An Investigation Into The Effects Of Social Networking On The Psychological Well Being Of University Students In Wuhan: Cultural And Gender Differences

This study investigated the social networking patterns of university students in Wuhan, China. It attempted to discover the effects of social networking on two different groups of university students: Chinese students and International (African) students. A questionnaire survey was adopted for this study and a 37 item,5 point-Likert scale questionnaire (written in English and Chinese) was used. The participants consisted of 600 students (300 Chinese male and female students and 300 African male and female students), selected through convenient sampling procedures. Two null hypotheses were formulated and tested, using independent sample t-tests and correlations. The findings showed that social networking has stronger positive effects on the Chinese students than on the International (African) students. The findings also revealed that the Chinese students and African male students favored Chinese social networking sites over non Chinese sites. With relation to Motivation of SNS use, Chinese students seem to be more motivated by deep psychological and emotional reasons (e.g. finding happiness and connecting with the outside world) while International students seemed to be more motivated by non emotional reasons. There were no differences discovered between the two male and female sex’s social networking patterns. Some recommendations were made to both groups of students:African students were encouraged to utilize social networking with the objective of improving certain aspects of their lives, as opposed to using it for mere entertainment. This study may prompt further research into the area of social networking and psychological well-being of other ethnic groups since this area was not explored in this study. At another angle, institutions within particular societies could also pursue comparisons of races social networking patterns for professional objectives.