Barnett, Susan L.

Social interaction, identity formation and substance use in the first-year transition to college

Digital Document

Transitioning into college can be an intimidating or overwhelming process for incoming students, which may impact many dimensions of their health, especially social and mental health. Struggles with personal, academic, social, and moral pressures during the first year of college results in an increase of stress that may lead to negative health behaviors such as substance use (Baghurst & Kelley, 2013). As part of the healthy development of self within adolescence, family and peers can provide protective elements for students as they form identities (Viner, Ozer, Denny et al., 2012; Currie, Zanotti, Morgan et al., 2012). The role of affective and interactive commitment within a student’s social network may aid in the development and maintenance of identity salience (Serpe & Stryker, 1982). However, the ubiquitous nature of mobile media devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, provide the ability for connections to be made electronically with previous face-to-face networks. The increased use of technology use, specifically mobile media devices used for electronic communication, may impact the connections students develop and maintain in their social networks, which could adversely affect their social and mental health, including substance abuse. Through the social identity theory, this longitudinal survey-based dissertation study explored the development and maintenance of incoming college students’ identity and the roles that social interaction via mobile media communication and commitment have in the uptake and use of illegal substances such as alcohol and marijuana. Results found group differences in alcohol use, but no differences for gender or race. Further, social interaction patterns via electronic communication and commitment within identities were found to influence substance use behavior, but in a minor way. Furthermore, identity salience was not found to mediate the relationship between social interaction patterns and substance use. Valuable research design insights to guide future studies are included.

The socialization experience at a silent disco

Digital Document

The infusion of digital devices into everyday life influences the way one seeks information, feedback, and connectedness (Deuze, 2012). Media device use enables connectability anytime, anyplace, and anywhere; therefore creating the potential desire for customized experiences among users. The purpose of this research brief is to understand how media transforms leisure activities by focusing on an emerging event, the silent disco. In a silent disco, participants can customize their experience by choosing what, where, and how they experience the music through the use of wireless headphones. Two research questions were investigated: (a) how do people engage in socialization at silent discos, and (b) in relationship to social interaction, how does the silent disco differ from the music festival experience. Through an interpretive phenomenology approach involving interviews with 25 participants at Amsterdam’s Pitch Festival, this paper discusses the experience through two themes: control of the experience and the individual, collective experience.

Media-based social solitude: An exploratory study of students in a coffeehouse

Digital Document

The purpose of this exploratory phenomenological study was to understand how college students engage in media-based social solitude in an informal social space of a coffeehouse. Media-based social solitude is the act of being alone together, physically or virtually, with others through the use of media devices. Multiple data collection methods such as field observation and interviews were used to identify two main themes of engagement in media-based social solitude. The interpretation of data from observations of fifteen students and interviews with ten students provided emergent themes that included the need for reinforcement of others to focus on and accept media in a social space. Understanding media-based social solitude in the context of leisure is important, as media inserts itself into all aspects of a life, and may alter the leisure dynamics within a public space. Additional research in the area of media-based social solitude is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon within leisure and media studies.

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