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Fear of Missing Out: Is Voyeurism the Real Motive Behind Teen Consumption of Social Media? Leigh Doster, Coventry University, UK

This paper examines the role of voyeurism in motivating everyday teen use of social network sites (SNS). We explore the benefits that teens derive from these voyeuristic practices and to what extent they re-enact “learned” behaviours of exhibitionism and voyeurism from Reality TV in SNSs.

[to cite]: Leigh Doster (2013) ,"Fear of Missing Out: Is Voyeurism the Real Motive Behind Teen Consumption of Social Media?", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 10, eds. Gert Cornelissen, Elena Reutskaja, and Ana Valenzuela, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 146-147.

[url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/1013778/volumes/v10e/E-10

[copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. Fear of Missing Out: Is Voyeurism the Real Motive Behind Teen Consumption of Social Media? Leigh Doster, Coventry University, UK*

EXTENDED ABSTRACT 2. What benefits do teens derive from voyeuristic practices in Teen consumption of social network sites (SNSs) has exploded SNSs? over the last decade. UK teens spend an average of 8 hours/week on SNSs (ComScore, 2011), consulting them frequently (21% >10 3. Do teens use SNSs as platforms to emulate behaviour times/day: OFCOM, 2011) wherever they are and whatever they are observed in RTV? doing. As the most prolific users, teens are innovators and their behaviours are therefore of interest as they are likely to be replicated by FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS subsequent adopters. Whilst teen behaviour is undoubtedly shaped Three themes emerged from our data: voyeuristic motivations, by digital technology; teens are shaping technological developments gratifications and re-enactment and social norms in this medium (Boyd, 2007). Voyeuristic Motivations: Normal voyeurism was the most com- Social interaction has transformed in SNSs particularly amongst monly cited reason for using SNSs, teens were enthralled by acquir- teenagers, self-disclosure levels have increased as has surveillance ing knowledge about others’ lives. They developed labels to describe of others (Rosenblum, 2007). Moreover these activities are consid- this: “FOMO” (Fear of Missing Out) and “Facebook stalking” ered customary and acceptable. We sought to explore voyeuristic It’s mainly for me to stalk people, not maliciously but if you really behaviour in SNSs in order to gain a deeper understanding of these get to know a lot of stuff about a lot of people then you never know social practices and teens habitual use of them. Normal voyeurism when it might come in handy and it just adds to your information is defined as “a common (not solely sexual) pleasure derived from about people (Boy, 18) access to private details” (Metzl, 2004) or “the curious peeking into Gratifications: Teens reaped personal, social and fantastical the private lives of others” (Calvert, 2004). Arguably exhibitionism voyeuristic gratifications from SNSs. Personal gratifications includ- and voyeurism are two sides of the same coin, without exhibitionism, ed nosiness, entertainment and relationships (c.p. Barton’s 2009). voyeurs would have nothing to observe. That’s why I’m still on it because it can be really entertaining. People Web 2.0 and social media have enabled users to become content in relationships breaking up and embarrassing pictures… (Girl, 17) creators in their own right, thereby empowering exhibitionism and I go on and literally look at his whole profile – see everyone he’s been voyeurism. Voyeurism has been identified as a key gratification for talking to and read everything! (Girl, 18) other popular teen media such as reality TV (RTV) (Barton, 2009; Furthermore voyeurism provided social gratifications Papacharissi and Mendelson, 2007) which incorporates voyeuristic as content for further social interactions both on and offline type appeals (Baruh, 2009). RTV and SNSs offer safe and legitimate (c.p. Patino et al, 2011; Papacharissi and Mendelson, 2007). opportunities for exhibitionism and normal voyeurism. For young I’m a bit of a gossiper so... finding out about people and then the next people this digitalised voyeurism parallels identity related behav- day at school talking about what you’ve seen (Girl, 17) iours such as social curiosity, social comparison and self-monitoring Whilst much of their voyeurism focused on close friends, many (Hill, 1992) also enjoying “stalking” subjects outside their immediate social Unlike RTV, SNSs participants can both perform and observe, circle, for instance older teens or celebrities. There was a fantasti- providing a “two-way gaze”, they also mostly interact with people cal gratification to this either in an aspirational or oppositional way. that that they know (Boyd, 2007) thus reducing the perceived dis- “The kind of people I love to stalk are people who are not like me!” tance between exhibitionist and voyeur. It seems likely therefore, that (Girl, 17). teens will re-enact behaviours observed in RTV in SNSs (Watson, Re-enactment: SNSs provided the perfect environment for 2008). In contrast to previous studies which focused on older partici- re-enactment of RTV behaviour (Papacharissi and Mendelson, pants (Stefanone et al; 2010), our study enlisted younger participants 2007). Teens regularly posted intimate aspects of their life and (16-18 years) and sought to gain an understanding of this phenom- were equally happy to peek into the private moments of others. enon from the teen perspective Interestingly most teens denied exhibitionism (our content analy- ses revealed otherwise) but admitted to normal voyeurism. Digi- METHOD tal technology enabled users to become semi-professional content We adopted an interpretivist approach (Saunders et al, creators and utilise this to manage impressions favourably to oth- 2007:106) utilising Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (1986) and ers; blurring the ordinary with the celebrity (Stefanone et al, 2010). Blumler and Katz’ (1974) Uses and Gratifications to explain indi- “..she’s very interesting to have on Facebook because she’s our viduals behaviours and gratifications. Participants were sourced from age.…she’s got a child… and a boyfriend….and literally, her life is a UK school and ethical issues were appropriately addressed. 26 in- all on Facebook. I know – we know everything.” (Boy, 18) depth interviews were conducted with teenagers (16 -18 years; 11M, 15F) for around 1hr plus a content analysis of their SNS activities CONCLUSION for a fortnight. The data was systematically organised into categories RTV and SNSs have contributed to changing social norms and sub categories to develop meaningful interpretations (Miles and around privacy, disclosure and observation of others. They are com- Huberman, 1994). plementary media with observed behaviour in RTV being re-enacted We focused on the following research questions in SNS. Normal voyeurism has become a source of entertainment for teens and is a key motive for many teens’ habitual SNS consumption. 1. How important is voyeurism in motivating habitual teen In line with Rose and Wood (2005) we observed a blurring of bound- consumption of SNSs?2. aries between public and private; real and fantastical; tangible and intangible and celebrity and ordinary. SNSs may be part of the post-

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