Cyberspace Studies

In this study, the issue of using Instagram social network by different groups of Iranian women and their interests and desires in publication of photos is investigated. The purpose of the study is to identify the common aspects and differences in women’s lives reflected in their self-expression efforts based on their social characteristics. Therefore, the women were classified into eight groups based on the elements affecting the way they show their daily lives, such as education level, occupation and marital status. Then, qualitative method, including virtual ethnographic techniques, content analysis and online interviews, was used. Photos posted on Instagram by 32 users were studied and analyzed, and these users were interviewed. Questions were asked about their tendency towards posting photos of their daily lives on Instagram via direct messages. The conceptual framework of the study included Bourdieu’s theory of ‘distinction’ and Baudrillard’s concept of ‘system of objects’. Results showed that women in each group select specific approaches to the publication of photos based on their social conditions. In the present article, these differences are discussed in detail. The significance of this research lies in the<span class="tlid-translation"> possibility of understanding different aspects of women’s everyday life and their individual identity through self-reports in the new media as opposed to the traditional media which only presents a standardized type of identification. Since studying women’s efforts in presenting themselves on social media has been neglected in studies conducted on social networks in Iran, this study leads to a better understanding of Iranian women’s diverse identities.

Past researchers have examined the impact of personality types on technology usage among students from varying angles. However, due to dearth of studies on personality types and smart phone addiction among students in the Nigerian environment, this study investigated the relationship between personality types, smart phone addiction and specific phone usages among University students. A sample size of 200 was used for this study using systematic sampling technique in the selection of respondents in the study area. Findings revealed that conscientiousness and agreeableness personality types had significant positive correlation with smart phone addiction; while extraversion and neuroticism had significant negative correlation with smart phone addiction. Again personality types had significant positive and negative correlation with specific phone usages. In addition, findings revealed that majority of the specific phone usages had positive correlation with smart phone addiction. Based on the findings of this study, recommendations were made towards curbing addictive tendencies among university students in the use of smart phones.

A life full of peace has always been a dream for human societies. Peace is still considered as one of the main modern world concerns, because each nation deals with its own kind of violence and war. Therefore, peacemaking has turned into one of the governments’ objectives. Peace has been affected by various factors in all over history. Media and communication technologies are two of the factors that influenced the peacemaking process in the past five decades. They play an important role in the efforts made towards peacemaking because they act as mediators amongst nations, governments, civilizations, organizations, and people. New media have turned into an important factor in the peacemaking process in terms of its widespread effects and extensive capacities. The new media’s importance is on a rise considering its presence in and effects on various aspects of our lives, like political, economic, and social dimensions at sub-national, national and international levels. It has also turned into an important instrument for performing the countries' foreign policies due to its features, along with earning a critical role in peacemaking diplomacy. The media could both be the harbinger of peace and the underlying cause of war with respect to its diverse functions. It could preach peace by sending peace messages inside and outside of the borders, and also by creating a peaceful notion in the people’s minds.

Internet Addiction Among Cyberkids in China: Risk Factors and Intervention Strategies by Qiaolei Jiang, 2019, Singapore: Springer, 199 pp., €84.99(h/c), ISBN 978-981-13-3791-8

The present study is an attempt to problematize the multivalent data in the cyberspace through the lenses of Wittgenstein’s analytic philosophy of language. Adopting this linguistic philosophy approach is aimed at exploring the dichotomous question of whether cyberspace is a possibility for social power or it is a contributory cause of communicative discontinuity and henceforth a possibility for social anomia. The central argument here is that within cyberspace there exist three languages at work each one with a degree of semiotic power: pictorial, verbal and mathematical. Since none of them is based on a one-to-one correspondence between the signifiers and the signifieds, the cyberspace users in practice are led to misinformation and disinformation instead of information. This situation creates an epistemic chasm in their real life. This is because their finite mind is not able to grasp the infinite reality of the cyberspace multivalent data. Accordingly, cyberspace with its abundance of misinformation and disinformation leads us to a mental disorder. This constitutes the real power of social media in creating a socio-political turmoil and anomia.

Digitalization and the emergence of the Internet have resulted in escalating access to information and communication. Given the circumstances that soaring access to information amounts to the intensification of misinformation and disinformation, a set of critical skills to navigate and critically assess the information is necessary. This paper outlines the significance of these skills, and provides a perspective on metaliteracy as a supplement to media and information literacy, and argues that the ability to conceptualize, access, comprehend, analyze, and use information is crucial in achieving inclusive, pluralistic, and participatory knowledge societies.

Celebrities have gained considerable influence in the last one hundred years or so, but the advent of so-called Web 2.0 technologies has given celebrity culture a new momentum. We are living in a world in which celebrities are striving to curve their place in every niche and hence we have to become more media literate in order to avoid being exploited by celebrity media and culture. We have to be aware that celebrities promote commodities that they will never use, that they are carefully working on their image to become pleasant to us, and that if they do humanitarian work, they are mainly doing it for their reputation, and not for a real and authentic cause.