Article : Forum Readers
Creative
Arts Solution
Foundation
a non-governmental foundation
Article
:
Forum Readers
Author
:
Olusola David, Ayibiowu
Year
:
August, 2017
Edtion:
7
Published:
Online by Creative Arts Solution Foundation
Alternative Article Title Update: Forum Readers of Today
Dated Updated: Dec 2017
See links pages: Questions and Answers,
Political Opinions, Global Events, Religious belief,
Find it on: Instagram page 1, 2, Flick, Pinterest 1, 2,
Alternative Article Title Update: Forum Readers of Today
Dated Updated: Dec 2017
Author
:
Olusola David, Ayibiowu
See links pages: Questions and Answers,
Political Opinions, Global Events, Religious belief,
Find it on: Instagram page 1, 2, Flick, Pinterest 1, 2,
Introduction
Forum readers
it’s simply an avenue where people are free to exchange opinion and ideas on a
particular issue. This could be an important forums for political debate,
religious belief, Sports, Global events, Question and Answers. The Greek word for forum are αγορά.
There has
been much debate surrounding the potential benefits and costs of online interaction.
The present research argues that engagement with online discussion forums can
have underappreciated benefits for users’ well-being and engagement in offline
civic action, and that identification with other online forum users plays a key
role in this regard. Users of a variety of online discussion forums
participated in this study. We hypothesized and found that participants who
felt their expectations had been exceeded by the forum reported higher levels
of forum identification. Identification, in turn, predicted their satisfaction
with life and involvement in offline civic activities.
Online
interaction
Can human
interaction over the internet be personally and socially transformative? The
introduction of new, disruptive technology is always accompanied by a deep
suspicion – for example, the telephone was greeted by claims that it would
break up home life and stop people from visiting friends and the internet has
been no exception to this rule. Debates about the supposed pros and cons of
internet-based interaction have focused primarily on individual well-being,
largely ignoring the potential benefits at more inclusive levels of analysis
(community and society). We propose that one of the key benefits of online
interaction has been overlooked by researchers: its potential to contribute to
increased engagement with civic activities. Our contribution in this paper is
to demonstrate that online interaction can foster offline engagement at the
same time, counter-intuitively, as it fosters individual well-being.
On individual well-being
How does
online interaction impact an individual’s well-being? Intuitively, one might
expect that any form of interaction, regardless of setting, is probably an aid
to well-being. In offline settings, researchers have demonstrated that those
who communicate more and have close supportive relationships are less stressed,
happier and psychologically healthier.
But some
have argued for an “internet paradox”: the idea that more interaction online
translates into reduced well-being because it disrupts interaction offline. If
time spent interacting online comes at the expense of vital everyday
face-to-face interaction with family and friends, there could be negative
implications for users’ psychological wellbeing downstream. There is certainly
evidence that “too much” online activity can result in a range of negative
effects on users. Heavy internet users report feeling more isolated from
society and report fewer interactions with family and friends. Time spent
online has been shown to be associated with increased depression and other
emotional problems and impaired academic performance.
In sum,
research shows that online interaction impacts both positively and negatively
upon users’ well-being. It is not so much a question of whether online
interaction impacts well-being, but when, why and how it does.
Effects
on offline (civic) engagement
Alongside
effects on individual well-being, we seek to better understand when and how
users of online discussion forums become motivated to work on behalf of the
issues discussed in those forums. Such civic activities in related offline
settings might include willingness to sign petitions, willingness to donate
money, and other forms of civic-minded collective action.
As noted,
there is less evidence addressing these society-level effects than evidence
addressing personal-level effects. But there is suggestive evidence that online
engagement can translate into offline collective action, such as civic and
political participation.
In
addition to these suggestive correlational studies, some “natural experiments”
have provided opportunities to test a causal relationship between internet use
and civic engagement more carefully. In one illustrative intervention study
(Hampton & Wellman, 2003), a suburb of Toronto had been turned into a
“wired suburb” when residents were offered a package of online services,
including high-speed internet access, videophone, online health advice, and
local online discussion forums. After this intervention, follow-up data
suggested that the internet actually stimulates more offline contact (resonating
with the debate reviewed above) and promotes collective action to solve
community problems offline.
.
Mediating
role of forum identification
Forum
identification refers to the extent to which users include the forum in the
self-concept. Joining the forum is not synonymous with becoming a high
identifier; active members of the forum may vary in their identification.
Because a given user may be strongly identified with one forum but only weakly
identified with another, identification is not a stable personality trait.
First, at
the individual level, group identification has been robustly linked to health
and well-being, both in terms of effective coping with situational stressors
and in the longer term.
