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Investigation of user behavior on social networking sites

Social networking sites (SNS) are used for social and professional interaction with people. SNS popularity has encouraged researchers to analyze the relationship of activities performed on SNS with user behavior. In doing so, the term “user behavior” is rather used ambiguously with different interpr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Waheed, Hajra, Anjum, Maria, Rehman, Mariam, Khawaja, Amina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5289435/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28151963
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169693
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author Waheed, Hajra
Anjum, Maria
Rehman, Mariam
Khawaja, Amina
author_facet Waheed, Hajra
Anjum, Maria
Rehman, Mariam
Khawaja, Amina
author_sort Waheed, Hajra
collection PubMed
description Social networking sites (SNS) are used for social and professional interaction with people. SNS popularity has encouraged researchers to analyze the relationship of activities performed on SNS with user behavior. In doing so, the term “user behavior” is rather used ambiguously with different interpretations, which makes it difficult to identify studies on user behavior in relation to SNS. This phenomenon has encouraged this thorough research on the characteristics of user behavior being discussed in the literature. Therefore, in this study, we aim to identify, analyze, and classify the characteristics associated with user behavior to answer the research questions designed to conduct this research. A mapping study (also called scoping study), which is a type of systematic literature review, is employed to identify potential studies from digital databases through a developed protocol. Thematic analysis is carried out for the classification of user behavior. We identified 116 primary studies for full analysis. This study found seven characteristics associated with behavior that have direct influence on SNS use and nine factors that have an indirect effect. All studies were conducted largely under seven areas that set the context of these studies. Findings show that the research on SNS is still in its early stage. The range of topics covered in the analyzed studies is quite expansive, although the depth in terms of number of studies under each topic is quite limited. This study reports that activities performed on SNS are either associated with user behavior or reflect personality characteristics. The findings of this study could be used by practitioners to evaluate their SNS platforms and develop more user-centered applications. These studies can also help organizations to understand better the needs of their employees.
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spelling pubmed-52894352017-02-17 Investigation of user behavior on social networking sites Waheed, Hajra Anjum, Maria Rehman, Mariam Khawaja, Amina PLoS One Research Article Social networking sites (SNS) are used for social and professional interaction with people. SNS popularity has encouraged researchers to analyze the relationship of activities performed on SNS with user behavior. In doing so, the term “user behavior” is rather used ambiguously with different interpretations, which makes it difficult to identify studies on user behavior in relation to SNS. This phenomenon has encouraged this thorough research on the characteristics of user behavior being discussed in the literature. Therefore, in this study, we aim to identify, analyze, and classify the characteristics associated with user behavior to answer the research questions designed to conduct this research. A mapping study (also called scoping study), which is a type of systematic literature review, is employed to identify potential studies from digital databases through a developed protocol. Thematic analysis is carried out for the classification of user behavior. We identified 116 primary studies for full analysis. This study found seven characteristics associated with behavior that have direct influence on SNS use and nine factors that have an indirect effect. All studies were conducted largely under seven areas that set the context of these studies. Findings show that the research on SNS is still in its early stage. The range of topics covered in the analyzed studies is quite expansive, although the depth in terms of number of studies under each topic is quite limited. This study reports that activities performed on SNS are either associated with user behavior or reflect personality characteristics. The findings of this study could be used by practitioners to evaluate their SNS platforms and develop more user-centered applications. These studies can also help organizations to understand better the needs of their employees. Public Library of Science 2017-02-02 /pmc/articles/PMC5289435/ /pubmed/28151963 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169693 Text en © 2017 Waheed et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Waheed, Hajra
Anjum, Maria
Rehman, Mariam
Khawaja, Amina
Investigation of user behavior on social networking sites
title Investigation of user behavior on social networking sites
title_full Investigation of user behavior on social networking sites
title_fullStr Investigation of user behavior on social networking sites
title_full_unstemmed Investigation of user behavior on social networking sites
title_short Investigation of user behavior on social networking sites
title_sort investigation of user behavior on social networking sites
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5289435/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28151963
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169693
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