Social Media and the 'Spiral of Silence'

Fascinating but flawed Pew report finding that people are not inclined to share controversial views (at least about Edward Snowden) on social media, and far less so than when talking face-to-face. Moreover, this carries over into face-to-face interactions. The ‘spiral of silence’ in the title is to do with how social media habits become social habits in our physical lives. It’s an evocative phrase that suggests harm is being caused. At least, that is how it is presented and how the press are reporting on it. I’m not convinced. Not at all.

The obvious findings

 

That people are reluctant to stir controversies on social media is not surprising. Most general-purpose social networking systems (which is the subset of social media that the researchers were looking at) indiscriminately connect us and our posts with everyone in our online social network on a given system. This is quite unlike face-to-face converstations where we are intimately aware of our audience and always addressing a smaller subset of the whole, so of course we are aware that some of our audience may not appreciate or care about those opinions. We therefore tend to express them more circumspectly on social media than we do in places where we can better control who we are talking with. This is especially true now that most of us have learned that things are easily misinterpreted online when expressed as text. Moreover, face-to-face, there is little chance that our comments may be happened upon by people some time in the future who are not yet even in our network. This particular problem equally affects social networking systems like the Landing or Google + that make a big point of the ability of members to selectively choose the circles of individuals with whom they share. Given the diversity of the audience and permanence of the result,  it is natural not only to wish not to offend or spark and argument, but also to not want to appear dumb, and to have that dumbness on (semi) permanent record. Face to face, we can correct ourselves when shown to be fools, and no one thinks the less of us but, online, our original foolishness has the same archival permanence as our correction. It is perfectly reasonable to be wary. Furthermore, the the particular issue that Pew chose to investigate (Snowden’s revelations) is far from neutral to the questions they were asking. Thinking about the Snowden/NSA case would likely encourage subjects to focus on the other shadier and malevolent people that might be looking at their posts without their consent or knowledge, not to mention on concerns about privacy on social media in general. Given the nature of the controversy, the survey questions give a reminder that opinions expressed on the subject online might well be used against us. The fact that the study relied upon self-reporting therefore makes it less reliable than it might have been about a less Internet-related topic.

Where it gets interesting

So far so obvious. However, the study goes further. The findings appear to show that social media users are more sensitive to the opinions and beliefs of others, both online and off, and are reluctant to share beliefs that differ from those of social media contacts offline as well as on. This is interesting. The study goes on to say that:

“This suggests a spiral of silence might spill over from online contexts to in-person contexts, though our data cannot definitively demonstrate this causation. It also might mean that the broad awareness social media users have of their networks might make them more hesitant to speak up because they are especially tuned into the opinions of those around them.” 

So, the suggestion is that engagement in social media sensitizes us to others in what might be seen as quite positive ways – social media users care more about what other people think. The downside of this is the fact that we are therefore less likely to challenge things that we see as wrong, less inclined to express dissent, and this may have deep unforeseen consequences for society as a whole. In effect, social media are making us all a little more Canadian! Well, maybe. The researchers laudably note that they cannot demonstrate this causation though, unfortunately and with far less good conscience, they put ‘spiral of silence’ into the title, suggesting that this is what they have actually found and making sensationalist headlines considerably more likely. Bad move.   

There is another interpretation.

I was surprised to discover that “an internet user is 1.63 times more likely to have obtained even a little news on the Snowden-NSA revelations from radio and television than a non-internet user.” So, not only are Internet users more sociable than non-users in real life, they also pay more attention to broadcast sources. This is particularly true of Twitter and Instagram users (3.67 and 4.02 times more likely than a non Internet user, respectively) and less true (though still true) of Pinterest and LinkedIn users.

Though it does discuss possible reasons for inter-media differences, the report does not provide much speculation on the reasons for the internet-user/non-user divide. I speculate (in Devil’s advocate mode) that it might be because it is increasingly hard to find people that are not Internet users, especially in America where this survey was conducted. In this particular case only 456 of 1801 participants were not Internet users, which is surprisingly high at around 25%, but still sufficiently small to make one suspicious. In a good number of cases the reasons for not being Internet-connected are undoubtedly economic, which in itself makes for a demographic that is far from representative. Also, there is probably some significant skewing due to the fact that those who intentionally (whether through fear or deliberate action) divorce themselves from the world of the Internet, even though they could afford it, may have a different attitude to electronic media in general. Either way, this is not comparing like with like. As an overall demographic, non-Internet users are likely becoming increasingly unusual and non-representative of the population as a whole, so perhaps willingness to discuss political hot potatoes is sympomatic of the same thing or things that prevent them from engaging online in the first place. It might well be that what we see on social media has always been the norm and that the skewing in this case is simply revealing that those who do not use the Internet are, on average, different, and they always have been. Maybe they care less what others think or feel. Or maybe their being offline proves that they are more critically atuned. Maybe (and very likely) the topic chosen is one that reinforces and confirms their deep suspicion of the Internet, about which they feel strongly enough both to avoid it and to make their feelings known to others. Whatever, the chances are that there are some common differences.

