Social Media, Use for Recruitment

In recent years, researchers have begun to incorporate Internet-based social media sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Grindr, Instagram) as either a supplement to or replacement of traditional recruitment methods such as flyers and mailing lists. The digital divide, a term denoting unequal access to and use of the Internet, continues to be an obstacle to sampling representative LGBTQ groups. In the early 2000s, the digital divide hinged on geographic and economic access to the Internet: the haves and the have-nots, with the haves being mostly White, urban or suburban, and middle-class men. In recent years, smartphones provided Internet access to those least likely to be online previously: rural, working-class, and racial- or ethnic-minority populations. Today, the digital divide still exists; despite gaining access to the Internet, ...