Very proud of Shelly Crossland for completing her thesis in May and graduating with honors from TCU – it was so fun to work together on her project related to social media use by non-profits. Now it is time for her to go do awesome stuff out in the real world!

I am very excited to announce that my most recent research, conducted with Susan Kleiser and Stacy Grau, is now available through Computers in Human Behavior. Here is a preview …

Title: “Too Much Facebook?: An exploratory examination of social media fatigue”

Authors: Laura F. Bright, Susan Bardi Kleiser, and Stacy Landreth Grau

Abstract: Social media usage levels continue to climb generating copious amounts of content. As more people crowd social media (e.g. Facebook), and create content, some research points to the existence of a concept called social media fatigue. Social media fatigue is defined as a user’s tendency to back away from social media participation when s/he becomes overwhelmed with information. Lang’s (2000) limited capacity model is used to understand the role of information overload for social media fatigue. This research examines the concept of social media fatigue and its proposed antecedents: social media efficacy, helpfulness, confidence and privacy concerns. Using confirmatory regression, this research determined that privacy concerns and confidence have the greatest predictive value for social media fatigue. This paper has theoretical implications for not only LCM but also other technology acceptance models such as TAM and UTAUT and UTAUT2. It also has implications for those trying to engage with online audiences and their subsequent reactions to that attempt at engagement. Several future research ideas are explored as well.

It was excellent to be part of the Texas Media Sweet Sixteen Homecoming Event in October at the new Belo Center for Media at UT Austin. Not only was it great to see old friends and faculty, I was also lucky to receive the award for being from the earliest Texas Media cohort. Looking forward to the next reunion!
(Photo Credit: Laura Kincaid)

I am very excited to be featured in the ongoing TCU ad campaign for “Doers, Dreamers, and Trailblazers” – includes a nice write up about my research and teaching. And, it is just in time for my tenure packet submission ;).

Most academics I know use the summer as a period of research hibernation – all of those projects and ideas that couldn’t get executed during the school year come alive during the dog days of summer.

In this spirit, here is a nice relaxing video to get your mind settled before you begin – it was taken on the grounds of the Kimbell Museum of Art in Fort Worth, Texas. You can have the place almost entirely to yourself on a weekday evening :).