Breaking bad online: a synthesis of the darker sides of social networking sites

Demetis, Dionysios S.

Abstract

This essay deconstructs the ultra-dark side of social media and explores the variety of ‘bad’ behaviour online by looking at a wide spectrum of exploitative practices. Through the use of primary data from an online platform, we posit the question ‘What’s the worst thing you’ve done online’? We collect, code and synthesise the fully anonymised discussions and develop a classification model for bad online behaviour. We combine the categories that emerge from our empirical data with those proposed by Baccarella et al. (2018) and develop a new combined (meta-) classification model that captures both the dark side of social networking and the ultra-dark. A framework is proposed for conceptualising the spectrum of exploitative practices and the essay concludes by providing a series of management considerations.

Citation

Demetis, D. S. (2020). Breaking bad online: a synthesis of the darker sides of social networking sites. European Management Journal, 38(1), 33-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.12.013

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 17, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Dec 19, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020-02
• Deposit Date: Dec 15, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 20, 2021
• Journal: European Management Journal
• Print ISSN: 0263-2373
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 38
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 33-44
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.12.013
• Keywords: Social media; Social networking; Dark side; Cybersecurity; Cybercrime
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3320376
• Publisher URL: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/european-management-journal/