Title

Why and how do college students use SNS for political and social causes?

Introduction

The advancement of the internet was a technological breakthrough that started changing the way society functioned as a whole. All the societal norms that we considered routine were being adopted into this cyber world we called the world wide internet.  The work and business sector were obviously affected by this, but the way we socialize and interact with other people have been majorly impacted.  Innovative web sites, called social networking sites, catered to the idea of people building and having their own identity to socialize with others on that site. Sites such as Friendster, Myspace have faded in popularity, while Facebook and Twitter stepped up to become giants in the social networking arena.  As mentioned, social network sites are a fairly new technological advancement that have taken a foothold in many people's daily lives. It seems to be that majority of people anywhere you go these days have an account on at least one social networking site. But as SNSs (social networking sites) grew, motivations and uses for them have changed.  Instead of personal use, corporations and businesses have found new uses for SNSs as tools for promotion and further progression of their organization.  Now businesses are not the only ones using SNSs to reach the masses; their has been a rapid growth social cause campaigns and awareness groups on these sites. 

My collegiate peers and I use SNSs extensively on a daily basis and the way we use it really attracted me. The use of SNSs for social causes really interested me because I have seen a boom in this type of use while in my college career; specifically, in political and social causes. With current events happening locally and globally, I have often been invited on my Facebook to like or somehow get involved in that specific cause.  I see this as a major tool to the future building and maintenance of political and social causes. This led me to ask the question: Why and how do college students use SNS for political and social causes?

To help me find the answer to my question I used several scholarly sources. Each of them had unique points that aided my study.

Literature Review

Two sources in particular contributed to my study by focusing on political aspects on social networking sites.  The article "Politics and Emerging Media: The Revenge of Publicity" by Darin Barney looked at how SNSs can help in democratic politics. He studied   people's participation online, like Facebook to see whether it was ultimately good for politics. Barney examined context, information, contemporary context and communication in social networking. The other article used was "Politics 2.008" by Barb Palser. In this article Palser looks at how the 2008 presidential elections may be effected by the use of the internet. The author inspects the  at how the presidential candidates are making a presence on the SNSs, and how citizens are using it for debates. He looks how these sites are being used to build donations for campaigns, build a database, and for media attention. Palser also feels that the SNSs create a dialogue between the candidates and the voters. Both articles pertain to my study by taking two different stances. Barney studies the overall effect of SNSs on democratic politics, while Palser concentrates on a specific event in history. One shows a progressive effect and the other a more immediate effect.

Another perspective to help my research was the reason why some do or do not become involved in social movements. Herzog and Golden (2009) study this topic by examining animal rights and using SNSs like Myspace and Facebook to in their study. The authors look at the moral emotion, disgust toward animal activists, promoters of animal use, and people that were not tied to any animal related cause.  From another point of view, Pieter Boeder (2002) explores the benefits of the internet on non-profit organizations. He shows how building relationships online have an effect on communication, fundraising, and community building. Both of these exhibit important parts of my research. Herzog and Golden show motivation for getting involved and how a SNS, that I also looked at, was used to help further their investigation. The article by Boeder show the benefits that the internet have on non-profits (like those that support social causes). The articles help answer my question on why people, including college students, become involved in social causes and later the benefits accompanied by it.  

Coming from a more personal perspective, Cheryl Coyle and Heather Vaughn (2008), study how social networking is used to strengthen social ties. They look at what people really use SNS for by asking question like: How SNS affect individual relationships? Do people use SNSs to expand personal networks, find people who have similar experiences, to discuss a common hobby, for the potential of offline dating? Is it personal, emotional, private and important? They research students on American college campuses to find the answers.  In Stephanie Gleason's article called, "Going Public" (2009), she studies how SNSs like Facebook and Twitter are mixing professional and personal content. She argues that news outlets use SNSs as a means of survival and that they are going beyond the personal lives of the users. Both articles relate to my own study because my study is a mix of SNS used personal use and promotion of an organization. It will add to finding the answer to my research question by looking at the personal aspect point of view. 

