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Lurker
Non-participating online observer
"Lurkers" redirects here. For the band, see The Lurkers.
"Lurking" redirects here. For the statistical term, see Lurking variable.
In Internet culture, a lurker is typically a member of an online community who observes, but does not participate by posting.[1][2][3] The exact definition depends on context. Lurkers make up a large proportion of all users in online communities.[4] Lurking allows users to learn the conventions of an online community before they participate, improving their socialization when they eventually "de-lurk".[5] However, a lack of social contact while lurking sometimes causes loneliness or apathy among lurkers.[6]
Lurkers are referred to using many names, including browsers, read-only participants, non-public participants, legitimate peripheral participants, vicarious learners, or sleepers.[7]
^Dennen V. (2008). "Pedagogical lurking: Student engagement in non-posting discussion". Computers in Human Behavior. 24 (4): 1624–1633. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2007.06.003.
^Cite error: The named reference rafaeli04 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Burke, M.; Marlowe, C.; Lento, T. (2010). Social Network Activity and Social Well-Being. ACM Special Interest Group on Computer–Human Interaction Proceedings.
^Tan, V. M. (2011). Examining the posters and lurkers: Shyness, Sociability, and community-related attributes as predictors of SNS participation online status (Doctoral dissertation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) (Thesis). S2CID28707424.