Creative Commons CC-BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). SI: Culture DigitallyFor this essay, we turn to one commonly used term in that literature that warrants significant reconsideration-if not reconstruction-affordance. A widely used keyword for communication technology studies, affordance nevertheless lacks a clear definition in the communication and media studies literature. We will argue that communication scholars have misappropriated an outdated definition of affordance from psychology that neither fits with how the term is used in that discipline nor helps communication scholars advance theory of our own. Emerging approaches to materiality within communication, attention to affect and emotion, and renewed interest in the processes of mediation all necessitate a richer and more nuanced notion of technological affordance than the communication field currently uses. When scholars use "affordances and constraints" to describe the qualities of communication technologies and media, they tap into concepts rooted in a history of scholarly conversations. However, we would argue the phrase now fails to capture the complexity of the interactive production of the stuff of communication and the richness of the emerging new scholarship that gives serious attention to the materiality, affect, and media on which communication are built.As a corrective, we propose the concept imagined affordance. We mean imagined affordance in three distinct ways. First, communication scholars have imagined a consensus or clarity around the term "affordance," which lacks in reality a clear definition within the communication literature. Second, imagined affordance evokes the imagination of both users and designers-expectations for technology that are not fully realized in conscious, rational knowledge but are nonetheless concretized or materialized in socio-technical systems. Affordances are, we argue, in large part imagined by users, a meaning of affordance that we get from psychology that has 603385S MSXXX10.1177/2056305115603385Social Media + SocietyNagy and Neff AbstractIn this essay, we reconstruct a keyword for communication-affordance. Affordance, adopted from ecological psychology, is now widely used in technology studies, yet the term lacks a clear definition. This is especially problematic for scholars grappling with how to theorize the relationship between technology and sociality for complex socio-technical systems such as machine-learning algorithms, pervasive computing, the Internet of Things, and other such "smart" innovations. Within technology studies, emerging theories of materiality, affect, and mediation all necessitate a richer and more nuanced d...

Given the increasing emphasis on online consumption in our digital era, the current study aimed to explore the avatar–self relationship in association with the concept of product attachment. Through constructing their own avatars and selecting certain virtual possessions for them, participants in the sample were able to represent different elements of their identities to be manifested in their embodied virtual presence. Certain attributes and emotions characterizing both the real as well as the virtual existence of participants appeared to exert important influences. Additional gender differences emerged, in that males were more likely to represent their possible and hidden self‐aspects, and focus on the functional meaning of virtual products, while females were more likely to reveal their ideal selves, and attach symbolic meaning to their virtual possessions. For female participants, the role of experimentation emerged as an important construct, with their avatars often reflecting upon their ambivalence toward perceived social norms and societal expectations. Implications for scholars and practitioners are discussed.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to assess the content of food industry web sites targeting children by advergames with the purpose of granting brand loyalty and trust toward the products of certain companies in Hungary. Design/methodology/approach -Scientific investigation conducted by two independent researchers included the content analysis of a total of 50 advergames integrated in 11 food company affiliated web sites. Findings -Advergames are successful promotion strategies that reinforce brand recognition and positive associations toward food products. Practical implications -By influencing and encouraging children's cognitive processes, advergames affect their natural development. Originality/value -A content analysis of advergames has not yet been conducted in Hungary. By introducing psychological factors, the present paper can contribute to finding additional approaches to understand the effects of advergames on children.

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The current article explores patterns of identity development in virtual worlds, with the aim of introducing a conceptual model of virtual identity. Despite the rapid spread of virtual environments, no model has been developed to date that fully captures this complex entity. Rather than taking a purely social approach, as has been the dominant trend in most prior work, the structural elements used in this current framework incorporate several dimensions and approaches identity as a conglomerate of personal, social, relational and material aspects. Building on an extensive body of the available literature, with the current conceptual model, we intend to provide a comprehensive base on which to further expand theoretically as well as empirically in future work-related concerning identity in virtual worlds.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore teenagers' and young adults' use of social networking sites (SNS), in light of certain personal, social and educational outcomes and attitudes.Design/methodology/approachData were gathered on the basis of surveys, and were analyzed through a series of multivariate models.FindingsIt was found that participants' reasons and motivations for online presence varied as a function of gender and age. Different degrees of Facebook usage were linked with different school‐related attitudes. More specifically, more extensive usage was associated with more negative school and peer attitudes; more so for females and for college students. Furthermore, greater reliance on online interactions for social and emotional support was found disadvantageous for college students, while neutral or in some cases beneficial for high school students.Research limitations/implicationsGender and educational level appear to be important factors explaining some of the variation in school‐related attitudes, and thus should be explored separately.Practical implicationsThe differential impact of online presence on school attitudes for college and high school students highlights the need for teachers and student advisors to be sensitive to such transitional groups.Social implicationsThe authors found that more popular students, those often viewed as “opinion leaders”, tended to show more negative school outcomes than less popular students in general; a relevant point for organizations.Originality/valueFacebook usage and school‐related attitudes were observed simultaneously in high school and college populations studying in Budapest, Hungary.

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As one of the best known science narratives about the consequences of creating life, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) is an enduring tale that people know and understand with an almost instinctive familiarity. It has become a myth reflecting people's ambivalent feelings about emerging science: they are curious about science, but they are also afraid of what science can do to them. In this essay, we argue that the Frankenstein myth has evolved into a stigma attached to scientists that focalizes the public's as well as the scientific community's negative reactions towards certain sciences and scientific practices. This stigma produces ambivalent reactions towards scientific artifacts and it leads to negative connotations because it implies that some sciences are dangerous and harmful. We argue that understanding the Frankenstein stigma can empower scientists by helping them revisit their own biases as well as responding effectively to people's expectations for, and attitudes towards, scientists and scientific artifacts. Debunking the Frankenstein stigma could also allow scientists to reshape their professional identities so they can better show the public what ethical and moral values guide their research enterprises.