Equally, the fact that there are also differences between people that use different social media might be due to the kinds of socialization the systems support, rather than differences caused by the media themselves. For instance, most of us choose LinkedIn for professional contacts and information, while we use other sites for different kinds of social activity. People are almost certainly more drawn to social media that support how they tend to want to behave than those that don’t, notwithstanding the strong peer pressure and network effects that make some of them join in anyway. And, just because they join them, doesn’t mean that they use each of them for the same purposes. Those of us that use multiple social media tend to use them differently, with different (often overlapping) networks and different intents. Different levels of political debate are likely not caused by the social media and the networks that inhabit them: we choose those networks because of those differences.

I am not suggesting that any of my speculations are better than the conclusions drawn by the researchers or commentators on the research in the International press (that are, not unexpectedly, very selective about the findings they report on). The point is that this research does not appear to prove my speculations false.  I’m almost sure that the researchers are correct in thinking that different social media reinforce different behaviours, that we are affected by norms and behaviours of others on social media, and that our behaviour in social media has an effect on our behaviour in the physical world. It would be exceedingly odd if it did not. But I’m not at all sure that these results show that. To prove that point I think it would be a minimal requirement to at least do a longitudinal study that shows behavioural changes when people engage in new social media, rather than a snapshot of how they behave now in the context of a topic that is deeply relevant to social media use. It is irresponsible to suggest causation where all that has been found is correlation, with very good grounds for suspecting other causal factors play a significant role and the methodology itself introduces bias. That’s a crucial flaw and it’s a pity, because there is plenty of good information in this report and some thought-provoking findings. It does not need a gutter-press friendly veneer.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2014/08/PI_Social-networks-and-debate_082614.pdf

Komar and Melamid: Most Wanted and Least Wanted Paintings

I don’t know why it took me so long to find this, but I’m very glad I did. This is a wonderful art project dating back to the mid 90s in which Vitaly Komar and alex Melamid asked people about their aesthetic preferences and taste in painting in order to discover what ‘people’s art’ would look like, and then they painted it. They did this for several populations around the world. The paintings, at http://awp.diaart.org/km/painting.html, are remarkable and fascinating, but they are not the art work here. The project challenges analytic approaches to design at a fundamental and quite unsettling level.

The lessons are important to any creative endeavour, including to big ones that matter to me personally and professionally like teaching and education, and computer system and interaction design. They matter every time we base our designs and creative activities on feedback, opinion polls, course evaluations, learning styles, analytics information and similar quantification or classification techniques. The problem is not in finding out such things – that is always interesting. The problem is interpreting and using them to drive design and method, without reflection or critique, especially when we lie to ourselves that our interpretation is therefore in some way objective. But the paintings articulate this and the complex loops of meaning that emerge far more clearly than words ever could. The words are good though, and are as much a part of the artwork as the paintings themselves. As Melamid puts it, provocatively:

It’s interesting: we believe in numbers, and numbers never lie. Numbers are innocent. It’s absolutely true data. It doesn’t say anything about personalities, but it says something more about ideals, and about how this world functions. That’s really the truth, as much as we can get to the truth. Truth is a number.”

Address of the bookmark: http://awp.diaart.org/km/intro.html

Expecting to teach enhances learning and organization of knowledge in free recall of text passages

Very interesting confirmation of something that all teachers know – that the best way to learn is to teach. This uses an experimental method that shows much less than it could and claims much more than it shows.  The researchers have simply shown better memory retention by learners in one particular task due to the expectation of having to teach others. But it’s still useful evidence that is supported by several educational theories and it helps to confirm the value of teachback. As they suggest (though apparently unaware that this is a widespread practice) pedagogies that make use of this phenomenon work well and are highly efficient.

Abstract:

The present research assessed the potential effects of expecting to teach on learning. In two experiments, participants studied passages either in preparation for a later test or in preparation for teaching the passage to another student who would then be tested. In reality, all participants were tested, and no one actually engaged in teaching. Participants expecting to teach produced more complete and better organized free recall of the passage (Experiment 1) and, in general, correctly answered more questions about the passage than did participants expecting a test (Experiment 1), particularly questions covering main points (Experiment 2), consistent with their having engaged in more effective learning strategies. Instilling an expectation to teach thus seems to be a simple, inexpensive intervention with the potential to increase learning efficiency at home and in the classroom.

Address of the bookmark: http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-014-0416-z#page-1

Assessment in historical perspective

Fascinating article by Ben Wilbrink (1997) that traces the evolution of assessment approaches, mainly in higher education, from mediaeval times. In the process this offers some intriguing insights into how universities themselves, and the pedagogies with which we are familiar, evolved.

Address of the bookmark: http://benwilbrink.nl/publicaties/97AssessmentStEE.htm

On the Design of Social Media for Learning

A paper by me and Terry Anderson that draws ideas about soft and hard technologies and our model of social forms together.

