Factors that influence adoption and use of location-sharing social media

This work aims to understand real-world factors shaping behaviors and attitudes towards location-sharing social networks (LSSN), especially as to why people avoid or abandon this technology, or limit their usage. Based on interview-based qualitative research and survey-based exploratory quantitative research, I hypothesize conceptual models describing factors that greatly impact how and whether people use location-sharing social networks. Through a series of nationwide surveys and structural equation modeling analysis, I operationalize, confirm, and refine these theories. To explore how these theories can be incorporated into the design of location-sharing social networks, I conduct a controlled experiment comparing user attitudes towards different designs. This research leads to the following findings: • People's attitudes about how their existing relationship boundaries will be preserved (Boundary Preservation Concern) or enhanced (Boundary Enhancement) when using LSSN are a root determinant of location-sharing privacy concerns, usage intention and actual usage frequency. • The main driver of attitudes towards boundary preservation or enhancement stems from one's predisposition to communicate in a style I term "FYI" (For Your Information). FYI communicators like to infer availability and to keep in touch with others without having to interact with them, which is the predominant style in current LSSN. • The effect of age, personality, and other demographic factors are completely mediated by the FYI communication style. • There is a connection between value-related personality characteristics (such as propensity to lie), and privacy concerns as well as LSSN usage. This dissertation presents an integrated theoretical framework of location-sharing attitudes and usage that shows the relationship between these factors. Lastly, the validated framework is applied to system design. While certain designs prove more appealing than others, FYI communicators have a more positive evaluation of LSSN overall. This difference in attitudes can be traced back to differences between how high and low-FYI individuals perceive the same system design. Drawing on these disparities, certain features (such as those that help convey contextual cues) can be used to help narrow the attitude gap between high and low-FYI individuals. Based on these results, the thesis concludes with design suggestions for making location-sharing social media more appealing to a broader audience.