Browsing by Subject "Facebook"
Now showing 1 - 20 of 37
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item A Uses and Gratifications Case Study of Trinity Waters Facebook Page Followers(2013-07-29) Hunt, Pamela SueDue to the advancement of the Internet, information delivery has been forever changed. Technology rapidly outpaces traditional methods of conveying educational material. As a result, educators must seek non-traditional methods to deliver information. The use of social media outlets such as Facebook is one avenue of information delivery. The purpose of this study was to determine the uses and gratifications of the followers of the Trinity Waters Facebook page. A qualitative research design and purposeful sampling of (n=9) respondents were employed in this study. A semi-structured interview protocol was utilized in order to direct the study?s research objectives. Respondents? desire increased availability of information and greater opportunities to establish networks with contemporaries. In addition, respondents sought practical information that could be applied to their daily pursuits. This study showed that followers of the Trinity Waters Facebook page want a greater amount of educational information disseminated through the page. As a result of this study, Trinity Waters should continue to seek out and distribute information that is significant and specific to the Trinity River basin. Trinity Waters should continue to pursue and disseminate information on current legislative or political actions that are specific to the Trinity River basin and also the state and federal levels. Events, meetings or seminars pertaining to the Trinity River basin and conservation efforts should be actively promoted by Trinity Waters via the Facebook platform. This study should be replicated with other extension programs throughout the state and nation. Further research should also be conducted on the implication of Facebook and social media in extension education settings.Item Analyzing content deviance in American community journalism websites and social media(2013-12) Funk, Marcus James; Sylvie, GeorgeThis dissertation explores deviance, operationalized through news factors, among American community weekly, community daily, large daily, and national daily newspaper websites and social media posts. Computerized quantitative analysis indicates that circulation size makes little to no significant difference concerning the publication of deviant news factors; smaller circulation sizes are significantly related to the publication of news concerning local communities, but not egalitarian news factors generally. Qualitative, structured interviews of community newspaper editors and publishers illustrate a different agenda - a clear focus for news on "regular people and routine events," arguably egalitarianism, over news on "unusual people or extraordinary events," arguably deviance. This indicates a need for further evaluation and development of computerized content analysis, gatekeeping theory, and the community newspaper industry. Results also suggest a need to reconsider and re-evaluate normative deviance as a concept and point to two potential theoretical developments: considering a Deviant-Egalitarian Spectrum and drastically broadening the current fringe focus of deviance research.Item Changes in use and perception of privacy : exploring differences between heavy and light users of Facebook(2012-08) Oz, Mustafa, M.A. in Journalism; Johnson, Thomas J., 1960-; Alves, Rosental C.Information privacy is a paradoxical issue. Especially after Facebook, information privacy has become more important than before. College student Facebook users share a great deal of information on Facebook, and Facebook collects users’personal information. Users’ personal information on Facebook is linked to their identity; therefore negative consequences (privacy problems) have become possible on Facebook. This study focused on college students’ privacy concerns and awareness of privacy issues and settings. Moreover, heavy and light users’ privacy concerns were compared in this study. According to the survey results, privacy is still important to Facebook users and different privacy concerns exist among heavy and light users. Results also show that privacy on Facebook is not a simple thing. It is related to identity construction, users’ experience, and awareness of privacy implications.Item Characteristics of content and social spread strategy on the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform(2013-12) Stern, Joseph S., active 2013; Burns, Neal M, 1933-As the marketplace for crowdfunding grows to an estimated $5 billion dollars in 2013, academic research exploring the second largest platform Indiegogo has been largely overlooked. This research identifies causal characteristics that differentiate content and social spread strategies across ten technology campaigns on Indiegogo, covering a wide pledge fundraising range from $13,417 to $1,960,503. The researcher’s central hypothesis that better content and spread strategy executions would generate more campaign activity and higher pledges was proven to be generally true, but also an oversimplification of complex variables. Successful campaigns can be defined by both the pledge amount raised and the percent of goal reached, whereas all campaigns surveyed reached over 100% of their set goal. All campaigns selected met three key criteria in that they: launched by April 1st, 2013 and ended before October 15th, 2013, lasted between 31 and 51 days and used a Vimeo video player with open statistics. A five tier framework was designed to classify Blockbuster, Intermediate and Base level performance. Close watch was given to mainly the campaign pitch video followed by page content and social media