Social Science Computer Review

The purpose of this study is to explore the roles of psychological attributes (such as shyness and loneliness) and smartphone usage patterns in predicting smartphone addiction symptoms and social capital. Data were gathered from a sample of 414 university students using online survey in Mainland China. Results from exploratory factor analysis identified five smartphone addiction symptoms: disregard of harmful consequences, preoccupation, inability to control craving, productivity loss, and feeling anxious and lost, which formed the Smartphone Addiction Scale. Results show that the higher one scored in loneliness and shyness, the higher the likelihood one would be addicted to smartphone. Furthermore, this study shows the most powerful predictor inversely affecting both bonding and bridging social capital was loneliness. Moreover, this study presents clear evidence that the use of smartphones for different purposes (especially for information seeking, sociability, and utility) and the exhibition of different addiction symptoms (such as preoccupation and feeling anxious and lost) significantly impacted social capital building. The significant links between smartphone addiction and smartphone usage, loneliness, and shyness have clear implications for treatment and intervention for parents, educators, and policy makers. Suggestions for future research are discussed.

This article is subject to the following research question: Is the role of income inequality in comparison to other factors an element that influences the digital divide? Eleven variables providing data on 126 countries are analyzed using multivariate regression to identify which of them influence Internet usage to what extent. The used data on 126 countries refer to the year 2005. The results show that income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient is an important influencing factor besides per capita income, the degree of urbanization, and the level of democratization. The results question reductionistic digital divide approaches that analyze information inequality via focusing on a single variable (such as technology or markets). Access to ICTs is shaped by the interaction of socioeconomic, political, cultural, social, and technological factors. These results cast doubt on technological determinism, economic reductionism, and linear trend projection in the digital divide debate. Digital divide causes are complex.

This article examines action to address young people’s apathy to the democratic process and politics in general, by considering possibilities for using information and communication technology to engage young people. The article describes two e-democracy systems in use in Scotland, which provide young people with opportunities to participate in and understand democratic decision making. The systems are designed to allow young people to deliberate issues of importance to them. The Highland Council initiative involves young people in the design of a web site for their youth parliament with online debates and Internet voting. The Young Scot initiative is a national youth portal, including an e-democracy channel. The emphasis here is on content management and moderation of e-consultations for young people. Research indicates that democracy is best taught by practicing it and that many young people are comfortable using new information and communication technologies. These ideas form the basis of both projects.

The prospect of Internet voting has received much attention because of concerns over the integrity of the U.S. electoral system. Proponents of Internet voting contend that the Internet will play an important role in revitalizing the American electorate. Opponents counter that Internet voting will benefit already advantaged groups. Using data collected in Arizona during the 2000 general election campaign, this study examined the opinions of registered voters (N = 501) toward Internet voting and found that almost one half of survey respondents opposed Internet voting. Results suggest that Internet voting could change the sociodemographic and ideological composition of the voting electorate. Concerns about the composition of the electorate, however, were not prevalent in survey participants’ open-ended responses about the potential disadvantages of Internet voting.

This article provides an overview of the social simulation approach to the study of social phenomena. We focus especially on the relevance of heterogeneity of social behavior and dynamics and the complex interplay of agent behavior and social structure. The article identifies the peculiarities and the explanatory achievements of this approach and then discusses its prospects and challenges. Special attention is given to (i) how micro-level behavioral detail can be used to understand social patterns and dynamics; (ii) the importance of the meso level of social networks; and (iii) the two-way, process linkages between micro and macro aspects as a fundamental source of social uncertainty and unpredictability.

In this article, we describe how we are using text mining solutions to enhance the production of systematic reviews. The aims of this collaborative project are the development of a text mining framework to support systematic reviews and the provision of a service exemplar serving as a test bed for deriving requirements for the development of more generally applicable text mining tools and services.

Computer-assisted interviewing (CAI) has a substantial impact on the way interviewers carry out the task of interviewing. Survey instruments are becoming more complex, necessitating new skills of interviewers. In addition to question wording, the design of CAI instruments is a focus of evaluation and pretesting efforts. This article reports on a variety of research activities related to the usability testing of CAI instruments, focusing both on interviewers (in interviewer-administered surveys) and respondents (in self-administered surveys). The article introduces practices and procedures of usability testing, illustrated with examples from several recent studies in which these methods were applied to the evaluation of computerized survey instruments.

The Internet has become an increasingly popular form of data collection because it permits complex questionnaires to be administered more quickly, flexibly, and inexpensively than conventional survey methods. However, the Internet is restricted to individuals with access to computer networks. Thus, causal inferences to the general population from analyses of Internet samples necessarily rest on two untested assumptions: (a) that the decision-making processes of Internet users are similar to those used by the general population, and (b) that representative samples of Internet users can be drawn. The authors provide mixed support for these assumptions. They find that current Internet sampling techniques only permit the generation of diverse, not representative, samples. However, comparing samples drawn simultaneously using the Internet and probabilistic telephone methods, the authors demonstrate that the psychological mechanisms underlying common political decisions do not differ between Internet users and the population. They discuss the implications of these findings for future survey research.

This study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the relationships between different types of Facebook use, perceived online social support, and boys’ and girls’ depressed mood. To address this aim, this study ( N = 910) developed a comprehensive model that (1) differs between specific types of Facebook use, (2) examines the mediating role of perceived online social support, and (3) takes adolescent users’ gender into account. Structural equation modeling showed that the harmful impact of Facebook use exclusively occurs among girls who passively use Facebook and among boys who actively use Facebook in a public setting. Girls, however, who actively use Facebook, either in a public setting or in a private setting and subsequently perceive online social support, benefit from actively using Facebook, as perceived online social support negatively predicted girls’ depressed mood. The discussion focuses on the explanation and understanding of these findings, key limitations, and directions for future research.

People increasingly rely on social network sites (SNSs) to find out timely information about crises. Thus, emergency managers are interested in how people participate and how to promote their participation in SNSs after crises. Based on self-determination theory, this study develops a theoretical model to examine the mechanisms through which different types of motivation contribute to various participating behaviors in SNSs after crises. Survey data were collected after the Ya’an earthquake, which occurred in China on April 20, 2013. Our results show that while autonomous motivation is positively related to posting new content about the earthquake, controlled motivation is positively related to commenting on others’ content about the earthquake. Furthermore, perceived autonomy and perceived relatedness are positively related to autonomous motivation. We suggest that emergency managers may want to promote different types of motivations, depending on the specific participating behavior preferred after crises.