Study On Social Support Of Wechat For International Students

WeChat is China's first world class products in Internet area,for creating rapid transmissions of information among acquaintances,and the tool for a global communication.With the trend development of mobile social media,WeChat has taken an important role in students daily life.In order to study the case of how using WeChat can provide social support groups for international students in dealing with new situations in China,this research adopted the qualitative of participatory observation,in-depth interviews,and exploratory study for the purpose of clarifying the new changes in social support factors of among foreign students.The study found that: 1,Students' WeChat social behavior is two-sided.That WeChat is a virtual social media can enable users to freely speech and communicate each other,but users' interaction in WeChat has a certain degree of influence for the relationship in real life;2,WeChat becomes the information center.Students who belong to various WeChat group can get important information from many resources.WeChat can be the information center for students in gathering rich and instant information,source of support and emotional interaction,and also help students to develop a wide range of weak ties with other WeChat users;3,WeChat breaks the space constraints.International students have their family as primary social group in WeChat.By using WeChat,students can maintain daily frequent social exchanges with their families.primary groups' virtual reconstruction on WeChat enables students to get emotional support from their families;4,the proximity of news and the opinion leadership become information screening mechanism.Because the opinion leaders take part in the transmission of information,the host country's social events can become international Students' trending topic in WeChat.Actually not only social events,all information related to students interests and most likely to catch their attention can become the object of discussion;5,WeChat social interpersonal circles are distinguished by language.In WeChat,language is still an effective tool to distinguish networks and the language becomes the identity of the WeChat group.Different WeChat social network bring different types of social support for them;6,The management office of international students manage to establish public platform in Wechat is adapt to the new change of the international students' communication way.WeChat is actively broadening the channels for communication,and it is also conducive in raising the level of social support for international students.On the basic of the research result,researcher suggest that at the same time of stdudents using WeChat,Students Affairs department should help international students to improve the ability of information filtering,They can use WeChat to provide better service for students,actively explore WeChat public platform,provide useful and helpful information for international students,and improve the level of information support.For Chinese students as the students of the host country,they should actively socialize with foreign students,build more social and emotional communication with international students by using WeChat.