channels. The pitch video content analysis examines narrative content tactics, technical triggers and pledge participation prompts and found that higher performing campaigns generally aligned with the optimized content analysis units, with some exceptions. There was a strong connection between more video views, especially at the frontend of the campaign, raising greater pledge amounts. Campaigns with more page content comments leveraged higher audience participation and pledges. Social media activity mainly through Facebook Likes had the most impact on pledge participation across campaigns. Video source traffic arrived mostly to the Indiegogo page from social media, email marketing and to a lesser extent from referral blogs and website links. In summary, the characteristics that defined better content and spread strategy executions were certainly related to increased campaign activity and higher pledges, but exhibited complex behaviors requiring more data to comprehensively understand the direct impact on a campaign’s performance.Item Cybercrime and Facebook: An Examination of Lifestyle Routine Activity TheoryMorales, Kristina E; San Miguel, Dr. ClaudiaThe purpose of this study is to determine if Facebook® utilization impacts online victimization experience, and if prevention measures moderate such impact. This study primarily focuses on Facebook® users due to this social media outlet being considered the most prominent online networking site today (Milanovic, 2015). It will focus on an understudied population—Hispanic college students. Additionally, this study argues that lifestyle-routine activity theory is appropriate in the attempt of explaining cybercrime. Overall, this study will explain and define: online victimization, types of cybercrimes, prevention measures, Facebook® utilization, Hispanic and college student statistics, and studies on the application of lifestyle-routine activity theory in the explanation of cybercrime victimization.Item Digital intifada : a discourse analysis of the Palestine solidarity groups in social media(2016-08) Almahmoud, Meshaal Abdullah; Atkinson, Lucinda; Love, BradfordThis thesis investigates the discourse adopted by Palestine solidarity groups utilizing Facebook. Three pro-Palestine groups were highlighted as a case study for this thesis: Palestine Solidarity Campaign, International Solidarity Movement and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement. The research questions address the methods of discourse Palestinian solidarity groups' employ, utilization of different contents and themes, level of engagement, selection of format, news resources, and impact of 2014 Gaza war. This study analyzes variations among the three groups and components influencing differentiations. The literature review highlights transformation in both individual and collective communication and social media's changing social and political structures. Research includes the usage of social media to frame social movements’ platform and social media benefits for collective action and how framing is achieved and collective identity developed. Lastly, it illuminates the trend of connective action and personalization. The discourse analysis approach was applied to investigate the set of selected Facebook posts in 2014. The results show that the three solidarity groups generally applied resource mobilization theory. Posts reporting some form of a violation contained the most correlating content. Human rights theme rose to the majority of the total number of posts. The most used contents in the posts aim for audience sympathy, responsibility and being connected, as for a shared pursuit to occur. Reporting a violation, the most used content, triggers sympathy. Responsibility is motivated by calling followers for action, which is the second most used content by all groups. Reporting news as applied to many types of top used contents, resulted in the group member's feeling connected. The total average engagement for the three groups multiplied highly during the war in Gaza, but sank considerably after termination of the war. However, the average engagement subsequent to the war remains markedly higher than pre-war levels. The patterns of posting revealed tendencies not to post only text, without attaching another format. Posts with links or photo account for a higher proportion. The majority of the three solidarity groups' news resources come from five pro-Palestinian major news websites. Yet, numerous international sources, either mainstream or independent media, were utilized as well.Item Digitizing ethnonational identities : multimediatic representations of Puerto Rican soldiers(2012-05) Avilés Santiago, Manuel Gerardo; Kumar, Shanti; Mallapragada, Madhavi; Arroyo-Martínez, Jossianna; Rivero, Yeidy; Fuller, JenifferThe silence and invisibility of Puerto Rican soldiers in fictional and non-fictional representations of U.S. Wars has motivated me to look for alternative spaces in which these unaccounted voices and images are currently being produced, stored, circulated, and memorialized. Within this framework, my dissertation explores the self-representation of Puerto Rican servicemen and women in social networking sites (SNS), (i.e. as MySpace and Facebook), in user-generated content (UGC) platforms, (i.e. YouTube), and also in web memorials. I am interested in understanding how Puerto Rican soldiers self-represent their ethnonational identity online within the overlapping of second-class citizenship. The theoretical framework proposed for this research will apply theories such as 1) articulation; 2) the notion of contact zone; and 3) colonial/racial subjectivities. To complete this goal, my research method draws on online ethnography, textual, and critical discourse analysis. Firstly, I will discuss