PAPER V: FINAL PAPER
Running Head: FACEBOOK RUDENESS 1
FACEBOOK RUDENESS 4
Maria V Ortega
PSY 3215
Florida International University
April 5, 2021
Why are People Rude on Facebook?
Facebook has become a very important medium of communication and interaction between individuals with no limitations of distance apart. Additionally, rudeness has become our new normal on Facebook; while interacting with one another, we come across different people with different characters. Some of the reasons people are rude to Facebook include; lack of Non-verbal cues and self-control. Lack of eye contact in online interactions makes individuals comfortable to be particularly rude. Additionally, we lower our self-control when we log in to Facebook or any social media; this is so because we receive our posts' validations through likes or comments. No matter how negative your post can be, it will still get comments or likes hence encouraging you. Facebook has enabled a new way of communication with no verbal cues, for example, eye contact. For effective communication in the real world, eye contact is one of the essential body languages. Therefore, the absence of eye contact in an online interaction makes individuals comfortable to be particularly rude.
However, people tend to be rude on Facebook due to the loss of social inhibitions and restrictions. Such restrictions are usually present while interacting physically, in simple terms; this is called the online disinhibition effect—people tend to disclose and share more on Facebook than in real life. Online disinhibition effect is due to the following factors; dissociative anonymity, this is where on the internet it is possible to have interaction with others anonymously and complete. These will lead to the creation of disassociation between our offline and online personas, allowing one not to "own up" their behaviors. The second factor for the disinhibition effect is due to invisibility. Most communication on Facebook is through texts. Hence, communication happens behind the screen, lowering the inhibitions making it easy to say something that you wouldn't know in person. On Facebook or social media, we choose to respond immediately to posts or messages or even delay. This is referred to as synchronicity, which can also lead to the disinhibition effect. Generally, that is the reason why it is easy to share something personal online. After posting, one can log off and escape potential negative responses and deal with them later.
Additionally, due to lack of non-verbal cues, one supplements communication gaps in their head and these are referred to as solipsistic introjection. One begins to see online interactions as part of their psyche forming by personal expectations and wants. Thus, one starts to feel like they know the other person very well on the other end while in a real sense, one doesn't, which leads to disinhibition. Another factor for disinhibition is dissociative imagination; the use of the internet makes one feel like making believe space. Many people believe that what happens in cyberspace does not affect people in real-life situations. Lastly, is minimizing of status and authorities (Spottswood & Hancock 2016). Figures of authority express their jurisdiction by the use of body language and their environments. While on Facebook, the establishment of authority is difficult because of the lack of non-verbal cues. Internet generally gives everyone an equal playing field where those who are purported to be weak can also express their ideas or anything to those in authority without repercussions.
How Comments May Affect One’s Attitude and Behavior
After analyzing to find out why people are rude on Facebook, I decided to research the effects of Facebook comments or generally posts on someone's attitude or behavior. Most recently in every aspect it is clear how Facebook commenting is contributing on rudeness and negative attitude in individuals (Spottswood & Hancock 2016). While navigating Facebook we are exposing ourselves to many people whom we can interact with by just click of a button. This communication may not always be positive leading to rude interactions which causes psychological effects in an individual. Globally, Facebook is the most popular social media platform whereby more than one billion people are users.’ People interact in Facebook through private direct messages, updating of statuses, discussing in groups and commenting. In this paper I will focusing in analyzing how different words and comments influences someone’s attitude and behavior.
Facebook commenting is becoming one of the most important topics in societies this is because most recently the form part of our day-to-day life. However, online commenting has become more popular, especially on Facebook (Cionea et al.2017). This is due to increased organizations such as parastatals, private companies, radio stations and many more of their websites' comment sections. Focusing on building a sustainable online society around their Facebook pages. With no doubt that Facebook pages and their associated users' comments are becoming part and parcel of each other, affecting online news consumption as it is being experienced in the United States and worldwide. However, Facebook does not hide someone's name, ensuring that comments come from real people but not computer-generated comments.
Through commenting people express their opinions and thoughts. Some express through civilized way while others tent to be disrespectful and aggressive manner against each other or group. Therefore, commenting affects someone’s attitude, behavior or lower self-esteem. While other comments lead to alteration of perception about issues or leading to development of negative emotions (Cionea et al.2017). Currently, individuals’ actions on social media are driven by desires of obtaining other user’s social approval this leads them match their behaviors to the responses. Conformity is an internet behavior which is directly influenced by others’ responses or comments. Hence, results in shifting in a person’s online preferences when face with others’ words.