For
example, a significant body of work is accumulating that suggests social group
memberships, and more specifically, engagement in activities associated with
such groups, can play a significant protective role in both the onset of and
recovery from depression. Our prediction that identification mediates the
positive impact of online discussion forums on individual well-being derives
from this well established and robust connection.
The
advantages of online communication
It may
allow people to fulfill needs that are not being met offline. A second theoretical
perspective that complements the social identity approach. This holds that
people may trade off ‘richness’ of the medium against its ability to satisfy
their felt needs. For example, people with an obscure interest may join an
online discussion forum to obtain information or social support that is not
available in their own community. Because online communication provides
disparate gratification opportunities compared with traditional media,
individuals may find it superior to face-to-face communication, if that richer
medium is not considered fit for purpose .
Forums
have five major benefits to a webmaster which include:
1.
Allowing you to get educational information on your site.
2.
Allowing you to increase traffic through repeat visitors.
3.
Allowing you to capture email address and details of posters.
4.
Allowing you to gain more creditability.
5.
Allowing you to build relationship with visitors.
Synthesis
and predictions
First,
regarding motivations for joining the forum, we predicted that participants
would report having initially joined primarily to seek information. Second,
regarding fulfilment of these goals, we predicted that participants would
report that their information needs had been very well met. Since serving as a
clearinghouse for user-generated information is one of the most straightforward
and easily fulfilled functions that forums provide.
Participants
and procedure
Participants’
reasons for initially joining their forum were assessed by asking them to rate
four possible motivations on a scale from not at all
To very
much. These reasons comprised: To seek information, to share information, to
form or maintain relationships, and because there were no opportunities to meet
likeminded people in their area.
With lots
of information and discussion being exchanged in your forums visitors will
return again and again to see replies to their posts, read others posts and
basically to see if anything has changed. This creates a sticky website which
is what every webmaster wants, as new members join your forum your traffic will
gradually grow week after week.
In most
forums people who want to post have to register by giving their email address
and names, this allows you to follow up and email them in the future with
information about your product or service. They won't consider it as spam
because they know who you are.
Forums
allow you to gain creditability with your websites visitors as you can reply to
posts that are looking for help and by doing this you're letting everyone know
that you are an expert on the topic of your website. They're much more likely
to buy from you if you know what you're talking about!
Building
relationships with your visitors is easy with forums. If you post regularly and
actively discuss different topics with your forum members then gradually you'll
get to know them and more importantly they'll get to know you. People are much
more likely to buy a product or service when someone they know sells or
recommends it.
Onto the
downside of having a forum. Creating successful forums is not by any sense of
the word easy, they involve a tremendous amount of work to get them started.
Nobody likes to post on an empty forum so you've to actively promote it and
create lots of topics for discussion yourself, if these topics are interesting
then you should get a few replies. You've to do this self posting on a
continuous basis for months, sometimes weeks but mostly months before a steady
flow of topics and replies are posted by your forums members.
That's
only to get people talking, next you've to administer it or moderate it as it's
usually called. This means making sure posts are appropriate and that members
are not spamming your forum. This has to be done on a daily basis and if your
forum gets busy it's going to be very time consuming. Once again the main
disadvantage with forums is the amount of time and effort required to get them
started and maintain them.
However
don't let that put you off the idea, forums are great for increasing your
traffic and increasing the profits you make on your website.
After the
initial time involved to start it up and the time it takes to get people to
talk you'll start to see the benefits that your forum is bringing and the time
needed to maintain it will seem less and less each time you see your traffic and
profits going up.
Fulfilment
of expectations
Participants
may be asked to rate whether their expectations had been met as follows:
- It has fallen short of my expectations
- It has met my expectations
- It has exceeded my expectations
Discussion
We
considered the mechanisms that may underlie two benefits of online forum
involvement: well-being (satisfaction with life) and civic engagement in
offline settings. First, we found that the factor that best predicted forum
identification was the extent to which people felt the forum had met their
expectations about forming new relationships (i.e., the social aspect of forum
use rather than the instrumental aspect).
Creative Arts
Solution foundation does not necessarily endorse, support, or agree with the
opinions or statements expressed in an illegal manner. Everyone on this forums
are responsible for the opinions and ideas shared on this forum Readers. The
author of this forums will not be held responsible for illegal or disruptive
posting/shared. Any information placed online is solely the view of those who
post it.
By
participating, you grant to the unrestricted right to use, reproduce, modify,
translate, display, perform, transmit and distribute any material you post to a
forum readers in any present or future medium and for any purpose, including
commercial purposes.
Summary,
Users of
discussion forums may find themselves with improved well-being and may also
find themselves empowered and galvanized to work for the forum cause offline.
References:
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