Method

Besides study and literature from other researchers, I gathered data from an interview and focus group at San Jose State University. The interview I conducted was on 4/17/11 with SJSU Response Coalition member Amy Dinh at SJU's Student Union. She provided good insight, because the Response Coalition is a collection of several clubs and fraternities to combat human trafficking. My other method was a focus group with members of Advertising 128 class in the Spartan Daily on 4/19/11. To clarify, I defined social networking sites to the participants as sites that allow you to create your own identity and interact/socialize with others on the same site.  I named a few examples like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace to stress the point.  I also defined social causes as religious, humanitarian, health, or environmental campaigns that raise awareness or call to action. For political causes I gave examples of political campaigns like the presidential campaigns of 2008, or those that seek push bills or legislation.

Findings and Discussion

The focus group that I was able to conduct provided good insight. Being that they were an advertising class they had good knowledge on the use of SNSs for promotions.  I first gave the definitions of the terms and then asked them if they had accounts to SNSs and which ones. The group all admitted to having to each having a Facebook account, while a some of them had Twitters, and Myspace accounts that they have not deleted or just no longer used. This led to me asking what do they primarily do when on it. They each had similar answers which basically amounted to seeing what their friends were doing and communicating with them. In so many words they admitted it was interpersonal means, friendship, common interests, or ideas (Coyle and Vaughn, 2008). I then asked if they ever used to broadcast news about events. Some were actually for social events, but they also said they have announced news or they have learned of some informative news from someone else in their circle of friends (Gleason, 2009). For my next question I asked them if any of their friends have ever contacted/invited them to like or join a cause. Majority of the group mentioned they have before, and a few said that just ignored those requests. A few that were mentioned were for getting involved or donating to the SPCA, Walk For Breast Cancer, or ones for natural disasters. They mentioned they only get involved if passionate enough about it , like moral convictions (Harold and Golden, 2009). Combining literature and my own data gathering methods I was able to piece together the answer to my question. We also discussed if SNS are better than traditional forms of promotion and many of them agreed that it was because you have more of an audience one click away. They said that it is also easier because the invite is coming from someone they built a relationship with, a friend (Boeder, 2002). The next thing we talked about was why they think college students opt to use SNSs that other traditional forms of promotion. It boiled down to that it was fast, easy, and free. They said there is an audience but it does not guarantee participants. 

The other method that helped my research was my interview with Amy Dinh, of SJSU Response Coalition. We talked and discussed what the Coalition is about. She stated that they are a collective of clubs and fraternities on campus that combat the social cause of human trafficking. This was insightful because she discussed that they rely heavily on SNSs like Facebook and Twitter to help their cause like donations and for media attention to help push political legislations (Palser, 2007).  Amy said that these sites have grown beyond just for fun but this is an effective tool that can build awareness, and even sending a message progressing to dialogue with politicians (Barney, 2008). Combining my research and the literature I was able to answer my question. By using SNSs college users are able to effectively get people involved in their social or political cause from the relationships they have previously established. Not to mention it was also cheap/free. Overall, it was enlightening on the growth of SNSs and their uses.

Limitations and Future Research

Although I found a great deal of information from my research their were still a few limitations.  The scholarly sources and literature I used helped out in finding the answer to my question but the only problem on relying on some of these were that they may be a little dated. Dealing with any topic within technology can be tricky because new developments are constantly happening, which can ultimately mean that the data collected can potentially behind the times. Another concern in my research was with the interviews. I was supposed to interview a high school teacher/web and communications director of a private school. He was involved with organizing many online social causes campaigns and fundraisers for high school/college aged adults. An interview never got to take place because of timing on the interviewee's part. We were scheduled for an appointment but he was tied to other obligations and we could not find another open time slot. The interviews did prove to be quite useful for my study but much of their information were not quantifiable. They had many great experiences and memories to recall from, which meant they could give more estimations of success rather than exacts.  Relying on memory can also be deceiving if not recorded or documented in some shape or form; in my case they relied on mainly memory. For future studies I think I may ask them for copies of some documentation or recorded data so I can later refer to it.