Different Facebook’s responses directly affect someone perception about themselves and their belief, even having an ability in influencing someone’s behavior even out of social media platforms. Comments depends in communication styles, it affects person’s reasoning and attitude (Kim & Kim 2019). Users exposed to disrespectful comments ends up with negativity of emotions, hence results in a significantly different attitude about new information. Hence relating to my research because it provides an insight on how commenting section and Facebook environment gives space for individuals to express opinions and thoughts hence forming an attitude by interacting with others.
The section of commenting does not just have words but it also carry’s individual’s opinions, ideas and thoughts. As much as there is difference in characters and personalities of persons, everyone is free to respond on anything in Facebook or unless they are blocked by the owner or administrator of the platform. These responses and commends can affects users’ behaviors. Facebook’s commends alters individual’s mindset on some issues, giving them different attitudes and can instill either negative or positive emotions. Most Facebook users are desire driven to enable them win other users’ approvals, suggesting that someone will address others on Facebook in a way that will match social context. Meaning that some people may live Facebook’s fake life purposely to win friends’ approvals. Some people may take pictures around posh cars or luxurious house that they don’t have but just to acceptance in the social Setting.
Our brains make us whom we are, previously a person could a read a book and the content influences him or her. Currently things have taken an opposite direction in the new generation. Facebook is becoming the new becoming the new site to find influential people and adopt their ideas. Facebook’s responses affect us directly or indirectly on what we perceive they are. When and individuals believe is influenced, means that their behaviors are also impacted not only on Facebook platform but also in real life. Comments comes in various states that affects someone’s behavior and reasoning people being exposed to many uncivil responses are likely to end up in live with negative emotions (Kim and Kim 2019). Making their attitude to change for worse, hence forming barriers for receiving new information.
However, it is untrue to conclude that all Facebook’s responses are negative. Being exposed to positive and humble comments can influence one positively. Positive concerns in Facebook influences others on posting messages void of rudeness and they are also positive. If someone’s post gets positive commends for posting his or her nice picture, it is likely that they will do the same over and over again. There is need for public education to promote humble communication between each other on Facebook.
Facebook’s comments also influence someone positively if someone posts a polite comment in a way that avoids rude and disrespectful content, even if the truth is not being expressed. Research shows that after choosing Facebook users to examine how positive face impacts prosocial lies in a private and public Facebook content. The research proved that having a concern for others’ positive face encourages one post a positive message concerning one another on Facebook. However, a number of people understands need to keep on avoiding rudeness. We then have to understand how our communication is being influence by social norms, and how also communicating or interacting online is influenced by others’ comments.
To find out how rudeness in Facebook affects individuals, I am designing a study research which will show how different people’s comments influences individuals’ behaviors, attitude and personalities. Participants of my study will be Florida university students, I will request them to look for strangers’ responses on their posts. Depending on a comment that each participant is presenting, I categorize their feelings in any of the three conditions, some feel they are influenced, others averagely influenced while others are not influenced at all.
Primary Research Analysis Section
Introduction
I did my research on Facebook rudeness to determine how comments affects an individual’s attitude or behavior in Florida University.
Participants
One hundred students from University of Florida are taking part in this study; I have randomly selected participants from different departments. Of these one hundred participants 50% (n=50) are male and 50% (n = 50) are female. The participants' ages ranges from 20 to 40 years, the average of their years can be 28.96. My sampling population for my research consist of the Hispanic Americans who are the majority in 87% (n=87), 2% African Americans (n=2), 5% (n=5) Caucasians, also 5% (n=5) Asians and 1% are native Indians (n=1). About seventy percent of my participants reports their preferred English as language to use(n=70) and the rest did not choose English language as preferred to them (n=30)
Procedures
For my study I chose participants randomly within Florida University, I made approaches via emails and asked them through a zoom conference their willingness to participate in this survey. I informed them the procedures to assist me as participants in my research during the conference and how long it will take. It was also important to acknowledge to them that they will not experience any risk in the course of the research study. After they agreed to participate, handed them three surveys each one to complete it independently. Each participant was taking about 10 minute to submit the survey online.
Method
I conducted three surveys each containing five sections. First section, together with participants we were looking at a Facebook page of Millan Corey which is fake, he works as a banker and along with him is a landscape photo and a cat, introducing information and a post which he latest made. Profile picture of Corey shows couple a man and a woman, making us not to rely on gender as the complete the survey.