Abstract: This paper presents two conceptual models that we have developed for understanding ways that social media can support learning. One model relates to the “social” aspect of social media, describing the different ways that people can learn with and from each other, in one or more of three social forms: groups, networks and sets. The other model relates to the ‘media’ side of social media, describing how technologies are constructed and the roles that people play in creating and enacting them, treating them in terms of softness and hardness. The two models are complementary: neither provides a complete picture but, in combination, they help to explain how and why different uses of social media may succeed or fail and, as importantly, are intended to help us design learning activities that make most effective use of the technologies. We offer some suggestions as to how media used to support different social forms can be softened and hardened for different kinds of learning applications.
 

Address of the bookmark: http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/3/3/378

I’ve completely moved to social media | Scobleizer

So, Robert Scoble has left the blogosphere. I’m not entirely sure in what sense his blog was not an instance of social media but I do know why this bothers me. It’s not just that he no longer owns his own space but that we don’t either. I am certainly not going to use Facebook to follow him – the company has neither his nor my interests in mind. I might catch the odd post via Twitter or Google+, but it will be lost in a sea of other things and won’t grab my attention, and any attempt I might make to organize and control the tide will be susceptible to the whims of the companies that own the sites, who are playing a much too large role in determining what I get to see in my particular filter bubble as it is.

If I’m going to be in a bubble then I want to be the one that makes it. The great thing about blogs is that they are distributed, not centralized, owned by individuals, not organizations. This is not just important to the individuals that they belong to, but to the individuals that read them, subscribe to them, aggregate them, remix them and learn from them. That’s why things like WordPressElgg (that runs this site) and Known (by Ben Werdemuller, who co-developed Elgg) matter more than all the glitzy social silos put together.

 

Address of the bookmark: http://scobleizer.com/?p=8494

Gordon Pask PDFs

A great collection of papers and even the odd full book by the late great Gordon Pask. His cybernetic theories of learning, especially in the form of conversation theory and the value of teachback in learning, have been very influential (notably through the work of Diane Laurillard) and deserve to be more so. His serialist/holist learning style theory is one of the few that I find even slightly compelling because it actually relates teaching to learning style though, like all the rest of the genre, it makes little sense apart from as a useful reminder that there are infinite different ways to teach the same thing. His systems views of learning are, on the other hand, unequivocally brilliant. Sometimes difficult reading, but the effort pays off.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.pangaro.com/pask-pdfs.html

SocialCom 2014

Social Computing & Networking is an IEEE conference for those interested in how computers can affect and support social engagement. It is distinctly biased to the computing end of this spectrum and tends to have a lot of stuff concerned with social network theory and similar issues, but it covers some broader and more human-oriented ground too. The paper submission deadline is August 25th and the conference itself is in Sydney Australia, Dec 3-5 this year.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.swinflow.org/confs/socialcom2014/

Book: Reusing Open Resources

Now in print, a new and interesting edited book by Allison Littlejohn and Chris Pegler on open educational resources, (disclaimer: includes a chapter by me and Terry Anderson).  Apart from us, Allison and Chris have gathered a great bunch of people together to explore issues from some distinctly learner-oriented perspectives, and across a broad range of contexts, including informal and non-formal learning as well as in formal education.

If you want to get a good flavour of the kind of chapters it contains, and in keeping with the subject matter, a few selected chapters (including ours) have been published openly at http://jime.open.ac.uk/jime/issue/view/2014-ReusingResources-OpenforLearning

Address of the bookmark: http://routledge-ny.com/books/details/9780415838696/

DRM-free indie ebooks outsell DRM-locked ones 2:1

Yet more evidence that not only is DRM (digital rights management –  locking of digital content in order to limit purchasers’ options to use it, copy it, etc) an evil blight for consumers, it is actually a really dumb thing for producers to do, assuming they wish to make money. 

So why do publishers do it? I don’t get it. It is just about conceivable that a lack of DRM might lead to more illegal copying, sure, which might be seen as taking legitimate future profits away from the producers. It’s a strange definition of ‘theft’ but I could accept it if it were true. But it isn’t.  The incontrovertible fact of the matter is that all the available evidence shows that this almost invariably leads to more purchases and greater profits. In other words, not only does this lead to no loss, it actually leads to significant gain. So who is losing what, exactly, here? 

I believe that the main reason that theft is evil is because of the harm it causes to its victims. By that token, DRM is a greater evil than illegitimate copying because it causes significantly greater harm, both to those who buy locked content and those that sell it. Theft – real theft, not this weird virtual abstraction – is not only harmful to individuals but it is destructive to society too. It destroys the social contracts, written and unwritten, that bind us as a society and that allow us to trust one another, whether or not we know one another.  DRM is evil in much the same way because it sends a strong message that everyone is a potential criminal that cannot be trusted. That cannot be good for a society.

Address of the bookmark: http://boingboing.net/2014/07/19/drm-free-indie-ebooks-outsell.html