades the Internet has emerged as a fast and easily accessible medium for people to connect and communicate. While the Internet provides children with a source of support through chat rooms, online communities and social networking sites, just as equally it can expose vulnerable children to predatory and deviant individuals exacerbating the potential for harm. Upholding the Convention in cyberspace is a challenge. The Internet is not owned or regulated by any governing body and accountability is difficult to enforce. This article discusses some of the difficulties of upholding the Convention online and provides recommendations for policy-makers to protect children as they participate in cyberspace.

Internet use and psychological wellbeing among 10 and 11 year old children

This paper uses data from the 2009 Kids’ Life and Times Survey, involving 3657 children aged 10 or 11 years old in Northern Ireland. The survey indicated high levels of use of Internet applications, including social-networking sites and online games. Using the KIDSCREEN-27 instrument, the data indicate that the use of social-networking sites and online games is related to poorer psychological well-being among girls, but not boys. Boys and girls who experience “cyberbullying” have poorer psychological well-being. This association between psychological well-being and some Internet applications merits more attention in future research and policy development.

Internet Use and Psychological Well-being among 10-year-old and 11-year-old Children

This paper uses data from the 2009 Kids’ Life and Times Survey, involving 3657 children aged 10 or 11 years old in Northern Ireland. The survey indicated high levels of use of Internet applications, including social-networking sites and online games. Using the KIDSCREEN-27 instrument, the data indicate that the use of social-networking sites and online games is related to poorer psychological well-being among girls, but not boys. Boys and girls who experience “cyberbullying” have poorer psychological well-being. This association between psychological well-being and some Internet applications merits more attention in future research and policy development.

A survey of location inference techniques on Twitter

The increasing popularity of the social networking service, Twitter, has made it more involved in day-to-day communications, strengthening social relationships and information dissemination. Conversations on Twitter are now being explored as indicators within early warning systems to alert of imminent natural disasters such earthquakes and aid prompt emergency responses to crime. Producers are privileged to have limitless access to market perception from consumer comments on social media and microblogs. Targeted advertising can be made more effective based on user profile information such as demography, interests and location. While these applications have proven beneficial, the ability to effectively infer the location of Twitter users has even more immense value. However, accurately identifying where a message originated from or author’s location remains a challenge thus essentially driving research in that regard. In this paper, we survey a range of techniques applied to infer the location of Twitter users from inception to state-of-the-art. We find significant improvements over time in the granularity levels and better accuracy with results driven by refinements to algorithms and inclusion of more spatial features.

Constructing a global understanding of the social ecology of leaving out of home care

Engagement with globalisation is growing in the field of youth transitions from out of home care. This includes cross national exchange of research, policy and practise, regional advocacy networking and global policy development. Furthering this emerging international child welfare perspective requires extending it to countries in the developing world and building conceptual frameworks which encompass a social ecology of care leaving, including its global dimension, the latter needs to address not only the needs, expectations and rights of care leavers but also the theories of change underpinning service design and delivery. Such a model is presented combining resilience and social capital as personal assets situated within a social ecology of support. To illustrate how this provides a means to help engage with the experience of countries where there appears to be very little information available on care leaving, a small scale South African initiative is considered. SA-YES is a youth mentoring project for young people leaving a variety of out of home placements. Planned as a three-year pilot, initial results are encouraging but require more rigorous evaluation focusing on program process and outcomes, quality of interpersonal relationships and synchronisation with cultural expectations and policy environment.