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Age Differences in Online Communication: How College Students and Adults Compare in Their Perceptions of Offensive Facebook Posts

Journal Name:

  • Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies

Publication Year:

  • 2017

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Author NameUniversity of Author
Abstract (2. Language): 
With the most recent US Presidential election, civility in online communication hasresurfaced as a social issue. Asurvey of 409 college students and 190 faculty / staff at a liberal arts college in northeastern Pennsylvania used open-ended questions to identifythe typesof communicative posts people of different ages have seen and considered offensive on Facebook. Content analysisidentified twenty unique themes of online inappropriateness, many of whichare similar across age groups butdo not appear in previous research. Common topthemesincluderacist comments, sex / nudity, political references, and offending visuals. Age differences emerge in the rankings of these four themes and in the identified fifth theme, which is “other social issues” among college students and foul language for adults. Findings also indicate that students were statistically more likely than adults to consider posts involving traditional social issues (racism, sexism, LGBT issues, and alcohol / drugs) or aggression to be offensive; and, adults were more likely to consider foul language or the discussion of politics or religion to be offensive. Symbolic interaction theory is used to link perceptions of offensive posts to judgments of others, and suggestions for further research are discussed.
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