From the Publisher: 
A Question of Identity 
Life on the Screen is a fascinating and wide-ranging investigation of the impact of computers and networking on society, peoples' perceptions of themselves, and the individual's relationship to machines. Sherry Turkle, a Professor of the Sociology of Science at MIT and a licensed psychologist, uses Internet MUDs (multi-user domains, or in older gaming parlance multi-user dungeons) as a launching pad for explorations of software design, user interfaces, simulation, artificial intelligence, artificial life, agents, "bots," virtual reality, and "the on-line way of life." 
Turkle's discussion of postmodernism is particularly enlightening. She shows how postmodern concepts in art, architecture, and ethics are related to concrete topics much closer to home, for example AI research (Minsky's "Society of Mind") and even MUDs (exemplified by students with X-window terminals who are doing homework in one window and simultaneously playing out several different roles in the same MUD in other windows). Those of you who have (like me) been turned off by the shallow, pretentious, meaningless paintings and sculptures that litter our museums of modern art may have a different perspective after hearing what Turkle has to say. 
This is a psychoanalytical book, not a technical one. However, software developers and engineers will find it highly accessible because of the depth of the author's technical understanding and credibility. Unlike most other authors in this genre, Turkle does not constantly jar the technically-literate reader with blatant errors or bogus assertions about how things work. Although I personally don't have time or patience for MUDs,view most of AI as snake-oil, and abhor postmodern architecture, I thought the time spent reading this book was an extremely good investment.

스크린 위의 삶 = Life on the screen : identity in the age of the internet

This article investigates Facebook users' awareness of privacy issues and perceived benefits and risks of utilizing Facebook. Research found that Facebook is deeply integrated in users' daily lives through specific routines and rituals. Users claimed to understand privacy issues, yet reported uploading large amounts of personal information. Risks to privacy invasion were ascribed more to others than to the self. However, users reporting privacy invasion were more likely to change privacy settings than those merely hearing about others' privacy invasions. Results suggest that this lax attitude may be based on a combination of high gratification, usage patterns, and a psychological mechanism similar to third-person effect. Safer use of social network services would thus require changes in user attitude.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01494.x

Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences

Users have adopted a wide range of digital technologies into their communication repertoire. It remains unclear why they adopt multiple forms of communication instead of substituting one medium for another. It also raises the question: What type of need does each of these media fulfill? In the present article, the authors conduct comparative work that examines the gratifications obtained from Facebook with those from instant messaging. This comparison between media allows one to draw conclusions about how different social media fulfill user needs. Data were collected from undergraduate students through a multimethod study based on 77 surveys and 21 interviews. A factor analysis of gratifications obtained from Facebook revealed six key dimensions: pastime, affection, fashion, share problems, sociability, and social information. Comparative analysis showed that Facebook is about having fun and knowing about the social activities occurring in one’s social network, whereas instant messaging is geared more tow...

https://terpconnect.umd.edu/~nan/738readings/Quan-Haase%20Young%202010%20uses%20gratifications%20social%20media.pdf

Uses and Gratifications of Social Media: A Comparison of Facebook and Instant Messaging:

Purpose – User‐generated media (UGM) like YouTube, MySpace, and Wikipedia have become tremendously popular over the last few years. The purpose of this paper is to present an analytical framework for explaining the appeal of UGM.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is mainly theoretical due to a relative lack of empirical evidence. After an introduction on the emergence of UGM, this paper investigates in detail how and why people use UGM, and what factors make UGM particularly appealing, through a uses and gratifications perspective. Finally, the key elements of this study are summarized and the future research directions about UGM are discussed.Findings – This paper argues that individuals take with UGM in different ways for different purposes: they consume contents for fulfilling their information, entertainment, and mood management needs; they participate through interacting with the content as well as with other users for enhancing social connections and virtual communities; and they produce their...

Understanding the appeal of user‐generated media: a uses and gratification perspective

This study investigates the interactivity construct in terms of its antecedents (i.e., motivations for using the Internet) and consequences (i.e., attitude toward the site, attitude toward the brand, and purchase intention). A structural equation model was developed for an empirical test, based on uses and gratification theory applied to the interactivity context. A sample of 385 college students in the United States and Korea participated in the experiment. The findings suggest that consumers who have high information motivations are more likely to engage in human-message interaction on a Web site, whereas social interaction motivations are more strongly related to human-human interaction. Both human-message and human-human interactions had a positive effect on attitude toward the site, which leads to positive attitude toward the brand and purchase intention.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/4189297.pdf

INTERNET USES AND GRATIFICATIONS: A Structural Equation Model of Interactive Advertising

Several studies have applied uses and gratifications to explain Internet usage. Like Bandura’s social-cognitive theory, the uses and gratifications framework explains media use in terms of expected positive outcomes, or gratifications. However, previous uses and gratifications research accounted for little variance in Internet behavior, although there were conflicting results. This research identifies new variables from social-cognitive theory that might further explain Internet usage and resolve inconsistencies in prior research. Measures of self-efficacy and self-disparagement were developed for the domain of Internet behavior. Internet addiction was interpreted as a deficient self-regulation within the social-cognitive framework. Finally, the negative outcomes of online behavior were analyzed for their impact on Internet usage. In a survey of 171 college students, the social-cognitive model explained 60% of the available variance in Internet usage using multiple regression analysis, a significant impro...

/pdf/understanding-internet-usage-a-social-cognitive-approach-to-31xcyamrgn.pdf

Understanding Internet usage: a social-cognitive approach to uses and gratifications

Several studies have applied uses and gratifications to explain Internet usage. Like Bandura’s social-cognitive theory, the uses and gratifications framework explains media use in terms of expected positive outcomes, or gratifications. However, previous uses and gratifications research accounted for little variance in Internet behavior, although there were conflicting results. This research identifies new variables from social-cognitive theory that might further explain Internet usage and resolve inconsistencies in prior research. Measures of self-efficacy and self-disparagement were developed for the domain of Internet behavior. Internet addiction was interpreted as a deficient self-regulation within the social-cognitive framework. Finally, the negative outcomes of online behavior were analyzed for their impact on Internet usage. In a survey of 171 college students, the social-cognitive model explained 60% of the available variance in Internet usage using multiple regression analysis, a significant improvement over prior uses and gratifications research.

A Social-Cognitive Approach to Uses and Gratifications

The present study has been designed in an attempt to replicate and expand the parameters of D. Zillmann and J. Bryant's selective exposure approach to use of the Internet. In applying this theoretical framework to the Internet, it was expected that persons experiencing unpleasant levels of excitation would arrange their Internet environment in order to terminate their aversive states. Through experimentally manipulating levels of boredom and stress and subsequently recording Internet surfing patterns, it was found that although mood significantly predicted Internet hits, it was not associated with the hedonic valence of the site.

Dana Mastro

Papers

Understanding Internet usage: a social-cognitive approach to uses and gratifications

A Social-Cognitive Approach to Uses and Gratifications

Internet Search Behaviors and Mood Alterations: A Selective Exposure Approach