{"id":122279,"date":"2020-07-08T13:40:49","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T23:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=122279"},"modified":"2020-07-08T13:40:49","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T23:40:49","slug":"facebook-improves-sheltered-homeless-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/07\/08\/facebook-improves-sheltered-homeless-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook improves some aspects of sheltered homeless lives, <abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr> research shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/manoa-communications-facebook-study.jpg\" alt=\"two hands typing on a phone\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-122287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/manoa-communications-facebook-study.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/manoa-communications-facebook-study-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/manoa-communications-facebook-study-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>By using the Facebook social networking platform, sheltered homeless in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> can improve their lives in ways ranging from online job searches to strengthening their connections with family and friends.<\/p>\n<p>That was the finding from a research team led by <strong>Wayne Buente<\/strong>, an associate professor in the <a href=\"https:\/\/communications.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">School of Communications<\/a> in the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M\u0101noa\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.socialsciences.hawaii.edu\/\">College of Social Sciences<\/a> (<abbr>CSS<\/abbr>). The <a href=\"https:\/\/ijoc.org\/index.php\/ijoc\/article\/view\/13257\">paper was published in the <em>International Journal of Communication<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Study details<\/h2>\n<p>A survey of 148 people at two homeless shelters in Honolulu examined Facebook use vs. non-use, and found that Facebook users were:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Younger and more likely to be female.<\/li>\n<li>More likely to have their own cell phones, have access to the internet from their cell phones and be heavier cell phone users.<\/li>\n<li>More likely to use the app for online job searches than to look for housing.<\/li>\n<li>Exhibited higher levels of bonding with close friends and loved ones, including family, which was especially critical during times of trouble.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&ldquo;Our study demonstrates how the use of Facebook can lead to improving the homeless condition,&rdquo; said Buente. &ldquo;As a social media platform with a focus on social networks, Facebook can help homeless individuals keep in touch with close friends who can provide them with critical social support and help. In addition, using Facebook may improve human capital by helping homeless individuals to acquire a job or improve internet literacy.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The researchers noted that Native Hawaiians represented a majority&#8212;almost one-third or 31.8 percent&#8212;of homeless shelter guests in the study, a finding confirmed by other government and nonprofit agency reports.<\/p>\n<h2>Researchers<\/h2>\n<p>Buente serves as graduate chair in the School of Communications. He has pursued research projects that examine issues relating to information systems, digital inequality, social media and health disparities. His classes look at the interplay between society and information and communication technologies.<\/p>\n<p>Collaborators on the research team were <strong>Rachel Neo<\/strong>, a communications assistant professor at <abbr>CSS<\/abbr>; <strong>Luz Quiroga<\/strong>, a retired associate professor in <abbr title=\"东精影业\">东精影业<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ics.hawaii.edu\/\">Department of Information and Computer Sciences<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/lis\/\">Library and Information Science Program<\/a>; and <strong>Joseph Greene<\/strong>, a doctoral student in <a href=\"https:\/\/coe.hawaii.edu\/ltec\/\">Learning Design and Technology<\/a> in <abbr>东精影业<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s College of Education and instructional designer at Texas Tech University Health Services Center.<\/p>\n<p>Research was funded by the <a href=\"https:\/\/ssri.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">Social Science Research Institute<\/a> in <abbr>CSS<\/abbr> and supported by the Institute for Human Services.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<strong>By <em>Lisa Shirota<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Researchers surveyed 148 people at two homeless shelters in Honolulu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[95,301,661,484,630,303,1363,158,741,1026,916,9],"class_list":["post-122279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-education","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-communications","tag-information-and-computer-science","tag-learning-design-and-technology","tag-library-and-information-science","tag-manoa-research","tag-publication","tag-school-of-communications","tag-social-science","tag-social-science-research-institute","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122279"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122298,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122279\/revisions\/122298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}