Effects of Social Media Usage on Social Integration of University Students.

• Author: Pan, Youqin

INTRODUCTION

In today's society, social media has become popular among college students and an almost indispensable part of daily life. Social media refers to "internet based applications that allow the creation and exchange of content which is user generated" (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Examples of social media and applications include Facebook, YouTube, blogs, Google+, and discussion forums. Social capital is defined as social resources that people accumulate through their relationships with others. Social media has been found to contribute to social capital through positively impacting social interactions and network building among college students (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007; Steinfield, Ellison, & Lampe, 2008). Social media facilitates students' transition to college by providing them with informational and social support while connecting them with their peers (Li & Chen, 2014; Gray et al., 2013). Social media offers a unique opportunity to promote socialization to the college environment (Yu, Tian, Vogel, & Kwok, 2010). Social media tools may be well-suited for addressing social factors because they are designed to maintain relationships and serve as a "social lubricant" (Ellison et al., 2011). The concept of social capital provides a theoretical framework to examine the nature and the value of the social integration (Brown et al. 2005). There is strong evidence that social capital positively affects students' achievements and prevents students from dropping out (Coleman, 1994). Students who discontinue their undergraduate education often feel disconnected from peers, professors, and administrators at their institution (Harper & Quaye, 2009). Middle-class students are more socially integrated than working-class students at university (Rubin, 2012). As social media is becoming increasingly ubiquitous to millennial students, many educators and administrators are aware of the benefits of using social media for academic purposes (Hughes, 2009). Unfortunately, there is scant research on how social media can be used to facilitate students' social integration during their transition to college life.

A study by Galindo et al. (2012) is among the earlier work linking social media to student retention. Retaining students is important for an institution to carry out its mission. A high rate of attrition not only leads to fiscal problems for colleges, but also causes institutions to fail at achieving their goals. Tinto's (1997) interactionist model of student persistence theorized that dropout was less likely to occur if a student was socially integrated. Social integration refers to the "extent to which a student feels connected to the college environment, peers, faculty, and others in college and is involved in campus activities" (Brooman & Darwent, 2013, p. 2). Tinto's retention model pointed out that social integration is critical to student retention. That is, students who are socially integrated into the campus community generally develop strong commitment to the institution, and they are less likely to depart from the institution. This study intends to fill the gap by examining the impact of social media use on students 'social integration.

Literature reviews also indicate that social media use creates different forms of social capital (Chan, 2013; Chen &Li, 2017), which may further affect students' social integration. This study distinguishes social media use by communicative use, academic collaboration, and self-disclosure. Communicative use refers to the degree to which people contact friends, acquaintances, and family members through social media (Chen & Li, 2017). Academic collaboration refers to the extent to which people collaborate and accomplish academic activities on social media. Self-disclosure refers to the extent to which people reveal themselves via social media, including personal profile information, feelings, and location (Chen & Li, 2017). In literature, few studies on the social implications of using social media have focused on students' social integration. This study intends to fill the gap and utilize a social capital framework to understand whether communicative use, academic collaboration, and self-disclosure on social media would lead to social capital and social integration as the major outcomes, and how it would do so.

The paper is organized as follows: Section 1 gives a brief introduction; section 2 presents literature review and proposed hypotheses; section 3 discusses briefly research method; section 4 provides an analysis of the results; section 5 presents discussion; and section 6 concludes the paper.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Communicative use on social media and social capital

Social capital refers to resources embedded in one's social networks from which a person "draws on resources from other members of the networks to which he or she belongs" (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007, p. 1145). Students benefit from social capital for several reasons, including fun, arranging activities, and finding friends (Giannakos et al., 2013). Social capital has often been classified into bonding and bridging capital (Putnam, 2000) according to two aspects: tie strength and type of resources. Bridging social capital refers to the capacity to access resources through heterogeneous social relationships and networks which connect individuals to people with different background and lifestyles, providing useful information, new perspectives, and other forms of instrumental support. Bridging social capital might expand one's social horizon. However, it does not provide much emotional support (Ellison et al., 2007; Johnston et al., 2013; Williams, 2006). People who possess more bridging social capital usually have more information at their disposal, as well as access to more opportunities (Burke et al.,2011; Johnston et al., 2013). In contrast to bridging capital deriving from weak ties, bonding capital tends to come from members bounded with strong ties through homogeneous social networks. Bonding capital refers to the value of and resources from strong ties through homogenous social network characterized by high level of trust and intimacy, such as family members and close friends, providing mutual and emotional support (Putnam, 2000). Bonding capital involves more sustained support, especially emotional support, from individuals with whom one shares an intimate and reciprocal relationship (Liu & Brown, 2014).

Emerging as a new avenue of communication, social networks have become an important communication tool in higher education (Akcaoglu & Bowman, 2016; Chromey, Duchsherer, Pruett, & Vareberg, 2016). Students are granted social capital from being in the academic environment and having social interactions with their peers (Bensimon, 2007). Social media promotes the quality of relationship between users (Sponcil & Gitimu, 2012). Communicative use on social media helps establish strong ties among members and coordinate social activities, such as meeting close friends and organizing group work (Cambell & Kwak, 2010). In addition, communicative use on social media also helps expand bridging bonds. Social media allows relationship maintenance interactions to occur quickly and with multiple people at the same time. In fact, social media provides ideal interactive platforms to maintain relationships with strong and weak ties (Tong & Walther, 2011). Thus, we propose the following hypotheses:

H1: Communicative use on social media is positively associated with bridging social capital

H2: Communicative use on social media is positively associated with bonding social capital.

Academic Collaboration on Social Media and Social Capital

In addition to adjusting to a new living environment, college students must also adjust to the university-level academic environment (Gray et al., 2013). Social media can be used to facilitate students' transition to the academic environment through collaborative learning. These social media tools include collaborative projects (Wikipedia), blogs, content communities (YouTube), and social networking sites (Facebook). For example, Google+ provides a new way for students to find, share, and connect online both inside and outside the classroom. In particular, Google+ provides a novel platform for students to collaborate on group projects, and greatly encourages collaborative learning. Madge et al. (2009) examined the use of Facebook to improve the academic and social experiences of first year students. The authors reported that a small number of students use Facebook for informal educational purposes like discussing classwork and organizing meetings for group projects. Likewise, Lampe et al. (2011) investigated factors influencing the use of Facebook for ad hoc collaborative activities such as organizing a study group or asking for help in a class. Such collaborative activities on social media often require prolonged interaction with other members over time, which impacts their social exchanges and social relationships (Gray et al., 2013). Social media enables students to connect with classmates and to collaborate on academic projects/assignments, which, in turn, makes them feel more connected to their peers and the colleges. Based upon findings in literature stating that interaction...