Lurkers versus posters: Perceptions of learning in informal social media‐based communities

Abstract

The growth of social media has given rise to many informal online communities. In these communities, people communicate, make connections, exchange information and transfer knowledge without time or location restrictions. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate both lurkers' and posters' perceptions of learning in Reddit-based education-related communities. A mixed-method approach was used to obtain an overall understanding of how members perceived learning and the differences between posters and lurkers. Eighty-two participants (43 posters and 39 lurkers) were recruited from education-related subreddits and nine of them (5 posters and 4 lurkers) were interviewed. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the perceptions of learning between posters and lurkers. Both lurkers and posters believed that they have learned in these communities, and both defined learning in these communities as changing behaviours or thinking or applying what they have learned to real-life situations. Although both lurkers and posters reported having learned in the communities, qualitative analysis of the interview data indicated that posters demonstrated higher learning levels than lurkers. The findings of this study offer implications for further research into how members perceive learning in informal social media-based communities.

Why lurk, why join, and why post? The uses and gratifications of lurkers, infrequent posters, and frequent posters in the brand community context.

“…Thus, Sicilia and Palazon's (2008) finding that social interaction and entertainment were a driving force does not seem to be accurate for this group of members-a finding supported by McLaughlin et al (2022), who demonstrated that lurkers and posters were both equally satisfied with their experience in online brand communities. Zhu and Dawson (2023) also found that lurkers felt like they learned as much as posters did within social media-based communities. Finally, Nonnecke et al (2004) found that lurkers chose to lurk because they were shy, did not feel the need to post, wanted to remain anonymous, and felt like there was not anything in it for them.…”

Brand engagement and community user behaviors in online interest communities: exploring a moderated mediation model

“…Posters are more experienced in community engagement and possess deeper emotional attachments and social connections to online communities (Cheng and Guo, 2015;Mousavi and Roper, 2023). Thus, when posters gain benefits, they are more willing to contribute to the development and evolution of the online interest community in return (Zhu and Dawson, 2023). We posit knowledge contribution and content generation from brand engagement are more likely to influence posters' attitudes towards online communities and promote them to pay more attention to the development and evolution of online communities.…”

Is social media use for math learning beneficial for ethnic minority students' math identity? A socialization perspective

“…Students struggling with bicultural identity integration and biased ethnic‐math beliefs might find solace in social media. Social media platforms offer community‐based identity–concealing interaction spaces (Wang & Vasquez, 2012), offering students a more autonomous learning environment with anonymity and emotional support (Carpenter & Willet, 2021; Zhu & Dawson, 2023). As users can use pseudonyms, they can opt not to share their personal details (Staudt Willet & Carpenter, 2021).…”