Hsien-Cheng Lin and Chun-Ming Chang conducted a web-based survey on Taiwanese Facebook users to research the exchange of health information on social media. In What motivates health information exchange in social media? The roles of the social cognitive theory and perceived interactivity, Lin and Chang write about one of the most compelling findings of this research: that human-to-human interaction is an important factor in increasing users’ information exchange.
This particular finding supports Lin and Chang’s first hypothesis in their study: “Human-to-human interaction has a positive association with the outcome expectation of social relationships.” Lin and Chang write that there are ways to increase human-to-human interaction on social media and thereby increase health information exchange. They write “to enhance the perceptions of human-to-human interaction, the managers of social media should provide some strategies to strengthen personal identity.” The authors go on to suggest that social media managers should encourage their users to personalize their accounts through features such as photos, background and experience and avatars that represent their personality and attributes. According to Lin and Chang, the personalization of accounts will increase human-to-human interaction, which will result in increased information exchange among users.
I find this result of the research particularly interesting because of the questions it raises about anonymity on social media. While the primary goal of many social media users is to connect with others, there are some users who value their anonymity online. Social media platforms such as Instagram are considering “authenticity measures.” This would include more personal information from users. There is even talk online of requiring photo identification for social media users on some platforms. By Lin and Chang’s logic, would these changes lead to an increase in health information exchange? Are we sacrificing any rights to privacy by complying with these regulations? Will social media usage decrease in anonymity is no longer a possibility?
This finding is very interesting and, from my point of view, it makes a lot of sense. People are more likely to want to connect when they can see who’s behind the screen. Putting a face to a name is important in building relationships. However, I see your point in how many users enjoy their anonymity. I can see this leading to a smaller population of social media users as some don’t want to sacrifice this right to their privacy, which I believe it is. Signing up for an online account already asks for things such as emails and phone numbers. That is one thing. I think it’s another however to implement practices like photo identification. It seems more invasive than informative.
You pose an interesting question about whether or not requiring more information like photo identification would create more of an exchange of personal information, like health information for example. The way I see it, I think that people who are willing to share their information now will still be willing to do so, however people who are less willing will still not want to share information that is personal to them, with or without extra background checks. Ultimately, I can not see people’s comfort levels changing based on simple checks that are likely easy to get around, especially for hackers whose main goal is to extract personal information about users.
Alana, I really liked your post and reading about your thoughts. I also read this piece and appreciated the different angle that you took in your post. To answer your question, I think that photo identification of individuals would decrease the sharing of personal health information for some. Since health information is oftentimes sensitive and personal, a level of anonymity likely makes people more likely to share with others. Therefore, photo identification could lead to a decrease of sharing for some. On the other hand, I think that some people would appreciate seeing photos of other people when exchanging health information as it humanizes the person they are talking to online and can create deeper social bonds/connections. I see both sides, so it’s definitely an interesting and complex question that you posed.
This is an interesting suggestion. I agree and disagree. Similar to Deidre, I understand people wanting to know more about the person behind a profile. It gives people a sense of security and safety when they know more about the person especially if they are providing information over social media. I almost feel like you could relate this to medium and the message because here I relate the medium to the person/profile and the message as the information they’re sharing online. Here, people value the person (i.e., who they are, their profession/work experience, and their background) more than the information they’re receiving. If people know more about the user/profile then they value the message they’re receiving because they trust the person and trust that their information is accurate/valid. However, I understand why people would be against this idea because it is a breach of privacy and not completely necessary. It helps increase the spread valid and trusted information, but at the same time people value their privacy and anonymity. People already find social media invasive because of the information they gather from you and sell to other companies.