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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine participation in online social platforms consisting of information exchange, social network interactions, and political deliberation. Despite the proven benefits of online participation, the majority of internet users read social media data but do not directly contribute, a phenomenon called lurking. Design/methodology/approach A survey was administered electronically to 507 participants and consisted of ten sections in a questionnaire to gather data on the relationship between online participation and the following variables: anonymity, social value orientation, motivations, and participation in offline activities, as well as the internet’s political influence and personality traits. Findings Findings show that users with high levels of participation also identify themselves, report higher levels of extroversion, openness, and activity outside the internet, the motivations being an intermediary variable in the relationship between the variables value. Originality/value The study shows that participation in online social platforms is not only related to personality traits, but they are impacted by the nature of the motivations that drive them to participate in the particular social platform, as well as by the interest toward the specific topic, or the type or nature of the social group with whom they are communicating.

Purpose To date, only a limited number of studies have considered WhatsApp groups. The purpose of this paper is to focus on single WhatsApp groups and explore their special characteristics and dynamics. The present study used the social support perspective, Big Five model and narcissism paradigm to predict the level of participation in WhatsApp groups with these variables. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted in Israel during the Spring semester of the 2017 academic year and encompassed 127 students. Researchers used eight questionnaires to gather data: a demographic questionnaire; a perceived social support questionnaire; three characteristics from the BIG5 questionnaire: extroversion, openness to experience and neuroticism; a narcissistic questionnaire; questions about WhatsApp usage; questions about one meaningful WhatsApp group; participation level in the meaningful group; and group importance. Findings The findings confirmed that psychological factors such as social support, extroversion and narcissism significantly predict the level of participation in WhatsApp groups. It was also found that age, the level of group importance, being the group’s manager, WhatsApp usage and group’s subject play an important role in the participation level. Originality/value These results affirmed the importance of psychological factors when exploring new technological platforms, as the paper proposes that individuals may behave differently in various technological environments due to their psychological characteristics. The study expanded current research about a popular communication tool, WhatsApp, by examining it within the special context of WhatsApp groups. This focus enables researchers to follow the special dynamics that take place in a new technological platform.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on WhatsApp, a mobile messaging service for smartphones that began in 2009. The study uses attachment theory, a social support perspective and one personality characteristic derived from the Big Five theory of personality (“openness to experience”) and attempts to predict how these variables influence the importance of the WhatsApp family group. Design/methodology/approach – Research was conducted in Israel during the first semester of the 2015 academic year and encompassed 191 undergraduate communication students. Researchers used six questionnaires to gather personal details, WhatsApp use, WhatsApp importance, attachment, openness to experience, and social support. Findings – The findings confirm that the personality characteristic of openness to experience and social support significantly predict the importance of WhatsApp family group. Findings present a complex and ambiguous relationship between the attachment variables and the importance of WhatsApp family group. Originality/value – The literature has not yet dealt with the issue of WhatsApp groups. Hence, the current study highlights associations between WhatsApp family group and attachment theory, the personality characteristic of openness to experience, social support, and family frequency use.

Purpose Social networking sites (SNSs) have become an essential part of our lives. The purpose of this paper is to explore how demographic variables, SNS importance, social and informational usage, and personality traits (extroversion/introversion, openness, neuroticism, internal and external locus of control) can explain participation frequency of the four biggest SNSs in Israel: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted in Israel during the Fall semester of the 2017–2018 academic year and encompassed 244 students. Researchers used six questionnaires to gather data: a demographic questionnaire, a participation frequency questionnaire on four different SNSs, four SNSs importance questionnaire, social and informational usage on four different SNSs questionnaire, personality questionnaire (extroversion, openness and neuroticism) and the locus of control questionnaire. Findings The findings revealed that different social network sites play distinct roles for various individuals. WhatsApp, the most frequently used platform, is used more by women and people with internal locus of control. Facebook is more frequently used by open people and Instagram is more frequently used by women, younger adults and neurotic people. Twitter is more frequently used by men. In addition, for all SNSs, the higher the social and informational usage is, the more important the SNSs are to the users, which significantly explains participation frequency. Originality/value The differences between social networks can be evidence that each social network serves a different group and does not compete with other SNSs. This may well explain why many people make use of several social networks and have a tendency to move from one to another.

The current study focuses on students’ information literacy self-efficacy and investigated whether students estimate that they know how to handle and evaluate the vast amount of information they find on the Internet. The objectives of this study are to explore: (1) to what extent does the openness to experience variable explain students’ information literacy self-efficacy?; (2) to what extent do the cognitive appraisals threat and challenge explain students’ information literacy self-efficacy? and (3) to what extent does the variable of motivation explain students’ information literacy self-efficacy? The research was conducted in Israel during the spring semester of the 2017 academic year and involved 136 students. Researchers used five questionnaires to gather data. Findings suggested that the personality characteristics of openness to experience, as well as threat and challenge, and motivation predicted students’ information literacy self-efficacy.

Women dealing with infertility issues may well undergo a long process of treatments and they are also likely to feel empty, defective, inadequate and worthless. Some of these women join online support groups in order to share their experiences, get information and ease their pain. One important positive phenomenon of the Internet is the advent of online support groups. These are designed to foster well-being and increased social interaction, and to offer 24/7 availability with no geographical restrictions. This study, comprising 191 female participants who answered an online survey, focused on closed Facebook support groups, the members of which were women undergoing treatments for infertility. The study examined to what extent the degree of engagement by these women in online support groups could be predicted by external factors (family status, social and family support, the importance of the group and the duration of membership) and internal factors (extroversion, openness to experience, subjective happiness and loneliness). Findings show that higher levels of engagement in such Facebook support groups are predicted by the external factors, including having a child, longer duration of membership in the group, family support and the strongest predictor, perception of the group as important. Findings also show that higher levels of engagement in these groups are predicted by internal factors extroversion and openness to experience, as was found in previous studies of other populations. Results and future research are discussed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how computer self-efficacy (CSE), perceived information overload (IO) and the digital native perspective predict students’ information literacy (IL) self-efficacy. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted in Israel and comprised 117 students from the Information Science Department at Bar-Ilan University. Researchers used five questionnaires to gather personal details: a demographic questionnaire, the IL self-efficacy questionnaire, the CSE questionnaire, technology usage (TU) questionnaire and the perceived IO questionnaire. Findings The findings confirm that these variables significantly predict students’ IL self-efficacy. Originality/value Instructors and librarians should be familiar with the issue of individual differences, as well with the issue of students’ age. These factors may help them choose the most appropriate way when instructing IL skills to their students.