Twitter City and Facebook Village: teenage girls' personas and experiences influenced by choice architecture in social networking sites

Abstract

Anonymity was once the norm online, but uploading personal information on social networks is now ubiquitous amongst teenagers, leading to new concerns about abandonment of privacy and obsessive self-grooming of online identities. However, researchers have not examined whether different social networks result in differing behaviour or happiness, which should be a key issue for media practitioners involved in social network design. This research examines whether different social networks affect behaviour and happiness differently by examining usage of Facebook, Twitter and Q&A sites Formspring and Ask.fm by 342 teenage girls. Results showed they felt more confident on Twitter than Facebook, but were more likely to agree their Facebook personas were ‘the real me’. Fewer negative experiences were reported on Twitter. Despite Ask.fm's appalling reputation, there was little statistical difference between it and Facebook across most categories. Although judgemental about ‘fake’ behaviour, girls reported often concealing their feelings. This article shows that behaviour, influenced by site architecture, has created varying environments, through new media practices which can be characterised as ‘choice architecture’ or ‘persuasive design’. In turn, these differing environments continue to influence users' behaviour. Understanding these mechanisms could help site designers create safer online environments that promote rather than degrade users' mental health. Persuasive design on social networking sites also has implications for researchers seeking to understand behaviour on these platforms and craft future studies, as well as being an important field of future study in its own right.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr Stephen Brindle for his assistance with the statistical work, and Dr Andrew Hobbs for his assistance with the survey.

Notes on contributors

Amy Binns worked as a journalist for 10 years before moving into academia. She teaches writing, photojournalism and digital skills. Her research focuses on difficult behaviour online, particularly as it affects media organisations.