Why Do People Browse and Post on WeChat Moments? Relationships among Fear of Missing Out, Strategic Self-Presentation, and Online Social Anxiety

People's attitudes toward others' positive self-presentations and demotivation self-presentations on SNS

People tend to make positive self-presentations on social networking sites (SNS). We aim to compare people's attitudes toward others' positive self-presentations on SNS and its mechanism. The sample in Experimental 1 included 71 Chinese college students. We measured participants' attitudes to others' positive self-presentation, life details self-presentation, and demotivation self-presentation on SNS. Results from Experiment 1 showed that participants preferred others' life details self-presentations over positive self-presentations, and mostly disliked demotivation self-presentations. In Experiment 2, with another sample, we tested idealization, perceived interpersonal distance, stress, anxiety, and depression as mediators of participants' attitudes toward others' positive self-presentation. The results suggested that feelings of depression and interpersonal distance play a mediating role in the relationship between the self-presentation types and people's likability of these posts. The results have implications for understanding why people dislike positive self-presentations on SNS. Positive self-presentations lead people to feel more depressed and far interpersonally distanced from the sharer, and thus they are less likely to like positive self-presentation.

Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the Scale of Effects of Social Media on Eating Behaviour and research of its influencing factors

BACKGROUND

Social media has become an indispensable part of contemporary young people's lives, and the influence of social media on college students' eating and other health-related behaviors has become increasingly prominent. However, there is no assessment tool to determine the effects of social media on Chinese college students' eating behavior. This study aims to translate the Scale of Effects of Social Media on Eating Behaviour (SESMEB) into Chinese. Its applicability to Chinese college students was examined through reliability and validity indexes, and the influencing factors of SESMEB were explored.

METHODS

The questionnaire survey included 2374 Chinese college students. The Brislin translation model was used to translate the original scale into Chinese. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to test the construct validity of the scale, and the content validity of the scale was assessed through the content validity index. The internal consistency of the scale was assessed by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient, McDonald's Omega coefficient, split-half reliability, and test-retest reliability. Multiple stepwise linear regression analysis was performed to identify potential influences on the effects of social media on eating behavior.

RESULTS

EFA supported the one-factor structure, and the factor loadings of each item on this dimension were higher than 0.40. CFA showed good model fitness indexes. The content validity index of the scale was 0.94. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient and McDonald's Omega coefficient for the scale were 0.964, the split-half reliability coefficient was 0.953, and the test-retest reliability was 0.849. Gender, education, major, frequency of social media use, online sexual objectification experiences, fear of negative evaluations, and physical appearance perfectionism explained 73.8% of the variance in the effects of social media on eating behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

The Chinese version of the SESMEB has good psychometric properties and is a valid measurement tool for assessing the effects of social media on college students' eating behavior. Subjects who were female, highly educated, non-medical, had frequent social media use, online sexual objectification experiences, fear of negative evaluations, and physical appearance perfectionism used social media to have a higher impact on eating behavior.

How Differential Dimensions of Social Media Overload Influences Young People's Fatigue and Negative Coping during Prolonged COVID-19 Pandemic? Insights from a Technostress Perspective

Although social networking sites have emerged as the primary source of information for young people, there is a dearth of knowledge concerning the underlying associations between differential aspects of social media overload and whether social media overload ultimately influenced people's negative coping strategies during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. In order to fill this gap in existing knowledge, the current research employed the stressor-strain-outcome (SSO) theoretical paradigm to explicate social media fatigue and negative coping strategies from a technostress perspective. The study used cross-sectional methodology, whereby 618 valid questionnaire responses were gathered from WeChat users to assess the conceptual model. The obtained outcomes demonstrated that information overload and communication overload positively impacted young people's fatigue. Furthermore, these two patterns of perceived overload heighten social media fatigue, which ultimately leads to young people's negative coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings would extend the present social media fatigue and technical stress literature by identifying the value of the SSO theoretical approach in interpreting young people's negative coping phenomena in the post-pandemic time.

Social media usage of chinese nursing students: Attitudes, motivations, mental health problems, and self-disclosure

BACKGROUND

Excessive self-disclosure online may risk the reputations, mental health problems, and professional lives of nursing students. This study investigated nursing students' usage of social media, their attitudes towards social media, mental health problems and self-disclosures, and the relationships of these variables.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted online (n = 1054) with questionnaires of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), Social Media Fatigue (SMF), Students' Uses and Views of Social Media (SUVSM) and self-disclosure in social media which included self-information shown on social media and information viewed by others.

RESULTS

Although most of them held positive attitudes towards social media, 17.4% of the participants acknowledged that they had posted inappropriate contents online and 37.6% witnessed improper posts from schoolmates or teachers online. SMF was affected by familiar with relevant regulations on the social media usage (β = -.10, p < .001), FoMO (β = .41, p < .001), and SUVSM (β = .17, p < .001). Additionally, nearly 1/3 participants reported their net-friends could view following information: gender, age, occupation, education level and location. Self- disclosure in social media was positively influenced by education (β = .10, p < .001), sharing moments or Weibo, etc. (β = .009, P = 0.009), time spent on social media daily (β = .11, p < .001), accepting stranger's "friend request" (β = .06, P = 0.047), FoMO (β = .14, p < .001) and SMF (β = .19, p < .001). Furthermore, effect of SUVSM on self-disclosure in social media was mediated by FoMO and SMF.

