“Understanding the psychosocial mechanisms

through which symbolic communication influences

human thought, affect, and action is of

considerable import” (Bandura, 2001:265)

As such, the impact of social media upon human

interaction and communication is also of

considerable import

• We cultivate and maintain relationships

according to rewards and costs

• This governs our interaction & communication

• We invest time, effort and resources in

relationships that offer rewards

• We are less likely to maintain relationships that

don’t offer rewards or cost us more than they

• Recognition

• Acceptance

• Approval

• Knowledge

• Respect or prestige

• Power

• Material goods

• Rewards lost or denied

• Time & effort invested

• Shaming or disapproval

• Exclusion

• Imprisonment

• Physical harm

• ‘Likes’ constitute recognition and approval

• More likely to repeat behaviours and foster

relationships that reward you with ‘likes’

• Shaming and disapproval on social media is public

• Can cause people to withdraw or lash out

• Engagement in social media is time consuming

• What rewards are we receiving that make it

worthwhile?

•What impact does the system of rewards & risks presented by social media have on its users?

• As we get to know people we move

through levels of self disclosure

• Greater disclosures make us more

vulnerable but increase intimacy

• Relationships develop on the basis of

mutual self-disclosure

• Orientation: cautious, generic, inoffensive and intended

to impress or attract

• Exploratory Affective: sharing more personal opinion

based information such as political stance

• Affective: sharing more personal private information

• Stable: communicators share the mundane, the

political, the personal and the private freely

• Depenitration: withdrawing due to cost of

communicating

• Social media is rife with people sharing personal and private

thoughts, feelings and information.

• Sharing on Facebook might be with ‘friends’ or even a select

group of friends.

• Sharing on other platforms is accessible by anyone with internet

access

• This challenges social penetration theory

•Does sharing on social media represent a shift in attitudes to what’s personal & private?

• In its most basic form, Social Cognitive Theory

holds that our cognition and behaviour develops

through observation

• Environment, behaviour and cognition are in a

‘reciprocal triadic relationship’ –they all impact

upon each other.

• Reciprocal triadic relationship allows for complex processing to establish whether to repeat what is modelled

• “An extraordinary capacity for symbolisation provides humans with a powerful tool for comprehending their environment and creating and regulating environmental events that touch virtually every aspect of their lives”

(Bandura, 200:267)

• Traditional media such as TV & Film perceived as

representations of reality informing cognition -could

still be identified as fictional or unreal

• Perception of ‘reality’ heightened by status of internet

stars as ‘real people’

• Vloggers & Instagram stars can represent a false

reality. E.g. Essena O’Neill

•How are social media users impacted by the behaviours and lifestyles they observe online?

• Bandura, A. (2001) Social Cognitive Theory of Mass

Communication, Media Psychology [online] 3, 265-299

Available from:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s1532785xme

p0303_03 Accesssed on 27/11/2016

• Jih-Hsin Tang and Cheng-Chung Wang. Cyberpsychology,

Behavior, and Social Networking. May 2012, 15(5): 245-250.

doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.0403.