That LIKE you just clicked, the status you just posted are maybe an indicator of your cultural background, your potential health risk and your personality type.

Neil deGrasse Tyson said: “Any time scientists disagree, it’s because we have insufficient data. Then we can agree on what kind of data to get; we get the data; and the data solves the problem. Either I’m right, or you’re right, or we’re both wrong. And we move on.”

Psychologists often recruit undergraduate students to participate in their experiments, among which, most of them are psychology major undergraduate students.This group could produce a biased result in the study. For example, college student might exhibit higher intelligence because SAT score explains (The SAT score explain himself ?) 60% of the variance in intelligence. Psychology students might be more conscientious because they like to reflect on their emotions and behaviors. To reduce these bias, we need big data, social media data from(?) a major source.

What is social media?

Social media refers to a pool of internet sites that allow people to interact through chatting and information sharing. Facebook is the leading social networking site with 1.44 billion monthly active users, following by Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin and Pinterest, etc.

The latest statistics show that 74% of online adults use social networking sites, the amount of female users is larger than male users. Around 90% of the users are under the age of 30. Perhaps not surprisingly, there is an increasing trend for older internet users aged above 65 on Facebook.

Why do we use social media?

Social media sites have different major functions, you may use Facebook to browse information, contact with people you don’t often meet or enjoy your online games. You link with some CEOs on Linkedin to promote your small business, pin down a favorite Halloween cake on Pinterest. Different functionalities on a site satisify your various need for gratification. As a result, when we analyse social media data, it is necessary to identify different usages on a site. It is very inapproprite to comment on a group of users according to which site they use, such as, Facebook users are more trusting than others; Facebook users have more close relationships. Instead, it is which functionalities they use and how they use it that matters. For example, heavy instant messaging users who often text a few close friends on Facebook tend to have higher disclosure level, as conversations with close friends often involve emotions, feelings and thoughts.

What can social media data tell about you?

That LIKE you just clicked, the status you just posted are probably an indicator of your cultural background, your potential health risk and your personality type.

In the last decade, social media studies have revealed that Facebook data indicate:

· Personality

· Mental health condition

· Gender difference

Personality studies found extraversion and neuroticism are two personality types that have strong links to Facebook usage. People with high extraversion are more likely to engage in higher amount of social interactions on Facebook.[1]

However, they spend less time chatting online, because they enjoy disclosing themselves in face-to-face communication. According to social compensation explanation, introverts benefit most by using social network, because indirect communication compensates their face-to-face communication. Whereas, the “rich-get-richer” theory argues that extraverts benefit more because Facebook provides them another platform for communication. The “rich-get-richer” argument gain more support, because introvertion is not just about communication skills, it’s also about whether you are comfortable to disclose yourself to other people. Recently, a group of researchers built up models to personality analysis through the LIKEs on Facebook. Check the science of LIKE in http://youarewhatyoulike.com/ and compare with our personality study in http://psyqu.com/projects/personality-1-min

Surprisingly, Facebook usage is linked to undesireable health consequences, such as low self-esteem and depression. The mediating factor behind Facebook depression is — social comparision. Comparing your ‘just broke up’ relationship with a cute baby and loving family photo on your friend’s Facebook status is one of those culprits of Facebook depression. The bright side is — you can remove them from the newsfeed or engage in other functionalities of the website, such as games or instant messaging. Study found that for females user with high neuroticism, frequent Facebook usage links to lower depressive symptoms. [2]

Gender differences are also found on social networking sites. In general, women tend to use SNSs (Social Networking Service) more than men. Female users are more likely to publish photos of their friends, disclose family relationships and romantic relationships.[3] Women are more concerned about their privacy on social media, in the latest research on PsyQu, we found that women are less likely to disclose their age on Facebook profile compare with men.

Other aspects such as accuracy of profile information, how and why people untag themselves in a photo[4], how the LIKE button can predict personality, tone and speech on Facebook statuses[5] were also analysis in the past studies. Recently, the website PsyQu.com is set up to reproduce the past research findings along with big data analysis. Collecting self-reports from people of all stages of life and various cultural backgrounds, other than just undergraduate students. PsyQu aims at building up new models based on a large amount of findings in Facebook data. If you are interested in the different studies and results, follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/psyqulife

PsyQu.com is set up to reproduce the past research findings along with big data analysis. Collecting self-reports from people of all stages of life and various cultural backgrounds, other than just undergraduate students.

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