شلاله معراجی اسکویی

Cyberactivism, as civic engagement, is enabled by social media, and has attracted many users to participate in leading social change. To shed more light on the relationship between cyberactivism and real-world (social) activism, within a quantitative approach, employing correlational research design, and a group comparison research design, the current research examined two linear regression models for the relationships among online sharing, homophily, attitudinal influenceability, and behavioral influenceability, and also, among behavioral influenceability, cyberactivism and social activism, and then examined the effects of sociodemographic characteristics of Iranian Instagram users on these variables in a 393-participant sample. The alternative hypotheses about the relationships among the variables in these two models, were retained. The results also showed that age, gender, and occupational status had effects on almost all variables. This study contributes to the existing literature by introducing attitudinal and behavioral influenceability as important factors influencing cyberactivism and social activism. It encourages governments to take full advantage of online activities and cyberactivism to promote social participation and real-world activism, especially among youth and females, to transcend society, and better solve societal and global problems with the collective wisdom.

Cyber transgressions (nonnormative behaviors, attitudes and conditions)– both cultural and criminal– have raised social control concerns among different stakeholders. A group comparison research design was adopted to examine the effects of sociodemographic factors and social media use habits of Iranian social media users (n= 989) on their self-control, cybercultural transgressive behaviors, and transgressive content consumption. The study has contributed to the literature by recognizing the impacts of gender, age, relationship status, parental, educational, and occupational status, and household income level on the outcome variables. Altogether, it can be inferred from the results that individuals (especially women) who are older, married, have children, are middle-income, university educated, non-student, have more years of Internet use experience, and less daily internet use, and have a job (also retired individuals and housewives) are less likely than others to commit online transgressive behaviors, or consume transgressive content. The findings of this study can be employed to devise new policies and initiatives to socially control the cybercultural transgressions, without applying coercion.

Cyber transgressions (non-normative behaviors, attitudes and conditions) are growing, hence we employed a three-study exploratory sequential mixed method designed to make a taxonomy of Instagram cybercultural transgressions, and cyber social control means; to examine the effects of low self-control, depression, negative interpersonal relationships, computer/ Internet self-efficacy, netiquette, and normative beliefs, and also sociodemographic factors, and media use habits on cybercultural transgressions; and to explore the effectiveness of jurisdiction, non-anonymity, filtering, and forced user migration to domestic social media platforms as cyber social control means. The quantitative findings from 989 participants showed that nondepressed, older, married, middle-income, university educated, non-student users (especially women) with high self-control, more positive interpersonal relationships, moderate levels of computer/ Internet self-efficacy, normative beliefs, and with more years of Internet use experience, and less daily Internet use, who are knowledgeable about netiquette, are parents, have a job (also retired individuals and housewives), do not use VPNs, psychotropic medications, and alcoholic beverages and/ or recreational drugs, do not have previous experience of online victimization, do not associate with online transgressors, and do not feel being in minority, are less likely than others to commit online transgressive behaviors, or consume transgressive content. The importance of jurisdiction and non-anonymity as social control means, and the failure of filtering and forced user migration to Iranian social media platforms are discussed. These findings can be useful in devising new non-coercive policies and initiatives to socially control cybercultural transgressions.

Introduction: Academic transgression (AT), as any behavior, belief, or condition that violates a social and academic norm, is a serious problem threatening academic integrity, especially when committed by faculty members, who are supposed to be educational role models. Societies employ social control means to respond to, prevent or reduce transgressive acts, to maintain social order and morality. The current study aimed to examine the perceived effects of self-control, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction, as social control means, on five types of interpersonal, educational, research, organizational, and sexual ATs among faculty members, and also to measure perceived prevalence of these transgressions in Iranian higher education. Material & Methods: A modified version of “perceived causal relations” methodology was adopted to study the perceived relations between reciprocal pairs of the variables. Network analysis was employed to analyze the data gathered from faculty members via an online questionnaire. Results: The results demonstrated that faculty member participants perceived high effects of their self-control, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction on decreasing ATs, particularly interpersonal, organizational, and educational ATs. Conclusion: As faculty member participants perceived high prevalence of all types of ATs in Iranian academia, there is an urge to consider new policies to employ effective social control means suggested in this research, especially self-control, to reduce, and even restrain the perpetration of these transgressions. We also suggest perceived causal relations as a useful and strong methodology to conduct research on sensitive topics, especially, transgression and crime

Social control of cyberspace is a necessity to restrict online transgressions (non-normative behaviors), and reduce their disruptive effects. The current study aimed at examining the factors affecting social control of cybercultural transgressions. A questionnaire was administered to Iranian social media users, and 989 participants have filled it out. A path analysis model was constructed testing the effects of Low Self-Control, Depression, Negative Interpersonal Relationships, Computer/ Internet Self-Efficacy, Netiquette, and Normative Beliefs on Transgressive Behaviors, and Transgressive Content Consumption. The results showed that Low Self-Control increased both criterion variables, and fully or partially mediated the effects of other variables on them, except for Negative Interpersonal Relationships. The important contribution of the current study was the recognition of the role of self-control as a mediator among examined variables. The findings of this study can be employed to devise new policies and initiatives to socially control the cybercultural transgressions, without applying coercion.