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Authors: Jaclyn Abraham, Rebecca Roth, Heidi Zinzow, Kapil Chalil Madathil, and Pamela Wisniewski
Transactions on Social Computing, Volume 5, Issue 1-4
Article No.: 3, Pages 1 - 34
Published: 26 November 2022 Publication History
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Abstract
Viral social media challenges have erupted across multiple social media platforms. While social media users participate in prosocial challenges designed to support good causes, like the Ice Bucket Challenge, some challenges (e.g., Cinnamon Challenge) can also potentially be dangerous. To understand the influential factors, experiences, and reflections of young adults who participated in a viral social media challenge in the past, we conducted interviews with 30 college students (ages 18–27). We applied behavioral contagion theory as a qualitative lens to understand whether this theory could help explain the factors that contributed to their participation. We found that behavior contagion theory was useful but not fully able to explain how and why young social media users engaged in viral challenges. Thematic analyses uncovered that overt social influence and intrinsic factors (i.e., social pressure, entertainment value, and attention-seeking) also played a key role in challenge participation. Additionally, we identified divergent patterns between prosocial and potentially risky social media challenges. Those who participated in prosocial challenges appeared to be more socially motivated as they saw more similarities between themselves and the individuals that they observed performing the challenges and were more likely to be directly encouraged by their friends to participate. In contrast, those who performed potentially risky challenges often did not see similarities with other challenge participants, nor did they receive direct encouragement from peers; yet, half of these participants said they would not have engaged in the challenge had they been more aware of the potential for physical harm. We consider the benefits and risks that viral social media challenges present for young adults with the intent of optimizing these interactions by mitigating risks, rather than discouraging them altogether.
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Index Terms
Applying Behavioral Contagion Theory to Examining Young Adults’ Participation in Viral Social Media Challenges
Human-centered computing
Human computer interaction (HCI)
HCI theory, concepts and models
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Published In
ACM Transactions on Social Computing Volume 5, Issue 1-4
December 2022
103 pages
EISSN:2469-7826
DOI:10.1145/3572823
- Editor:
- Kevin Crowston
Syracuse University, USA
Issue’s Table of Contents
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [emailprotected].
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Association for Computing Machinery
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Publication History
Published: 26 November 2022
Online AM: 28 July 2022
Accepted: 12 April 2022
Revised: 25 February 2022
Received: 07 May 2021
Published inTSCVolume 5, Issue 1-4
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Author Tags
- Social media
- viral challenges
- behavioral contagion
Qualifiers
- Research-article
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- National Science Foundation
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- Kobilke LMarkiewitz A(2024)Understanding youth participation in social media challenges: A scoping review of definitions, typologies, and theoretical perspectivesComputers in Human Behavior10.1016/j.chb.2024.108265157(108265)Online publication date: Aug-2024
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