Abstract

This paper describes a pilot investigation into the use
of the social networking site Facebook as a platform for
persuasive applications. The application domain is behaviour
change in domestic energy consumption and the study focuses
on determining peoples’ attitudes towards the hypothetical
coupling of the consumer product Wattson, which can monitor
domestic electricity usage, to a Facebook application termed
Watts Up. The Facebook application presents visualisations of users’ own electricity consumption as well as that of their friends. Users’ attitudes towards this notion were accumulated and analysed using grounded theory. Some user indications revealed negative opinions about the concept based, for instance, around privacy and confusion; however the balance of opinion appeared to favour the underlying idea that revealing other people’s energy usage data would lead to competition and peer influence to reduce energy consumption.