the limited repertoire of images of Puerto Rican soldiers in TV and film. My argument is that, besides the massive omission of this history, the images and motifs that do escape de facto social censorship will be in conversation with the self-representations. The second chapter is the result of four years of the process of online ethnography on which I analyze the instances of self-representation of Puerto Rican soldiers in SNS. My interest was seeing how those spaces were inflected by an ethnonational subjectivity. The third chapter explores the ways Puerto Rican soldiers, embedded in mash-up cultures, uses UGCs platforms to upload videos that transform the soldiers from passive consumers of images to active producers of content, which tend to disrupt dominant narratives of power. The last chapter explores the emergence of web memorials dedicated to the Puerto Rican soldiers. My main argument is that these instances of self- representation in online spaces are in conversation with the moments of silences and misrepresentations of Puerto Rican soldiers in traditional media, but also have become acts of enunciation in which the particular Puerto Ricanness of the Puerto Rican soldier is affirmed within complex, layered histories of imperialism, racism, heterosexism, and second-class citizenship.Item Evaluating the effectiveness of Facebook and Twitter as new publishing platforms for newspapers(2010-05) Ju, Alice; Chyi, Hsiang Iris, 1971-; Sylvie, GeorgeWith the growing popularity of social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, newspapers have started to use these sites as alternative platforms for news delivery. Analyzing the use of Facebook and Twitter by the top 74 U.S. newspapers, this study examines the effectiveness of social network sites as news platforms. The results showed that most of the major newspapers have adopted social network sites but reached a very limited number of subscribers. After controlling for print circulation, there is no significant correlation between the number of social network subscribers and the number of website visitors. Overall, the effectiveness of Facebook and Twitter as news platforms remained questionable.Item An examination of source credibility and word of mouth best practices for social media marketing with an emphasis on Twitter(2011-12) Alexander, Lauren Elizabeth; Wilcox, Gary B.; Atkinson, LucyBecause social media is a relatively new digital medium and Twitter is an even newer medium, it is important for practitioners and academics to understand how to create and utilize the best messaging strategies to induce persuasion, win brand advocates and create a sustainable, credible presence for brands on social media platforms such as Twitter. The author seeks to examine the theoretical and practical relevance of social media, with an emphasis on Twitter as well as explore how the theories of source credibility and word-of-mouth can help to better understand and measure promotional message and strategy effectiveness.Item Exploring the use of Facebook as a communication tool in agricultural-related social movements(2010-12) Graybill, Mica P; Meyers, Courtney; Doerfert, David; Irlbeck, EricaA social movement is a personal obligation taken on by an individual, due to either a personal experience or responsibility, to pursue action to implement a change in a community or society. Facebook is a social networking device in which users interact through conversations, and build relationships by networking with other users. Facebook groups are created as part of a smaller community within the social networking site and focus on particular interests or beliefs about certain issues that are shared by users. The purpose of this study was to determine why individuals use social media, specifically Facebook, to communicate information in social movements related to agricultural issues. Eight interviews were conducted with Facebook participants who actively contribute to the promotion of a social movement through the social networking site. Interview questions were asked to address the five research objectives for the study. Results found that participants said they are successful in using Facebook to promote the social movements they represent. Participants are personally motivated to actively recruit and participate in Facebook as an informational and promotional communication channel. Though participants primarily promote their message through Facebook, they also use other social media tools to help reach as many people as possible. Overall, participants have been pleased with the outcome of their Facebook groups, and offer advice for future practitioners who want to use social media to promote agricultural movements.Item Facebook as a multilingual communication site(2013-05) Olsen, Carolyn Anne; Doty, PhilipAs Facebook grows beyond a billion users (Zuckerberg, 2012), a decreasing percentage of those users are English-only speakers. Facebook provides a platform for multilingual conversation to occur, which requires that Facebook display non-Latin scripts. Because of the hegemony of English and the Latin alphabet on the Web, non-Latin scripts are often “ASCII-ized.” Displaying non-Latin scripts well facilitates communication for multilingual users and creates a place where they can explore their identity linguistically as they post on Facebook. This study examines what factors contribute to multilingual Facebook users making linguistic posting choices. Many have named Facebook as a successful multilingual Web site, thus it is reasonable to expect that Facebook is an exemplar of multilingual social networking sites. This study is an examination and critique of Facebook’s multilingual translations. To address questions of how Facebook’s interface facilitates or impedes multilingual