Editing Lurker (section)

{{Short description|Non-participating online observer}}
{{Redirect|Lurkers|the band|The Lurkers}}
{{redirect|Lurking|the statistical term|Lurking variable}}

In [[Internet culture]], a '''lurker''' is typically a member of an [[online community]] who observes, but does not participate by posting or commenting.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Takahashi |first1=Masamichi |last2=Fujimoto |first2=Masakazu |last3=Yamasaki |first3=Nobuhiro |chapter=The active lurker: Influence of an in-house online community on its outside environment |date=2003-11-09 |title=Proceedings of the 2003 international ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/958160.958162 |series=GROUP '03 |location=New York, NY, USA |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=1–10 |doi=10.1145/958160.958162 |isbn=978-1-58113-693-7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Menon |first=Devadas |date=2022-03-01 |title=Factors influencing Instagram Reels usage behaviours: An examination of motives, contextual age and narcissism |journal=Telematics and Informatics Reports |volume=5 |pages=100007 |doi=10.1016/j.teler.2022.100007 |issn=2772-5030|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=dennen08>{{cite journal| author = Dennen V.| title = Pedagogical lurking: Student engagement in non-posting discussion| year = 2008| journal = Computers in Human Behavior| volume = 24| issue = 4| pages = 1624–1633| doi=10.1016/j.chb.2007.06.003}}</ref> The exact definition depends on context. Lurkers make up a large proportion of all users in online communities.<ref name="nielsen12">{{cite web|last=Nielsen|first=Jakob|title=Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute|url=http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html|access-date=23 October 2012}}</ref> Lurking allows users to learn the conventions of an online community before they participate, improving their [[socialization]] when they eventually "de-lurk".<ref name="rafaeli04" /> However, a lack of social contact while lurking sometimes causes [[loneliness]] or [[apathy]] among lurkers.<ref name="burke10">{{cite conference | year =2010 | conference = ACM Special Interest Group on Computer–Human Interaction Proceedings | title = Social Network Activity and Social Well-Being |author=Burke, M. |author2=Marlowe, C. |author3=Lento, T. }}</ref>

Lurkers are referred to using many names, including browsers, read-only participants, non-public participants, legitimate peripheral participants, vicarious learners, or sleepers.<ref name=tan11>{{cite thesis| author = Tan, V. M. | s2cid = 28707424 | title = 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)  | year = 2011}}</ref>