CONCLUSION

Inappropriate contents are posted and witnessed by appreciable proportions of nursing students. Positive attitude towards social media may strengthen FoMO and SMF, which may increase self-disclosure in social media in turn.

How different online self-presentations relate to life satisfaction differently in college students: The role of positive online feedback and self-esteem

In the Internet age, some online factors, such as online self-presentation, related to life satisfaction have received much attention. However, it is unclear whether and how different strategies of online self-presentation are linked to an individual's life satisfaction differently. Accordingly, the present study examined the possible different relationships between different online self-presentations and life satisfaction with a sample of 460 Chinese college students. Using a series of questionnaires, a moderated mediation model was built in which positive online feedback was a mediator and self-esteem was a moderator. The results indicated that: (1) positive self-presentation was negatively associated with college students' life satisfaction, whereas honest self-presentation was positively related to it; (2) positive online feedback was a significant mediator in such relationships; (3) the mediation process was moderated by self-esteem. Specifically, positive self-presentation was negatively related to positive online feedback only for high self-esteem college students, but negatively associated with life satisfaction only for low self-esteem ones. By contrast, honest self-presentation was positively associated with positive online feedback despite the level of self-esteem, but positively linked with life satisfaction only for those with low self-esteem. The findings suggest that honest rather than positive online self-presentation should be conducive to college students' life satisfaction, particularly for those with low self-esteem. The implications were discussed.

Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of social anxiety scale for social media users and cross-sectional investigation into this disorder among college students

BACKGROUND

Recent years have seen an increased incidence of social anxiety due to increasing intensive use of social media, especially among young adults.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to translate the original English version of Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users (SAS-SMU) into Chinese, examine its applicability among Chinese College students via reliability and validity indexes, and investigate the influencing factors contributing to SAS-SMU.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among a cohort of 1307 Chinese college students, 486 males and 821 females, aged 20.75 ± 3.13 years old. The original version of SAS-SMU was translated into Chinese using the backward and forward translation procedure. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor (CFA) analysis were used for construction of underlying factor structure. Criterion-related validity was assessed using Interaction anxiousness scale (IAS) and the "extraversion" domain of Eysenck Personality Short Scale (EPQ-R-S). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was computed for evaluation of internal consistency. A multivariate stepwise linear regression analysis was conducted for determining the potential correlates of SMU-related social anxiety.

RESULTS

The final Chinese version of SAS-SMU had 21 items. Item analysis, exploratory factor, EFA, and CFA jointly supported a three-factor structure of the translated version, defined as social recognition anxiety, interaction anxiety, and privacy concern anxiety, respectively. The three-factor structure of this scale showed configural, metric, scalar measurement invariance across gender. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the scale and its three subscales were 0.96, 0.93, 0.94, and 0.91, respectively. The mean SAS-SMU overall score for each college student was 51.63 ± 16.32, with 21.64 ± 7.24 (recognition anxiety), 17.10 ± 6.30 (interaction anxiety), 12.90 ± 4.61 (privacy concern anxiety) for each subscale, respectively. IAS score, mobile phone addiction index (MPAI) score, EPQ-E score, time spent on social media per week, relationship with parents, childhood life status, whether being an only child, and cyber bullying experience can explain 51.1% of the variance of SMU related social anxiety.

CONCLUSION

Based on the data, the Chinese version of SAS-SMU has shown to be satisfactory in psychometric properties. Subjects prone to interaction anxiousness, addictive smartphone use, extraversion personality trait, bad relationship with parents, unfortunate childhood life, only-child status, and having cyberbullying experience tend to have a higher level of SMU related social anxiety.

Dark Triad Personality and Phubbing: The Mediator Role of Fomo

Phubbing among undergraduate has become an area of increasing research interest in recent years. In recent years, studies on phubbing have increased. However, no empirical study has deal with the mediating effect of fear of missing out (FoMO) on the relationship between dark triad and phubbing. The dark triad refers to three personality traits: Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. Machiavellianism is characterized by prioritizing one's own wishes and desires. Psychopathy, is a personality trait where lack of emotion and self-control is seen. Narcissism is characterized by low empathy and egocentrism. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine whether FoMO mediator between dark triad and phubbing among undergraduates. For this purpose, structural equation modeling and bootstrapping method was used. Mediation analyses were performed using AMOS 22.00. The present study comprised 506 undergraduate (%70.7 female; %29.3 male). The age of the participants ranged between 18 and 29 (x = 22.41).The measures used included the General Scale of Phubbing, Fear of Missing Out Scale, and Dirty Dozen Scale. The results showed that FoMO mediated the relationship between dark triad and phubbing. The results of bootstrapping procedure indicated that the indirect effect of FoMO on the relationship between dark triad and phubbing was significant. In conclusion, the study suggests that FoMO is a meaningful mediator in the relationship between dark triad and phubbing. Research results are discussed in the light of the related literature and suggestions are presented for future researchers.

A Literature Review of Online Identity Reconstruction

The tremendous development of the Internet enables people to present themselves freely. Some people may reconstruct their identity on the Internet to build an online identity that is partly or even completely different from their real identity in the offline world. Given that research on online identity reconstruction is fragmented, it is important to evaluate the current state of the literature. In this paper, a review of literature related to online identity reconstruction was conducted. This study summarized the theoretical and methodological preferences of relevant research. In addition, it elaborated why and how people engage in online identity reconstruction. The predictors and effects of online identity reconstruction were also discussed. The results of this study provided an overview of the thematic patterns of existing research. This review also identified current research gaps and recommended possible directions for future studies.