conversation, the researcher recruited twelve active, multilingual Facebook users to participate in individual interviews and a small focus group. Besides English, these users spoke and posted in the world’s four other most widely spoken languages: Chinese, Spanish, Arabic and Hindi. The researcher found that multilingual Facebook users did not always have a choice in what language they would post. Users faced obstacles ranging from the Facebook app distorting script display to hardware bias limiting users’ text entry. Furthermore, participants’ linguistic presentation was not dichotomous between two languages; multilingual users and their friends are accustomed to operating in a multilingual space. The larger implication of these findings is that Facebook, despite pioneering massive translation projects, has not solved the problem of linguistic representation for social networking sites. Facebook’s solution is not scalable to less widely spoken languages because even languages with many millions of speakers, such as Spanish, have flawed implementations on Facebook.Item Facebook use in college students : facing the learning motivation of young adults(2012-08) Huang, Chu-Jen; Schallert, Diane L.; Falbo, ToniThis study explored college students’ perceptions of Facebook, focusing on their views of Facebook as an informal learning environment, how the features of Facebook motivate students’ learning, and the relationship between motivation and interest triggered when using Facebook. Participants were surveyed via an online survey program in order to examine whether their perceptions and experiences with Facebook (Madge, Wellens, & Hooley, 2009) and how the features of Facebook motivated users’ learning. This study provides evidence to support the idea that interest and motivated actions on Facebook are related. For example, students mostly read (click) posts that are related to things they are learning and therefore they are mostly self-motivated to reply to posts in which they are interested. In addition, in support of the four-phase model of interest development (Hidi & Renninger, 2006), students’ positive feelings, which is interest, plays a crucial role in developing individual interest which leads to self-regulated learning.Item Facebook’s effect on emotional reactivity to in-lab peer feedback manipulations(2016-08) Steele, Ann Katharine; Telch, Michael Joseph; Carlson, Caryn; Gosling, Samuel; Hixon, John G.; Holahan, Charles J.; Pennebaker, James; Burke, MoiraPeer feedback is a foundational currency on the social networking platform Facebook. Facebook users share photographs and personal updates their friends can then “like” or comment on – feedback often seen by users’ friends. Negative peer feedback on Facebook can have severe consequences: media outlets have attributed teen suicides to bullying on Facebook, and some worry Facebook is dangerous for young people. While Facebook provides an additional channel for peer feedback, it is unclear whether feedback on Facebook, in the absence of face-to-face feedback, prompts emotional reactivity. We conducted three studies investigating the emotional effects of Facebook-mediated peer feedback on university students. In each we measured affect and self-esteem before and after controlled manipulations of two factors: feedback valence and communication channel. In the first study, participants believed they were evaluated to determine whether they were “likeable”. We compared participants’ emotional reactivity to acceptance or rejection feedback (feedback valence) delivered after a peer evaluation manipulation occurring either on Facebook or face-to-face (communication channel). In the second study, participants were told they would join a group in determining the “most likeable” student amongst them. We compared participants’ emotional reactivity to supportive or bullying feedback (feedback valence) delivered on Facebook either privately or publicly (communication channel). In this study we additionally measured changes in participants’ perceptions of their own social status and the social status of the person delivering feedback. In the third study, we tested whether demographic and psychosocial variables moderated the effects found in the second study. We found no appreciable differences between face-to-face and Facebook-mediated feedback. Bullying on the Facebook Profile dampened self-esteem more than bullying through Facebook’s private Messenger client, which had no appreciable effect on self-esteem. Moderation analysis revealed that only people reporting depressive symptoms indicated that bullying on the Facebook Profile dampened their self-esteem. These results suggest Facebook does not itself amplify or blunt the emotional effects of peer feedback, and instead confirms the important role individual differences play in emotional reactivity. Individual and environmental triggers of emotional reactivity, such as psychosocial vulnerabilities and sociometric status, may remain the best targets for reducing the negative effects of peer victimization.Item Gay men’s experiences coming out online : a qualitative study(2016-05) Chester, Matthew Ryan; Rochlen, Aaron B.; Schallert, DianeThe current study employed qualitative methodology to investigate the experiences of 12 men who came out online, using Facebook. Analysis of coding data yielded several key themes. First, gay men discussed a range of experiences that influenced their online disclosure including homophobia, internalized homophobia, and previous salient sexual identity disclosures. Participants also commonly expressed a variety of goals and concerns about coming out online, including improving relationships and loss of friends. Finally, gay men identified several benefits to coming out on Facebook, including