There is a difference in three surveys which Corey’s post falls in an agreement or disagreement conditions. Its either rude disagreement, politely disagree or polite agreement. The state of rudeness differs, Corey’s reports not to agree with other’s responses, arguing in a disrespectful way that others’ responses are wrong and that there is no fakeness in his news. In condition of polite disagreement, Corey argues in calm and low tones. He gives other users’ arguments credit without being rude, even though he disagrees, respectively and politely. Corey acknowledges that he’s been wrong on his recent posts politely agreeing the condition, communicating his ideas courteously and respectfully he agrees with others’ responses.
In part two of my survey I ask my participants to give ratings to their impressions of Millan, each one to go over eight statements and answer each on an interval scaling from one to six precisely, from strong disagreement to a strong agreement. For instance, the statements include; ‘Millan is a reasonable person,’ ‘he is like a polite person,’ ‘Millan seems to be a rude person’ and many more. In the third section of my research, there was a representation of seven statements for participants to rate own impressions of responses posted by Corey on Facebook and replies of others, Peyton and Rick Anderson. I decide to use the same interval from one to six, from strong disagreement to strong agreeing, but now with statements like ‘I tend to think that Corey received unfair confrontation from Peyton and Anderson, unfair in Corey’s post,’ ‘reads Millan’s latest posts angers me’ ‘I will engage in a forth and back conversing with Millan,’ and so forth. When creating my dependent variable. ‘Negative impression,’ I make a choice of three statements from the third section of my survey; which reads Corey’s previous post angered me,’ ‘after I read the responses, I am believing now CNN issue to loose news license is fake’. But before I read the responses I was suspecting that the story of CNN to lose news license is fake. I computed by means scores from the participants. ‘Negative impressions’ selecting these statements. As a score for this variable is, the majority of the participants agrees on negative responses, this means they have a negative impression. Dependent variable is ‘positive impression’ is basing it on the participants’ average score by selecting the statements which follows; ‘Millan a likeable person,’ ‘He is also an open minded person,’ ‘Millan is also a reasonable person,’ if on this variable scores are high, that means participants have good impressions about Millan. In the fourth part of the research I asked about demographic information like race, age and many more regardless of whether you are a student at the university or not. I did not require participants to provide all answers to questions, it is their choice to leave some questions blank if not comfortable to answer. The fifth part of my survey is to ask participant to recall how Millan responded to others’ comments. Lastly, Anderson and Peyton to deduce if participants are paying attention fully while completing the survey.
Findings
In the research also my independent variable the condition of Facebook rudeness for instance rude disagreement, polite disagreement and polite agreement, and if participants recognize the conditions they are in is the dependent variable. After running the chi-square test for checking the results that showed significance. Participants in condition of rude disagreement agrees that Millan rudeness in Facebook seemed rude and 40% of participants’ in condition of polite disagreements agrees that Corey’s Rudeness seemed polite. The condition of polite agreement does not show large effects.
The main analysis of one-way which tests for the condition of rudeness in Facebook, rude disagreement, politely disagree and politely agree together with the participant’s negative impression as my independent and dependent variables respectively. The hypothesis shows that participants are more likely to agree to Millan’s rudeness in the condition of rude disagreement than in the condition of politeness. A significant difference resulting between the state of politely agree and the condition of disagreement. Results indicates that the participants are likely to have positive impression from Corey in polite outcomes situations.
Conclusions
Prior to my research I was predicting that participants in rude disagreement condition will score high in negative impressions than those in polite disagreements and polite agreements on the need, so they will be in agreement with Corey’s negative impressions and rudeness and they will not agree with positive comments in comparing participants in condition of rude disagreement and polite agreement. In my hypothesis participants are likely to agree on Millan’s rudeness the condition of rude disagreement than in polite state.
The results support my hypothesis as I found that individuals in condition of rude disagreements scores high in adverse impressions. Comparatively, those in polite disagreement condition they will have positive impressions, feeling that Corey’s open mindedness and politeness are read from his comments.
References
Cionea, I. A., Piercy, C. W., & Carpenter, C. J. (2017). A profile of arguing behaviors on Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 76, 438–449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.08.009
Kim, Y., & Kim, Y. (2019). Incivility on Facebook and political polarization: The mediating role of seeking further comments and negative emotion. Computers in Human Behavior, 99, 219–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.05.022
Spottswood, E. L., & Hancock, J. T. (2016). The positivity bias and prosocial deception on facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 65, 252–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.08.019