Teens engage more with fewer photos: Temporal and comparative analysis on behaviors in Instagram

Jin Yea Jang, Kyungsik Han, Dongwon Lee, Haiyan Jia, Patrick C. Shih

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Research has suggested that teens are more active and engaged than adults on social media. Most of such observations, however, have been made through the analysis of limited ethnographic or cross-sectional data. Using a temporally extended, large-scale dataset and comparative analyses to remedy this shortcoming, we examined how and why the age difference in the behaviors of users in Instagram might have occurred through the lenses of social cognition, developmental psychology, and human-computer interaction. We proposed two hypotheses - Teens as digital natives and the need for social interactions - As the theoretical framework for understanding the factors that help explain the behavioral differences. Our computational analysis identified the following novel findings: (1) teens post fewer photos than adults; (2) teens remove more photos based on the number of Likes the photos received; and (3) teens have less diverse photo content. Our analysis was also able to confirm prior ethnographic accounts that teens are more engaged in Liking and commenting, and express their emotions and social interests more than adults. We discussed theoretical and practical interpretations and implications as well as future research directions from the results.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationHT 2016 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages71-81
Number of pages11
ISBN (Electronic)9781450342476
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 10 2016
Event27th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, HT 2016 - Halifax, Canada
Duration: Jul 10 2016Jul 13 2016

Publication series

NameHT 2016 - Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media

Other

Other27th ACM Conference on Hypertext and Social Media, HT 2016
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityHalifax
Period7/10/167/13/16

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
  • Software
  • Artificial Intelligence

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