Social media culture promotes risky posts: Study 

If you thought young people posting content on social media that contains sexual or offensive material were just being impulsive, think again! A new study says that such risky posts might be a deliberate strategy to fit in with the wider social media culture.

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According to researchers:

• Young adults think it is the best way to behave, said lead researcher.
• Furthermore,to measure risky online self-presentation.
• The research team designed a risk exposure scale relating to potentially inappropriate images or texts.
• Such as drug and alcohol use, sexual content, personal information, and offensive material.
• They also evaluated people’s level of self-monitoring and impulsivity.
• The results show that high self-monitors are just as likely to post risky content as those in the study who are more impulsive.
• In addition,which suggests they think it’s not only OK to be risky.
• And potentially offensive but that it’s actually the right thing to do.

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Research:

• For the study, participants were recruited to complete an online questionnaire.
• All were undergraduate students, who received course credit for their participation.
• The only notable difference between the nationalities was that British students were more likely to post comments.
• In addition,and images related to their alcohol and drug use on social media.
• Whereas their Italian counterparts were more likely to post offensive content and personal information,experts said.
• This difference shows that culture as a whole seems to play a part in what type of content is shared.
• But the fact that the behaviours predicting risky online choices are the same for both nationalities.
• In addition,suggests there’s a wider social media culture that encourages this type of risk-taking behaviour.