Lonely Socializing: A Study On The Relationship Between Social Media Use And Loneliness Among College Student

With the continuous change of media technology,social media and college students have formed a mutually internalized,two-way inhabited and sequenced relationship.Social media has an embedded influence on the social form,spatial and temporal order and psychological experience of college students.The phenomenon of social isolation among college students describes the interpersonal social situation in which college students feel lonely in real life due to social media technology.On the one hand,social media provides a seemingly "freer relational field existence" for college students,but on the other hand,it creates an "illusion of coexistence",and the real portrait of college students who are separated from their real bodies on social media is The real portrait of the university students who are separated from their real bodies on social media is "isolated and dispersed ’hidden youth’ sitting alone in front of a computer screen or staring at the cell phone world.The typical characteristics are: at the level of physical connection,college students achieve rapid connection online all the time;at the level of communication,college students talk intimately with each other on social media,but their hearts become more and more detached.In short,in the spatial and temporal context of social media,the socialization of college students has emerged as an emotional state of "communicative ecstasy and coexistence of loneliness",with an imperceptible divide of deep loneliness between them.This study takes college students as the research object,social media as the angle of entry,and the question of "why in the era of increasingly convenient social media connections,college students who are exploring interpersonal relationships have the dilemma of ’social loneliness’ " as the logical The starting point of the study is the question "Why does the dilemma of ’social loneliness’ occur among college students who are exploring interpersonal relationships in the era of increasingly convenient social media connections? Through in-depth interviews and theoretical approaches,we explore the interaction mechanism between social media use and loneliness among college students in the context of social media era,in order to clarify the underlying reasons why college students appear to "converge but not gather" in the social media connection network.In order to investigate the specific relationship and mechanism between social media use and loneliness among college students,this study rejects the view of "social loneliness" as "social media" and "loneliness".Instead,the study advocates a "relationship/interaction" perspective to understand the "process" of social loneliness.Therefore,this study chose the rooted theory approach in qualitative research,and after three rounds of coding,a theoretical model of "cognitive-emotional-situational factors" of social loneliness among college students was initially established.The cognitive factor mainly refers to "self-perception completion" and "individual cognitive attributes",which refer to the individual perception of loneliness on social media;the affective dimension consists of "affective transformational power,relationship involvement and psychological satisfaction".The affective dimension consists of "affective transformability,relationship involvement,and psychological satisfaction",which mainly explains why social loneliness is formed;the contextual factor consists of "one-sided attributes of media technology and external structural factors",which refers to the specific contexts in which college students form the subjective experience of loneliness.In terms of cognitive factors,the study found that college students’ perceptions of social media in terms of "other-oriented accentuation," "liking culture and selfconfidence enhancement," "self-identity and self-improvement," "social convenience and fragmentation," and "social communication" were all important.Under the cover of "social facilitation and fragmentation",college students are engaged in a hidden "Faustian bargain" with social media platforms.The price of this transaction is incomplete identity perception(fragmented and one-sided self-concept,excessive narcissistic tendency,fragmentation of reality,etc.)and negative self-worth perception(weakened self-construction ability and degraded self-socialization ability,etc.).These two factors are the two major cognitive factors that generate loneliness in social media for college students who are in the "self-exploration period".In terms of affective factors,the three categories of affective transformative power,relationship involvement and psychological satisfaction in social media are logically connected with loneliness,which directly affect the intensity of loneliness experienced by college students.In terms of contextual factors,the two categories of "one-sided properties of media technology" and "external structural factors" are included,among which "one-sided properties of media technology" is divided into two levels.The first is the physical limitation of "de-corporealization" in the process of online socialization,and the second is the risk of "emotional indifference" brought by "technological platforms in the process of social interaction".The external structural factors are mainly analyzed in the context of "socio-cultural context","media environment" and "real social situation",which are outside the individual context,and are found to play a structural role in the social isolation of college students.The study found that they play a structural role in regulating the social isolation of college students.In order to further explore the external structural factors of social loneliness among college students and the underlying reasons,this study focuses on the external structural factors of social loneliness from four aspects: platforms,subjects,consumption patterns and evaluation criteria.First,platform attribution,after in-depth interviews,we found that digital media such as Jitterbug and other landscape media are both a "smokescreen" to obscure and paralyze loneliness,and a "stimulant" to cause depression and digital mental fatigue and irritability;second,subject attribution,i.e.,the effect of online The second is the attribution of the subject,that is,the objectification of "people" by social networking is also an important reason for the "spiritual and inner emptiness and loneliness" of college students,resulting in the transformation of the identity form of college students on social media from "united youth" to "hidden youth"."The third is the attribution of consumption mode: the loneliness economy has gradually " poisoned "the college students’ spirit with the sweet prescription of " spending money to solve loneliness " mixed with arsenic." Under the placebo effect of social media chatting and the false comfort effect of shopping,some college students continue to "live" with a smile in the abundance of false social life,while Fourth,the attribution of evaluation criteria: the study believes that the "empathic relationship" between individuals including college students and the world responding to each other is due to the "elevation logic" and "quantitative benchmark" created by the merit society.The study suggests that the "empathic relationship" between individuals and the world,including college students,is gradually falling apart due to the "elevation logic" and "quantitative benchmark" created by the merit society,and that the quantification of emotion makes the submergence of "emotion" required for good interpersonal relationship unacceptable.In conclusion,after a clearer understanding and reflection of the formation process,mechanism and root cause of the social isolation phenomenon of "body connection but heart isolation" that exists in a specific group of college students,this study proposes a solution to this problem.This study proposes a solution to this dilemma: first,to establish a "resonance axis",calling on college students to try to establish resonant relationships with others and the world through realistic face-to-face conversations;second,to regain solitude and build a moderate social way that helps college students’ mental health;third,to seek a physical social relationship outside of social media.The third is to seek the physical power of social reality outside of social media,and to build the "core intermediary" of the intimate circle that can resonate with the world.