Vultures Exposed: How Our Insecurities are Transmitted Online (2014)

Undergraduates: Emily Smith, Christina Wall, Maida Salihovic

Faculty Advisor: Wayne Rysavy
Department: English & Comparative Literature

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Regardless of background, all individuals experience insecurities that plague their self-esteem. When anxieties intensify, they can manifest themselves as vultures, which subconsciously attack people when they are weakest. Through our research, we sought to determine if and to what extent vultures are transmitted through social media and how transmission correlates to self-concept. We utilized surveys to gauge our participants¿ vultures, analyzing the results in conjunction with their Facebook posts. Through observation, we found that vultures are palpable in online communications with such regularity that we were able to create a model illustrating specific types of vulture transmission. Through follow-up surveys, we also concluded that users are generally unaware of this transmission. This lack of awareness suggests several important implications regarding the nature of online communication. First, despite common assumptions that digital interactions lack the social cues present in face-to-face communication, online interaction is far richer than generally thought. Second, this lack of awareness is implicated in one¿s identity management, as our research suggests that individuals are largely oblivious to the ways their vulture transmission affects their online personas. This deficiency in awareness and its impact on identity management also indicates that, in an age where online confidentiality is increasingly valued, people are unknowingly threatening their own privacy.