Social media and mobile smartphones are ubiquitous platforms for college students' communication activities. This study examined how college students' psychological need to belong is associated with their use of digital media, including social media and smartphones. The effects of college students' digital media use on their social engagement are also investigated. Findings revealed that students' need to belong was positively related with their use of social media and smartphones, which in turn facilitated their engagement in social activities. This study offers empirical evidence of the positive effects of digital media use on social behaviors and contributes to further understanding about the mechanisms by which need to belong leads to social engagement through social media and smartphone use.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CampbellSW, KwakN. Mobile communication and civic life: linking patterns of use to civic and political engagement. Journal of Communication, 2010; 60:536–555.
2.
RaackeJ, Bonds-RaackeJ. MySpace and Facebook: applying the uses and gratifications theory to exploring friend-networking sites. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 2008; 11:169–174.
3.
Pew Research Center. (2014) Internet user demographics [graph]. www.pewinternet.org/data-trend/internet-use/latest-stats (accessed Feb.16, 2015).
4.
Pew Research Center. (2014) Mobile technology fact sheet. www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet (accessed Feb.16, 2015).
5.
JungT, YounH, McClungS. Motivations and self-presentation strategies on Korean-based “Cyworld” weblog format personal homepages. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 2007; 10:24–31.
6.
ParkN, LeeS. College students' motivations for Facebook use and psychological outcomes. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 2014; 58:601–620.
7.
CampbellSW, KwakN. Mobile communication and civil society: linking patterns and places of use to engagement with others in public. Human Communication Research, 2011; 37:207–222.
8.
EllisonNB, SteinfieldC, LampeC. The benefits of Facebook “friends”: social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 2007; 12:1143–1168.
9.
EllisonNB, SteinfeldC, LampeC. Connection strategies: social capital implications of Facebook-enabled communication practices. New Media & Society, 2011; 13:873–892.
10.
ValenzuelaS, ParkN, KeeKF. Is there social capital in a social network site? Facebook use and college students' life satisfaction, trust, and participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 2009; 14:875–901.
11.
CummingsJ, LeeJ, KrautR. (2006) Communication technology and friendship during the transition from high school to college. In KrautR, BryninM, KieslerS, eds. Computers, phones, and the Internet: domesticating information technology. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 265–278.
12.
AvisonW, McLeodJD, PescosolidoBA. (2007) Mental health, social mirror. New York: Springer.
13.
EarlJ, KimportK. (2011) Digitally enabled social change: activism in the Internet age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
14.
AlbanesiC, CicognaniE, ZaniB. Sense of community, civic engagement and social well‐being in Italian adolescents. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 2007; 17:387–406.
15.
SilvaLD, SansonA, SmartD, ToumbourouJ. Civic responsibility among Australian adolescents: testing two competing models. Journal of Community Psychology, 2004; 32:229–255.
16.
PempekTA, YermolayevaYA, CalvertSL. College students' social networking experiences on Facebook. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2009; 30:227–238.
17.
SmithA. (2011, November15) Why Americans use social media. Pew Research Center. www.pewinternet.org/2011/11/15/why-americans-use-social-media (accessed Feb.16, 2015).
18.
LingR. (2004) The mobile connection: the cell phone's impact on society. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.
19.
SrivastavaL. Mobile phones and the evolution of social behavior. Behaviour & Information Technology, 2005; 24:111–129.
20.
BaumeisterRF, LearyMR. The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 1995; 117:497–529.
21.
HaythornthwaiteC. Online personal networks size, composition and media use among distance learners. New Media & Society, 2000; 2:195–226.
22.
PellingE, WhiteK. The theory of planned behavior applied to young people's use of social networking web sites. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 2009; 12:755–759.
23.
WalshSP, WhiteKM, YoungRM. The phone connection: a qualitative exploration of how belongingness and social identification relate to mobile phone use among Australian youth. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 2009; 19:225–240.
24.
GangadharbatlaH. Facebook me: Collective self-esteem, need to belong, and Internet self-efficacy as predictors of the iGeneration's attitudes toward social networking sites. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 2008; 8:5–15.
25.
BianchiA, PhillipsJG. Psychological predictors of problem mobile phone use. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 2005; 8:39–51.
26.
ProhaskaTR, AndersonLA, BinstockRH, eds. (2012) Public health for an aging society. Baltimore, MD: JHU Press.
27.
ZhangS, JiangH, CarrollJM. (2011) Integrating online and offline community through Facebook. In Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS). Philadelphia, PA, pp. 569–578.
28.
MihailidisP. The civic-social media disconnect: exploring perceptions of social media for engagement in the daily life of college students. Information, Communication & Society, 2014; 17:1059–1071.
29.
CastellsM. (2001) Virtual communities or network society? In CastellsM, ed. The Internet galaxy: reflections on the Internet, business, and society. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 116–136.
30.
ShirkyC. (2010) Cognitive surplus: creativity and generosity in a connected age. New York: Penguin Press.
31.
ShahDV, ChoJ, EvelandWPJr., KwakN. Information and expression in a digital age: modeling Internet effects on civic participation. Communication Research, 2005; 32:531–565.
32.
CampbellSW, KwakN. Political involvement in “mobilized” society: the interactive relationships among mobile communication, network characteristics, and political participation. Journal of Communication, 2011; 61:1005–1024.
33.
LingR. (2008) New tech, new ties: how mobile communication is reshaping social cohesion. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
34.
LedbetterAM, MazerJP, DeGrootJM, et al.Attitudes toward online social connection and self-disclosure as predictors of Facebook communication and relational closeness. Communication Research, 2011; 38:27–53.
35.
SeoH, HoustonJB, KnightLAT, et al.Teens' social media use and collective action. New Media & Society, 2014; 16:883–902.
36.
WeinsteinEC. The personal is political on social media: online civic expression patterns and pathways among civically engaged youth. International Journal of Communication, 2014; 8:210–233.
37.
TylerTR. Process utility and help seeking: what do people want from experts?. Journal of Economic Psychology, 2006; 27:360–376.
38.
LearyMR, KellyKM, CottrellCA, SchreindorferLS. Construct validity of the need to belong scale: mapping the nomological network. Journal of Personality Assessment, 2013; 95:610–624.
39.
ParkN, KeeKF, ValenzuelaS. Being immersed in social networking environment: Facebook groups, uses and gratifications, and social outcomes. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 2009; 12:729–733.
40.
BertelTF. “It's like I trust it so much that I don't really check where it is I'm going before I leave”: Informational uses of smartphones among Danish youth. Mobile Media & Communication, 2013; 1:299–313.
41.
HwangDB, GolemonPL, ChenY, et al.Guanxi and business ethics in Confucian society today: An empirical case study in Taiwan. Journal of Business Ethics, 2013; 89:235–250.
42.
BarkerV. Older adolescents' motivations for social network site use: The influence of gender, group identity, and collective self-esteem. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 2009; 12:209–213.
43.
MuscanellNL, GuadagnoRE. Make new friends or keep the old: Gender and personality differences in social networking use. Computers in Human Behavior, 2012; 28:107–112.
44.
HayesAF. (2013) Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. New York: The Guilford Press.
PreacherKJ, HayesAF. Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 2008; 40: 879–891.
47.
LechelerS, BosL, VliegenthartR. The mediating role of emotions: news framing effects on opinions about immigration. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 2015; 92: 812–838.
48.
ValkenburgPM, PeterJ. Adolescents' identity experiments on the Internet: consequences for social competence and self-concept unity. Communication Research, 2008; 35:208–231.
