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The Role of Informational Norms on Social Network Sites

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Youth 2.0: Social Media and Adolescence

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Abstract

Still little is known concerning the role informational norms play in regulating the privacy of individuals on social network sites. Considering privacy during social interaction one can identify norms of appropriateness and norms of distribution. This study investigates the adherence to these informational norms on social network sites by young and old users. Data were collected by means of a survey amongst 1002 social network site users, including adolescents, young adults and adults. The results show that the normative expectations associated with a social network site indicate that these sites are considered to be public, that adolescents and young adults primarily differ from adults in their adherence to norms of appropriateness and that a strong relationship is found between informational norms and actual information sharing. It is concluded that the role informational norms play for understanding online behaviour should not be underestimated, but are not yet effective regulators for online behaviour.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Emphasis added by author.

  2. 2.

    www.tns-nipo.nl

  3. 3.

    www.hyves.nl; the most popular Dutch social network site.

  4. 4.

    Weights were obtained by dividing the population distribution with the sample distribution. Information concerning the population gender distribution of the Netherlands was obtained from statline.cbs.nl in August 2011.

  5. 5.

    Deviations for the items in relation to the profile context added in parentheses.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology and Society, Tilburg University, Tilburg, Netherlands

    Wouter Martinus Petrus Steijn

Authors
  1. Wouter Martinus Petrus Steijn
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Correspondence to Wouter Martinus Petrus Steijn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Michel Walrave

  2. University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Koen Ponnet

  3. Department of Edu Studies & iMinds-MICT, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium

    Ellen Vanderhoven

  4. KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Jacques Haers

  5. University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Barbara Segaert

Appendixes

Appendixes

1.1 Appendix A

Table 5 Critical statistical information and effect sizes for the repeated measure ANOVA performed on the effect of context for the means reported in Table 1
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1.2 Appendix B

Table 6 Comparison of norm adherence in the public context between age groups
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Table 7 Comparison of norm adherence in the private context between age groups
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Steijn, W.M.P. (2016). The Role of Informational Norms on Social Network Sites. In: Walrave, M., Ponnet, K., Vanderhoven, E., Haers, J., Segaert, B. (eds) Youth 2.0: Social Media and Adolescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27893-3_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27893-3_7

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27891-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27893-3

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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