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Journal of the Midwest Association for Information Systems (JMWAIS)

Abstract

Inappropriate, or faux pas, posting on social media can negatively impact students while in college and after graduation. To better understand this phenomenon, researchers have investigated various factors that influence students to engage in this risky behavior. Previous research has shown the posting behavior of close friends to be a significant predictor of a student's own inappropriate posting. This study builds on existing literature by exploring gender, emotional intelligence, and need for popularity as potential causes of faux pas posting beyond the behavior of friends. Specifically, a survey of undergraduate college students (N=209) was used to measure the constructs of interest on four social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Supporting previous research, the results indicate the posting behavior of friends was a significant predictor of both general and specific faux pas posting across all four social media platforms. Although gender, emotional intelligence, and need for popularity were significantly related to faux pas posting on one or more platforms, none of the constructs provided more explanatory power than friend posting behavior alone. The study provides a discussion of these results and their implications for developing interventions and future research.

DOI

10.17705/3jmwa.000087

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