As Twitter has grown in popularity, a number of research studies have examined motivations for using this microblogging platform. A recent study drawing on the framework of Terror Management Theory, made the intriguing finding that when confronted with a reminder of one’s eventual death, extraverts increased their Twitter usage while introverts avoided it altogether. Extraverts and introverts appear to have different ways of coping with existential threats that could affect their use of social networking. This might shed some light on the purpose of a large amount of apparently “pointless” communication that occurs on this site.
Grappling with ultimate concerns in 140 characters or less?
Twitter differs
other social networking sites such as Facebook in that messages are restricted
to very short lengths (up to 140 characters) and messages are generally
immediately visible to the general public, not just a user’s followers. This
contrasts with typical Facebook usage, where users generally only allow mutual
“friends” to see their status updates and their personal profiles. Thus
people’s Facebook profiles tend to be more private, whereas typically a
person’s Twitter profile can be viewed by anybody.
So what exactly are people on Twitter sharing with the wider
world? According to one survey
of Twitter, the most common type of content shared (over 40% of all tweets) was
“pointless babble,” that is, banal updates about day-to-day activities (e.g.
“ate a salad”). Some commentators have disputed this description, arguing
that such updates are better described as “social grooming” or “peripheral
social awareness.” That is, even though they may seem pointless to outside
observers these messages may fulfil some meaningful function for the person.
What exactly this function is remains unclear. A recent study explored two
possible functions that Twitter usage might serve: restoring a sense of social
inclusion after ostracism, and alleviating existential threat (Qiu et al.,
2010).
This study involved two experiments, in both of which
participants were given access to a pre-existing Twitter account with 30
followers and given opportunities to send brief messages if they wished. The
experimenter created the impression that other users were currently online and
able to read the participants’ messages by sending two updates about mundane
activities (e.g. “helping a friend”). Additionally, participants were assessed
on their Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience).
The first experiment tested whether participants who had
been experimentally ostracised would send more tweets compared to those who had
not. Most people experience ostracism, or deliberate social exclusion as highly aversive and following ostracism people become motivated to restore a sense of social connection. However, the
experimenters found that ostracised participants sent no more tweets than
non-ostracised ones, contrary to expectations. The authors thought this
indicated that sending brief messages to strangers does not satisfy a person’s
need for social inclusion after being ostracised. Perhaps this is because users
do not expect random strangers to respond to their tweets. After all, is there
a point to communicating if others do not respond? The second experiment
suggested another possibility.
The purpose of the second experiment was to test the effects
of a reminder of one’s own mortality on Twitter usage. A large body of research
known as Terror Management Theory (TMT) has found that being reminded of the
fact that one will eventually die creates a sense of existential threat that
people attempt to cope with in a number of ways (Hart,
Shaver, & Goldenberg, 2005). The most well-researched coping methods
are cultural worldview defence (e.g. “My country, my people, are really
great!”), bolstering self-esteem (“ I'm great!”) and seeking closeness with
loved ones (“someone cares about me”). These coping methods seem to provide a
buffer against existential anxiety by reinforcing a sense that one is special,
important, and connected with something larger than one’s self, and not merely
an insignificant creature with a fleeting existence.
Qiu et al. argued that Twitter usage could help alleviate
existential anxiety by providing participants with a means to affirm their own
existence, that is, to announce to the world in effect “I am alive!” To test
this, participants were asked to write either a brief essay about their own
death (mortality salience condition) or about a neutral topic (control
condition). Then they were provided with a series of opportunities to tweet
messages if they wished. What the researchers found was that there was an
effect of mortality salience but this depended on the personality trait of
extraversion. Specifically, after mortality salience highly extraverted
participants sent more tweets (nearly 10 on average) compared to their
counterparts in the control condition
whereas highly introverted participants sent less (about zero on
average). In the control condition there was no difference between extraverted
and introverted participants in number of tweets sent (3 – 4 on average).
Qiu et al. did not attempt to explain why extraverted and
introverted participants responded to existential threat so differently, or
even why their Twitter usage did not differ in the control condition.
Extraversion is associated with greater sociability so the fact that in the
control condition extraverts did not make greater usage of this social
networking tool seems a little surprising. However, previous research has found
that social motives do not predict how much time a person spends using Twitter
(Johnson & Yang, 2009), suggesting that under routine circumstances a
person’s sociability may not be that important to how much they use this
medium. However, this might change when a person experiences an existential
threat. Extraverts might see Twitter usage as a good way to proclaim their
existence to other people, even if these others are complete strangers who may
have little interest in the minutiae of one’s life. Introverts appear to adopt
a different strategy, so perhaps they feel a need to turn inward and be within
themselves as a way of reaffirming their own existence. For introverts
experiencing an existential threat, sending banal messages to strangers might
seem like a superficial distraction from deeper concerns. For extraverts, such
a distraction might be just what they need. The fact that they are strangers
might seem less important to them than that they are a potential audience.
Some limitations of the study are worth noting. Participants
were assigned a pre-existing Twitter account with random strangers as
followers. This may not adequately reflect how people use the service in real
life. Additionally, the researchers assessed participants on five personality
traits yet presented results relevant to only one of them. With five sets of
results, the odds are increased that statistically significant findings could
occur by chance alone. Additionally, the outcome measure was the number of
tweets sent and their content was not assessed. It would be interesting to
explore whether message content after mortality salience differed from the
control condition based on personality traits. For example, people high in
neuroticism might have been more disturbed than others by writing about death
and their tweets might perhaps have reflected this (e.g. “I’m freaking out about
this experiment!”). Additionally, it would have been interesting to see if
participants’ messages after mortality salience involved efforts to bolster
self-esteem or defend their cultural world-view, which are also known to help
buffer against existential threat.
This study is the first one that I know of to apply
principles of TMT to social networking usage. As social networking continues to
gain in popularity I would welcome more such research. I think this study shows
that what may appear to some to be “pointless babble” may actually serve a
deeper purpose, depending on one’s personality and momentary needs.
Other articles concerning social media:
Other articles concerning social media:
Is there something wrong with people who don't use Facebook? What research really says about non-users. One of my most popular posts!
The Misunderstood Personality Profile of Wikipedia Members Contrary to a widely reported study, Wikipedians are not close-minded at all.
© Scott McGreal. Please do not reproduce without
permission. Brief excerpts may be quoted as long as a link to the original
article is provided.
This article also appears on Psychology Today on
my blog Unique - Like Everybody Else.
References
Johnson,
P. and Yang, S. , 2009-08-05 "Uses and Gratifications of
Twitter: An Examination of User Motives and Satisfaction of Twitter Use" Paper
presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism
and Mass Communication, Sheraton Boston, Boston, MA Online. 2012-06-20 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p376367_index.html
Qiu L, Leung AK, Ho JH, Yeung QM, Francis KJ, & Chua PF (2010). Understanding the psychological motives behind microblogging. Studies in health technology and informatics, 154, 140-4 PMID: 20543286
