College students are exposed to a vast amount of information on political and social issues through social media. We studied how college students engage with political and social issues on Facebook in a weeklong study with 50 participants using diary entries and interviews. The interviews revealed a duality of benefits for using Facebook for news and they also revealed challenges of selfpresentation around news. Benefits included gaining multiple perspectives and enabling social sense making, providing personal relevance and convenience of access, and the opportunity for social engagement. Impression management and disclosure concerns strongly influence some people to refrain from commenting or sharing news. We discuss the challenges that context collapse poses for Facebook news readers. We suggest design ideas and future directions to encourage more balanced participation with news among college students.
Concerning the role of social media on the general public, Wang and Mark REF studied how college students engage with political and social issues on Facebook and found that the impression management and disclosure concerns strongly influence some people to refrain from commenting or sharing content.
Engaging with Political and Social Issues on Facebook in College Life
CSCW '17
Computer Science