Social Support "substitute" In Network

Since the 1970 s,the theory of social support has gradually matured.Social support in online communities has appeared in the early days of the birth of the Internet.Different types of social support have been presented with the development of online social interactions,realizing the "substitute" for the real society support.The research chose "985Waste Introduction Plan" online community of Douban platform as research object to explore motivations of members of the "985 Waste Introduction Plan" who chose to seek social support in network,current situation of social support in network and effects of social support in network.The research chose participatory observation and interview in online ethnography as method and 207 online posts and 21 interview texts were collected.The study found that members of "985 Waste Introduction Plan" have multiple social support needs under the impact of multiple pressures from study,employment,family,and social life.However,social support provided by strong ties in reality was absent to some extent due to three factors of geographical constraints,lack of common experience,and difficulty in providing valuable information.Internet communication has the compensatory advantages of breaking through the gap between time and space,providing anonymous and safe space and gathering similar individuals,attracting users to seek social support on the Internet.Motivations of group members for social support reflect the "off-target" of offline social support.There are four types of social support in network including information support,emotional support,social member support and instrumental support.These can be specifically described as constructive information provision,emotional connection of multiple cares,social relationship with accompany,relatively lack of instrumental support.Various types of social support play a substitute role for multiple support paths.There are effects of social support in the network on individuals,including enhancing self-efficacy,establishing group identity and providing first-hand experiences.In addition,there is also adverse effect of negative emotional contagion that should be alerted.The research analyzed the "substitute" role of social support in network for social support in reality and improved the development of social support theory in the Internet era.Corresponding improvement suggestions were proposed in order to coordinate social support both in reality and network,promoting the improvement of the mental health of college students.