Social Media + Generative AI Research
2024
Skills: Human Computer Interaction, UI/UX, HCI Research
Semester-long research project for our HCI class. We asked the question “Do social media posts with AI-generated images enhance engagement as opposed to text-only posts?”
Research shows that images significantly enhance social media engagement; with the current rise of generative AI (e.g., think DALL-E, Meta AI), how can we anticipate its impact on social media? Specifically, how does it impact social media engagement and interaction from the point of the content creator?
The System: AI Image Generator Chrome Extension
We recruited 10+ participants to freely use our Chrome extension for 1 week. Participants were required to post at least once a day, with or without an AI image. We tracked their usage and followed up with an interview after their testing period.
Our Findings
1. An Effective Visualization Tool
Our team found that the aesthetic appeal and accuracy were crucial factors in deciding whether participants wanted to include the generated image or not. The mismatch in expectation versus output discouraged some participant from including an AI image. On the other hand, some participants found that the generated image encapsulated the overall aesthetic of the post very well and further enhanced the post as a result.
2. Perceived Engagement
Perceived engagement, more specifically perceived enhancement of engagement, was another factor contributing to participants' preference for including an image. We found that the element of humor was an especially popular point of perceived engagement. There was also an overall sentiment that the inclusion of the images will enhance engagement.
3. AI Limitations
We also found that flaws in the image, due to limitations to the current generative AI capabilities, were the most common factor for why participants' chose not to include an image with their post. These flaws consisted of the image having misspelled words, people with wrong number of limbs, or misrepresentation of the subject matter.
4. Viewer Point of View
We found that for the second part of our study, where participants are told to imagine themselves as viewers on Reddit and evaluate the pairs of text-only and text-with-image posts, viewers overwhelmingly preferred the text-with-image posts. The pairs of posts were all created through using our extension, and therefore only consisted of AI images.