Chia-chen Yang

From Facebook to cell calls: Layers of electronic intimacy in college students’ interpersonal relationships

Communication technologies are widely used to manage interpersonal relationships, but little is known about which media are most useful at different stages of relationship development, and how the pattern of usage may be influenced by contextual factors or users’ gender. Drawing on theories of relationship development, this study examined usage patterns among 34 college students participating in six geographically stratified focus group interviews. Analyses revealed a sequence of media use tied to stages of relationship development − from Facebook in early stages to instant messaging and then cell phones as a relationship progressed. Judgments about the efficacy and appropriateness of using a medium were based on how well its salient features matched prominent goals or addressed major concerns of a relationship at the given stage. International students added two technologies to the sequence to accommodate time differentials and distance from communication partners. Males were less explicit about the sequence, except when referring to cross-sex relationships.

Media Niche of Electronic Communication Channels in Friendship: A Meta-Analysis

The current landscape of communication technologies is characterized by a wide variety of choices. As each medium provides different affordances, each may occupy a different niche and be used in different relationships. Drawing on the theory of the niche, we did a meta-analysis involving 27 effect sizes from 22 independent samples to test the correlation between media selection/use and friendship closeness. Results showed that the 5 communication channels filled 2 different friendship closeness niches. Mobile phone calls and texting had stronger positive correlations with friendship closeness than instant messaging, social network sites, and online gaming. Culture, but not gender, moderated some of these correlations: Friendship closeness had a stronger positive association with SNS use and online gaming in collectivist cultures.

Social Media as More Than a Peer Space College Freshmen Encountering Parents on Facebook

Social networking sites, first embraced by youth, have become increasingly popular among older generations. With more parents joining the sites, young people today are likely to encounter their parents on these platforms. However, there is limited information about how youth respond to the changing landscape, especially during the transition to a residential college, when parental support is particularly important but parent-child interaction may be disrupted by geographical distance. Drawing on literature of college transition, youth’s relationship with parents, and “context collapse,” this study explores how college freshmen react to parents’ participation in Facebook. Fifty-one semistructured interviews were conducted with 28 first-year students attending a major residential U.S. university (age M = 18.14, SD = 0.45; 50% female; 75% White, 11% multiethnic, 7% Asian, and 7% Latino). Findings showed that college freshmen overwhelmingly accepted parents and family adults as their Facebook Friends and offered them equal access as that offered to peers. Facebook provided a space for college freshmen and parents to bond and express affections, although freshmen sometimes considered family adults as being overresponsive or overreactive to Facebook posts. The implications of “friending” parents on Facebook for college freshmen’s privacy negotiation, parent-child relationship, and identity development are discussed.

Social Media Social Comparison of Ability (but not Opinion) Predicts Lower Identity Clarity: Identity Processing Style as a Mediator

Social comparison on social media has received increasing attention, but most research has focused on one type of social comparison and its psycho-emotional implications. Little is known about how different types of social comparison influence youth’s identity development. Drawing on the theories of identity processing styles and social comparison, we examined how two different forms of social comparison on social media related to three identity processing styles, which in turn predicted youth’s global self-esteem and identity clarity. We surveyed 219 college freshmen (Mage = 18.29; 74% female) once in the Fall and once in the Spring. Social comparison of ability on social media was related to concurrent diffuse-avoidant identity processing style, which predicted lower identity clarity months later. In contrast, social comparison of opinion on social media did not influence college freshmen’s global self-esteem and identity clarity through identity processing styles. The findings clarified the implications of online social comparison for youth’s identity development.

Interactants and activities on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter: Associations between social media use and social adjustment to college

ABSTRACT Research shows use of social media (SM) has important implications for college adjustment. However, most studies only focused on Facebook and did not attend to specific use patterns. Drawing on the activity-audience framework of social media use and literature of college adjustment, we examined the associations between use of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter and college social adjustment. Regression and cluster analyses of survey data from 257 undergraduates (Mage = 19.48) showed that SM interactants had stronger and more consistent associations with social adjustment than did activities. Using Facebook and Instagram with on-campus friends and family were related to better social adjustment; using Instagram with strangers was related to poorer adjustment. Students who frequently used all three SM to interact with off-campus friends were less adjusted than those who rarely used the platforms to interact with strangers. Some associations were moderated by SM activities. Implications of college students’ development in the digital age are discussed.

Not necessarily detrimental: Two social comparison orientations and their associations with social media use and college social adjustment

Abstract Social network sites (SNSs) are considered a convenient platform for social comparison. Current SNS social comparison research typically focuses on the activity of SNS browsing, which overlooks other use patterns available in the social media environment. Also, little research recognizes the two-dimensional nature of social comparison. Drawing on literature of social comparison and the activity-audience framework of social media use, we studied social comparison as a personal characteristic (social comparison orientation; SCO) relating to college students’ social adjustment via various Instagram activities and interactants. Implications of both dimensions of SCO were explored through survey data from 208 U.S. college undergraduates ( M age  = 19.43, 78% female). Social comparison orientation of ability (SCO-Ability) was related to poorer college social adjustment whereas social comparison orientation of opinion (SCO-Opinion) was related to better adjustment. Both types of SCO had a positive indirect association with adjustment via more frequent Instagram interaction with on-campus friends. SCO-Opinion was related to more Instagram interaction with off-campus friends, which was related to poorer social adjustment, but the overall indirect path was non-significant. Both types of SCO were also related to more frequent Instagram browsing. The study underscores the significance of recognizing SCO as a two-dimensional construct and illustrates how SCO can associate with social well-being in the social media context.

Social media social comparison and identity distress at the college transition: A dual-path model

INTRODUCTION Social media provide a convenient platform for social comparison, an activity that should play an important role in youths identity development at the transition to college. Yet, the identity implications of online social comparison have not been thoroughly explored. Drawing on the theories of social comparison, introspective processes, and identity distress, we examined a dual-path model. The paths from two types of social media social comparison (i.e., comparison of ability and comparison of opinion) to two introspective processes (i.e., rumination and reflection) and finally to identity distress were tested. METHODS Short-term longitudinal survey data were collected from 219 college freshmen at a state university in the United States of America (Mage = 18.29, S.D. = 0.75; 74% female; 41% White, 38% Black). RESULTS Social comparison of ability on social media had a positive association with concurrent rumination, which predicted higher identity distress. In contrast, social comparison of opinion on social media had a positive relationship with concurrent reflection, which, however, did not predict identity distress. CONCLUSION Results indicate that different types of online social comparison yield distinct implications for young peoples identity development. Largely, the study reaffirms the recently rising call for distinguishing the competition-based social comparison of ability from the information-based social comparison of opinion. At the same time, the study expands current knowledge of why these forms of social comparison may lead to differential outcomes, namely through the type of introspection they induce.