TY  - JOUR
AB  - 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.
VL  - 68
IS  - 6
SN  - 2050-3806
DO  - 10.1108/AJIM-05-2016-0059
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-05-2016-0059
AU  - Bronstein Jenny
AU  - Gazit Tali
AU  - Perez Oren
AU  - Bar-Ilan Judit
AU  - Aharony Noa
AU  - Amichai-Hamburger Yair
PY  - 2016
Y1  - 2016/01/01
TI  - An examination of the factors contributing to participation in online social platforms
T2  - Aslib Journal of Information Management
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 793
EP  - 818
Y2  - 2024/09/24
ER  -