research-article

Coming of Age (Digitally): An Ecological View of Social Media Use among College Students

Authors:

Stephanie M. Reich,

Mark WarschauerAuthors Info & Claims

CSCW '15: Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing

Pages 571 - 582

https://doi.org/10.1145/2675133.2675271

Published: 28 February 2015 Publication History

Abstract

We take an ecological approach to studying social media use and its relation to mood among college students. We conducted a mixed-methods study of computer and phone logging with daily surveys and interviews to track college students' use of social media during all waking hours over seven days. Continual and infrequent checkers show different preferences of social media sites. Age differences also were found. Lower classmen tend to be heavier users and to primarily use Facebook, while upper classmen use social media less frequently and utilize sites other than Facebook more often. Factor analysis reveals that social media use clusters into patterns of content-sharing, text-based entertainment/discussion, relationships, and video consumption. The more constantly one checks social media daily, the less positive is one's mood. Our results suggest that students construct their own patterns of social media usage to meet their changing needs in their environment. The findings can inform further investigation into social media use as a benefit and/or distraction for students.

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Index Terms

Coming of Age (Digitally): An Ecological View of Social Media Use among College Students
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Computing / technology policy

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cover image ACM Conferences

CSCW '15: Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing

February 2015

1956 pages

ISBN:9781450329224

DOI:10.1145/2675133

General Chairs:
Dan Cosley
Cornell University, USA
,
Andrea Forte
Drexel University, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Luigina Ciolfi
Sheffield Hallam University, UK
,
David McDonald
University of Washington, USA

Copyright © 2015 ACM.

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Published: 28 February 2015

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CSCW '15

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CSCW '15: Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing

March 14 - 18, 2015

BC, Vancouver, Canada

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CSCW '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 161 of 575 submissions, 28%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 2,235 of 8,521 submissions, 26%

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3701571.3701605
Kim WCake D(2024)Gen Zers’ Travel-Related Experiential Consumption on Social Media: Integrative Perspective of Uses and Gratification Theory and Theory of Reasoned ActionJournal of International Consumer Marketing10.1080/08961530.2024.2353078(1-28)Online publication date: 13-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/08961530.2024.2353078
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