Writing
Click below for electronic copies for selected papers or presentations I’ve authored or co-authored.
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Lynn, Randy and James C. Witte. 2011. “Social Network Sites, Social Ties, and Social Capital.” 106th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 20-23, Las Vegas, NV. [Select View>Show speaker notes to see spoken text.]
In this paper we present results from a national sample of American adults (N = 571) of all ages, who are members of two online survey panels. The results show that social network sites (SNSs) are used to maintain social ties at a comparable rate to face-to-face, phone, and e-mail, and moreover that SNSs are used to maintain ties with close ties and family members as well as distant ties and friends. Facebook users who use Facebook to maintain ties are no more or less likely to maintain ties through other media, while Facebook users who don’t use Facebook to maintain ties compensate by relying more frequently upon other media. The findings further suggest that SNSs supplement–rather than simply increasing or decreasing–social capital, and are multifaceted portals that are not used in the same ways by all users.
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Lynn, Randy and Jeffrey Johnson. 2011. “‘Bitches Love’ Ambiguous Sexism: Gender, ‘Karma,’ and the Limits of Male Progressivism in Online Communities.” Theorizing the Web 2011 Conference, April 9, University of Maryland, College Park, MD. [Select View>Show speaker notes to see spoken text.]
Although most social media applications have more female than male users, social news websites continue to be male-dominated. To investigate the causes of this phenomenon, we examined 52 front-page links and 45,454 comments relating to gender collected over one week of front page activity on Reddit.com. We found that hostile sexism was common on Reddit and identified three structural factors contributing to its prevalence: 1) front-page selection of links espousing or encouraging sexist or masculinist perspectives, 2) the relationship between “karma,” humor, and boundary maintenance, and 3) the rationalization of sexual objectification through a framework of “gender-blind sexism.” Examples illustrate how these factors combine to place considerable quantitative, spatial, and normative impediments in the way of anti-sexist and anti-masculinist sentiments.
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Lynn, Randy and James C. Witte. 2011. “Repaired Is Broken: Newsgroup Commodification, Prosumption, and Rebellion.” Annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society, March 24-27, St. Louis, MO. [Select View>Show speaker notes to see spoken text.]
Extant studies of Internet prosumption often do not situate the commodification of Internet prosumption in its historical contexts and lack empirical data. This study attempts to address these limitations by examining the social news website, employing a a mixed method analysis of all 282 front-page posts on Reddit between December 2005 and March 2011 in which one or more of the words “Digg,” “Digger,” or “Diggers” appear. Results show that corporatized Internet prosumption is linked to the cultural practices of early prosumptive communities (such as Usenet) in ways that affect its economic relationships. The data shows that prosumers will effectively use the traditional tools of resistance employed by producers and consumers owners or administrators of social news sites are thought to have illegitimately exercised their formal powers, but also that corporate ownership may leveraged by shrewd administrators to secure compliance from restless prosumers.
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This study examines 93 articles published in major U.S. newspapers between November 2008 and April 2009 regarding the dissemination of sexually explicit images using cellular phone cameras and multimedia message technology, or “sexting,” among youths. The results show that these media sources viewed sexting through the lens of a moral panic and uncritically disseminated essentialist representations of teens as impulsive, libidinous, and lacking self-control. However, these articles also uncritically disseminated stereotypical representations of parents as ignorant, technologically inept, and incapable of controlling their children’s behaviors. Moreover, these articles aggressively propounded parenting strategies for addressing sexting in the family, preferring authoritarian solutions to less restrictive or confrontational solutions and invoking draconian legal consequences as justification for implementing harsh parental restrictions. These findings suggest media sources play an especially significant role in constructing exemplary parenting with regard to youth’s use of digital media, while complicating critical theory’s tendency to conflate parents, law enforcement officials, and journalists as harmonious co-conspirators in the oppression of youths.
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This study compares the effects of: (1) violent victimization; (2) witnessing violence; (3) hearing about violence, and (4) violent behavior on depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among a sample of young adults. All forms of lifetime exposure were significantly correlated with depression and PTSD, but when they were assessed simultaneously, victimization had the strongest effect. Witnessing violence over the lifetime also had a significant effect on PTSD. High social support was related to fewer symptoms of depression and PTSD. Social support and gender were investigated as moderators. High social support moderated the effects of recent victimization on depression and PTSD. Gender did not moderate the effects of exposure to violence on depression, but it did moderate the effects of recent witnessed violence and violent behavior (both recent and lifetime) on PTSD. Women were more negatively affected than men by recent witnessed violence and engaging in violent behavior. Implications for interventions are discussed.
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Previous studies seeking to identify the characteristics, uses, and motives of social network website behaviors have identified several social structural and social psychological correlates, yet methodological limitations and rapidly changing user populations have prevented a comprehensive evaluation of who uses social network sites, how, and why. This paper presents preliminary results from a broad study of social network site use, suggesting that expressive Internet use, educational attainment, and social capital are all significant indicators of social network site behavior among adult users.
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Lynn, Randy. 2009. “Teens, Tribunes, and Tribulations: Representations of Youth and Technology in Mass Media.” (PDF, 271 KB)
A public sociology position paper examining how essentialist and determinist constructions of youth and technology in mass media act as vehicles for exploitative adult beliefs and fears related to power, control, and norm preservation. This paper was a winner of the District of Columbia Sociological Society’s 2010 Irene B. Taeuber Graduate Student Paper Award.
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This study explores the reasons why university students prefer to join or participate frequently in one social network website (SNS) over another. Drawing from previous research into motivations and environmental factors influencing SNS behavior, a theoretical model of SNS selection and frequency of use is constructed and evaluated. Random sampling methods are used to generate a population of students from a midwestern, urban, public university with an enrollment of nearly 16,000. Subjects responded to a questionnaire soliciting information regarding personal characteristics and SNS behaviors, and additional data was extracted from a content analysis of SNS profiles. The results show that attachment, age, and educational capital are the primary factors associated with SNS preference, while the effect of cultural capital is minimal. Limitations and implications are discussed.
