Facebook may be perpetuating existing social inequalities: Study
New York, July 25 : People who are unemployed, single and young may be considering to deactivate their Facebook account, according to a study which says that the social media giant may be perpetuating existing social inequalities.
The findings showed that people who had looked for work within the last four weeks were more likely to have deactivated their Facebook accounts -- eliminating a potential resource in their job search, the researchers said.
"Facebook, rather than acting as a democratizer, may be perpetuating existing social inequalities," said Eric Baumer, from the Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Older adults, males, from a lower income household, more socially conservative, or those who weigh less are most likely to have never had an account on the social media site.
On the other hand, people who are younger, seeking employment, or unmarried are considering deactivation, while the current users include the middle-aged, females, higher-income earners, married and ideologically liberal.
"My analysis reveals that individuals from lower-income households are less likely ever to have had a Facebook account," Baumer said.
"Yet, social networks have been shown to play an important role in fostering 'social capital', which can be leveraged for accomplishing certain tasks, including securing employment," he noted.
For the study, presented at the 2018 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Canada, Baumer analysed data from 1,000 US households gleaned from a phone survey of adults 18 years or older.
Through probabilistic modelling, the team sought to identify predictors for the four different types of Facebook use and non-use.
Of the factors he explored, eight emerged as predictors of use and non-use: age, gender, marital status, whether the respondent had looked for work in the past four weeks, household income, race, weight and social ideology (liberal to conservative).
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Fired from family business, nephew breaks into uncle's shops in Delhi; arrested
New Delhi (PTI): Delhi Police has arrested a 22-year-old man who allegedly stole cash, a laptop and a mobile phone from his uncle's shop in Dwarka to take revenge after he was fired from the family business, officials said on Wednesday.
Piyush Tulswani, the accused, completed his Class 11 from Rajasthan's Pilani, after which he came back to live with his family, a senior police officer said.
His father, Kishan Tulswani, used to work as a sales manager at his uncle Jeetu's confectionery shops. After the death of his father, Piyush took up his position, the officer said.
Soon, Piyush started embezzling money from the shops, and was fired after Jeetu took note of the act, police said.
His mother also reprimanded him for embezzling money, after which Piyush left home and started living with his friend, the officer said.
Piyush hatched a plot to steal money from his uncle’s shops, which he knew well. Acting on his plan, he took his brother's scooter and broke open each shop, stealing cash, a laptop and a mobile phone.
On January 31, Jeetu reported the matter to police, accusing Piyush of committing burglaries at his shops located in Sector-18, Sector-11, Sector-12 and Sector-4, Dwarka, the officer said.
Jeetu also provided CCTV camera footage from the shops, in which Piyush could be seen breaking them open, he said.
Tracing his mobile phone locations to Safdarjang, Hauz Khas, Rajapuri and Dabri, police conducted several raids.
“He later switched off his phone to restrict access to his location,” the officer said.
On February 13, police received information that Piyush would come to the fruit mandi in Dabri around 9.30 am. Accordingly, a trap was laid, leading to the arrest of the accused, he said.
Initially, he did not confess to the crime, but when police showed him the CCTV clips, he admitted to committing the burglaries, the officer said.
