How do Millennial and Gen-Z young adults decide between competing social media when choosing where to post? Previous research argues that decisions can be modeled based on these users' Goals, and the Affordances, Features1, and Social Norms of those media. To evaluate this model, 19 participants were given different self-presentation scenarios and asked to choose between Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. Participants also constructed a flowchart to represent their mental model of factors influencing their choices. Data suggest revisions to the model; rather than reflecting Affordances and Features, we found that Social Norms and Goals primarily drove participants' choices. Participants choose media based on a direct match between Goals and existing Social Norms. Only when they failed to detect such a match did participants consider Affordances and Features. We present a revised conceptual model based on these results and discuss social media design and theory implications.

It is difficult to run long-term in-the-wild studies with mobile robots. This is partly because the robots we, as human-robot interaction (HRI) researchers, are interested in deploying prioritize expressivity over navigational capabilities, and making those robots autonomous is often not the focus of our research. One way to address these difficulties is with the Wizard of Oz (WoZ) methodology, where a researcher teleop-erates the robot during its deployment. However, the constant attention required for teleoperation limits the duration of WoZ deployments, which in-turn reduces the amount of in-the-wild data we are able to collect. Our key insight is that several types of in-the-wild mobile robot studies can be run without autonomous navigation, using wandering instead. In this paper we present and share code for our wandering robot system, which enabled Kuri, an expressive robot with limited sensor and computational capabilities, to traverse the hallways of a$28,000 \text{ ft}^{2}$floor for four days. Our system relies on informed direction selection to avoid obstacles and traverse the space, and periodic human help to charge. After presenting the outcomes from the four-day deployment, we then discuss the benefits of deploying a wandering robot, explore the types of in-the-wild studies that can be run with wandering robots, and share pointers for enabling other robots to wander. Our goal is to add wandering to the toolbox of navigation approaches HRI researchers use, particularly to run in-the-wild deployments with mobile robots.

The COVID pandemic and social distancing have induced radical disruptions to work and learning practices. Working from home (WFH) has reduced offline interactions while increasing digital communica...

We use personality theory to compare self-presentation between multiple Instagram accounts, investigating authenticity and consistency. Many studies claim social media promote inauthentic self-presentation focused on socially desirable traits. At the same time, affordances suggest that self-presentation should be relatively consistent within one social medium. For 88 participants, we examine personality traits for 'real Instagram' ('Rinsta') versus 'fake Instagram' ('Finsta') accounts, comparing these with people's offline traits using mixed-methods. Counterintuitively, we find Finsta accounts often present socially undesirable traits. Furthermore, different accounts on the same social medium reveal quite different styles of self-presentation. Overall Finstas are more Extraverted, less Conscientious, and less Agreeable than Rinstas, although equally Neurotic as offline. Interviews indicate trait differences arise from differing audience perceptions. A large anonymous Rinsta audience promotes a carefully curated self. In contrast, a small but trusted Finsta audience can engender more authentic, but negative self-presentation. We discuss design and theory implications.

We investigate self-perception in social media through the lens of personality theory. Two mixed-methods studies involving 148 participants examine if people self-report different personality traits in social media compared with their offline traits. We first compare offline and Facebook traits, finding that on Facebook people are less Neurotic, Open and Agreeable. A second study compared offline, Facebook and Snapchat traits, replicating and extending our initial results. Again Facebook personality was less Neurotic and less Open than offline. In contrast, Snapchat personality was more Extravert than both offline and Facebook and more Open than Facebook. Interviews indicate how personality differences arise from social media affordances. Anxiety about audience judgments leads people to curate posts to appear less Neurotic on social media, but the transience of Snapchat promotes greater Extraversion than offline and Facebook. We discuss theory and design implications.