increased efficiency in coming out as compared to face-to-face disclosures, increased authenticity, and decreased ambiguity about their sexuality. Results are discussed within the context of literature on men’s coming-out experiences, men and masculinity and online identity management.Item Global brands’ social media presence and control(2011-05) Ok, Chang Bong; Sung, Yongjun; Choi, Sejung M.This paper seeks to investigate leading global brands‘ social media presence. The analysis of the Interbrand’s 100 Best Global Brands (2010) social media pages was conducted in the current study. Based on Kaplan & Haenlein‘s classification of social media, seven social media application cases were examined. The findings suggest that there are differences in global brands‘ social media presence by brand categories and social media applications. The findings also suggest that there are different levels of global brands‘ social media control. Managerial implications and guidelines for social media marketing are also provided.Item Identity and participation in social networking sites amongst pre-service elementary school teachers(2012-08) Kimmons, Royce M.; Veletsianos, George; Wetzel, Melissa; Hughes, Joan; French, Karen; Armour, MarilynRecent trends in social networking site (SNS) use amongst teachers have led to some alarming circumstances. Practicing and pre-service teachers have been fired or otherwise punished (e.g. suspension, licensure revocation, etc.) for a variety of offenses related to their SNS use, ranging from sinister to morally ambiguous offenses, and have been encouraged or required by school administrators, professors, and others in positions of power to use SNS in particular ways. Past research on the topic of SNS in education and SNS professionalism has focused on issues of implementation (e.g. how to use SNS to support learning) or utility (e.g. how to use SNS to successfully achieve career goals). Missing from this discussion, however, is an understanding of how teachers (and those preparing to become teachers) naturally come to participate in SNS, why they participate in the ways that they do, and how this use is related to their identity. This study seeks to fill a gap in the literature by understanding pre-service teachers’ uses of SNS in terms of previous experiences, cultural expectations, social benefits, connections to identity construction and maintenance, and how these uses and beliefs regarding SNS begin to change in response to professionalization processes. Grounded theory is employed to generate an explanatory construct, which I refer to as the Acceptable Identity Fragment (AIF). The AIF is then used to understand and illustrate issues surrounding SNS use in education. Major findings suggest that 1) pre-service teachers’ identities in SNS represent a fragment of their authentic identities, 2) pre-service teachers use various SNS differently in conjunction with each SNS’s embedded values and assumptions about identity, 3) SNS use raises various problematic issues surrounding identity and how pre-service teachers are perceived and judged as individuals (e.g. digital persistence, lateral surveillance, etc.), and 4) professionalization processes alter and restrict pre-service teachers’ ability and comfort to express themselves in SNS. These findings lead to discussion, implications, and recommendations on a variety of topics including the following: institutional uses of SNS in education, relationships between fragmented and authentic identities, SNS literacy development, and cultural issues of SNS use.Item The influence of stigma of mental illnesses on decoding and encodting of verbal and nonverbal messages(2013-05) Imai, Tatsuya; Dailey, René M.Stigmas associated with depression and schizophrenia have been found to negatively impact the communication those with mental illness have with others in face-to-face interactions (e.g., Lysaker, Roe, & Yanos, 2007; Nicholson & Sacco, 1999). This study attempted to specifically examine how stigma affects cognitions, emotions, and behaviors of interactants without a mental illness toward those with a mental illness in online interactions. In this experimental study, 412 participants interacted with a hypothetical target on Facebook, who was believed to have depression, schizophrenia, or a cavity (i.e., the control group). They were asked to read a profile of the target on Facebook, respond to a message from the target, and complete measurements assessing perceived positive and negative face threats in the target's message, perceived facial expressions of the target, induced affect, predicted outcome value, and rejecting attitudes towards the target. Results revealed that the target labeled as schizophrenic was rejected more and perceived to have lower outcome value than the target without a mental illness or labeled as depressive. However, there were no significant differences in any outcomes between the depression and control groups. The mixed results were discussed in relation to methodological limitations and possible modifications of previous theoretical arguments. Theoretical and practical contributions were considered and suggestions for future research were offered.Item The influence of the World Wide Web on documentary form, distribution, and audience relations : the cases of Sin by Silence and This is Not a Conspiracy Theory(2015-05) Dixon, Laura Jean; Straubhaar, Joseph D.; Staiger, Janet; Stein, Laura; Downing, John; Schiesari, NancyMy dissertation focuses on the research question: How is the Internet facilitating changes in social documentary practice? More specifically, how are documentary makers rethinking documentary form, distribution, and audience relations? To shine light on this question, the dissertation examines the cases Sin by Silence and This is