ifkad articles

What is stopping us from using the blog in knowledge co-creation?

Mikko Vartio, Heli Aramo-Immonen

Blog is an increasingly known social media application, that is considered to have good properties of communication. Yet its use has decreased. It is not known why people are not starting to use blog. The research problem arose from a survey study conducted in Tampere University of Technology in 2012-2016 (n_average = 52): Are there risks that are stopping people from using the blog? Second survey (n = 60) presented respondents known risks of social media, asking whether they are stopping them from using blog. Final stage of the research was conducted by semi-structured interviews (n = 2) providing complementary view on the subject. Possible misuse of the writings in the future was the main risk (32,8 %) stopping respondents from starting blog use. Misunderstanding (29,5 %) and anonymous harassment (22,9 %) were also barriers. Blog was seen to threat privacy (13,1 %) and information security (11,4 %) more than other social media applications. The interviews supported misunderstanding as a considerable risk, despite of the interviewees’ differing perceptions on social media. Fear of being misunderstood tells about the lack of control over social media. Users need feeling of control over the content they generate. Fears and emotions need to be taken into account when implementing new communication technologies.

IN: Proceedings IFKAD 2017 – Knowledge Management in the 21st Century: Resilience, Creativity and Co-creation
PP: 541-547