Not a Conspiracy Theory. To form the backdrop for understanding the case studies, the project examines the dominant discourses the trade press is using to explain what is changing in terms of form, distribution, and audience relations, providing a brief historical survey. The chapter focused on Sin by Silence uses a content analysis of social media to understand how the director used Facebook and Twitter accounts for a multitude of purposes. It argues that social media can be used to extend the narratives of films beyond the boundaries of the feature-length film and argues that the key idea of expansion can shed light on film form and audience relationships as well as the labor of the filmmaker. The case of This is Not a Conspiracy Theory demonstrates that participation and interaction can take place in the fields of distribution and funding as well as content generation, showing that an audience can be involved in a film from the very beginning throughout its life cycle. Both films demonstrate that a wide variety of media platforms can be used in the contemporary filmmaking landscape according to the requirements of the film project or energy and capabilities of the filmmakers. The rise of Internet culture and social media in particular has presented the opportunity for the audience to have a more active role in the pre-production, production, and post-production processes of filmmaking.Item Learning to write in (networked) public: children and the delivery of writing online(2014-12) Roach, Audra Katherine; Bomer, Randy; Hoffman, Jim; Maloch, Beth; Schallert, Diane; Hodgson, JustinThis investigation explored how three children (together with parents) developed networked publics that were diverse, well-connected, and powerful in the world. It was framed in response to calls in the field to better understand the new literacies young writers develop online and outside of school, and to increase literacy educators’ attention to the role of public audiences in writing and how writing is circulated. Performative case study methodology, ethnographic methods, and digital methods were employed to track and describe the online networks of three children (ages 11-13). These focal children were actively involved with their parents in social media, and had developed widespread networks with shared interests in children’s books and book reviews (Case 1), baseball (Case 2), and helping the homeless (Case 3). The children’s online networks were conceptualized as networked publics, drawing on Warner’s (2002) notion of publics as ongoing discursive relations among strangers, and on Actor-Network Theory’s notion of networks as assemblages of diverse interests that mobilize toward a common goal (Callon, 1986) and that develop stability in relation to ongoing circulations of texts (Latour, 1986; Spinuzzi, 2008). Research questions were framed broadly around the rhetorical canon of delivery [now digital delivery (Porter, 2009)], and were concerned with how writers distributed texts online, how those texts circulated, how the networked publics become more stable and powerful, and what instabilities children and parents had to negotiate in order to accomplish all of this. Data sources included interviews with 15 children and 28 adults, and fieldnotes observations of approximately 1,700 screen-captured webpages and other online artifacts. Findings showed that the young writers and their parents initiated and sustained networked publics through distribution practices that were oriented toward building trust; their texts displayed: interest, appreciation, reliability, service, credibility, and responsiveness. Both grassroots and commercial entities circulated texts in these networks, as they were sources of the ongoing renewal these different groups all needed in order to thrive. Sources of instability included conflicts over standards of writing quality, matters of profit, and the constancy of the demand to generate new interest and writing online. Children and their parents responded to these instabilities by welcoming and negotiating heterogeneous perspectives and partnerships. Implications of the study call for further research and teaching about the art of networked public discourse and digital delivery.Item Life unfiltered: Social control theory in the age of social media and substance abuse(2017-11-10) Ford, Teri L.; Gerber, JurgHirschi (1969) may have never used Social Media, received a Like or Re-Tweet or posted a heart-felt emoji, but his Social Control Theory may be affected by the actions of Social Media and its users. Hirschi’s Social Control Theory purports to explain why individuals choose to follow the rules and accept the norms of society. Hirschi postulated that there are four components in normal social systems that instill boundaries and social mores into the psyche of young adults. These four components, attachment, belief, commitment, and involvement are the four elements of social control that prevent individuals from committing crimes. If these components are diminished or eroded, it is possible that young adults may develop a system of beliefs that run contrary to the values of the society they were brought up in. Could Social Media as a dynamic environment somehow contribute to the unfiltered behavior of many members of society who are habitual or excessive users of sites like Facebook and Twitter? The question asked is whether social media promote deviance in young adults, particularly substance issues such as cigarette smoking, underage drinking, and marijuana use. The researcher hypothesizes that excessive Social Media use is eroding the components of Hirschi’s theory, particularly attachment, belief, and commitment, and that this erosion is increasing deviant habits and attitudes among excessive Social Media users.