Relationships Between Social Support, Loneliness, and Internet Addiction in Chinese Postsecondary Students: A Longitudinal Cross-Lagged Analysis

Using the Internet has become one of the most popular leisure activities among postsecondary students in China. Concern about the large number of students using the Internet has led to an increase in research on the influencing factors of Internet addiction and the negative consequences caused by it. This short-term longitudinal study examined the associations among three dimensions of social support [objective support (OS), subjective support (SS), and support utilization (SU)], loneliness, and the four dimensions of Internet addiction (compulsive Internet use [CIU] & withdrawal from Internet addiction [WIA], tolerance of Internet addiction [TIA], time-management problems [TMPs], and interpersonal and health problems [IHPs]) in a Chinese sample. A total of 169 postsecondary first-year students (88 girls and 81 boys; mean age = 18.31 years) participated in the study. The questionnaire measurements were taken at the beginning of the school year (T1), 6 months later (T2), and 1 year later (T3). Cross-lagged and structural equation modeling analyses indicated that (a) OS (T1) and SU (T1) negatively predicted loneliness (T2); and loneliness (T2) negatively predicted OS (T3) and SU(T3); (b) CIU & WIA (T1) and TMPs (T1) positively predicted loneliness (T2); and loneliness (T2) positively predicted CIU & WIA (T3), TIA (T3), TMP (T3), and IHP (T3); (c) SS (T1) directly affected TIA (T3) and TMP (T3); and (d) loneliness (T2) played a mediating role in the relationships between OS (T1) and CIU (T3), OS (T1) and TMP (T3), OS (T1) and IHP (T3), and SU (T1) and IHP (T3). Finally, interventions for Internet addiction and implications for future studies were discussed

The Ubiquitous Role of New Social Media Channels and Innovative Mobile Services: Are Consumers Ready?

Over the past decade, the world of social media is evolving at warp speed. In light of this rapid evolution, investigating social media users behaviour is top of the agenda for many managers and marketing researchers today (Kaplanand Haenlein, 2010). Indeed, still there are several areas in which we believe social media channels such as social networking, e-commerce, s-commerce, and blogs will make the most trivial evolution in years to come. Given the background provided about social media platforms adoption and strategic usage, there are some interesting and relevant topics that are particularly relevant in research on consumer behaviour towards these geo-information platforms and await further empirical exploration. Firstly, considering the cross-cultural aspects in studying the LBSN adoption on mobile phones, in a relationship social context, is a key driver of the growth and success of mobile LBSN and is even crucial to telecommunication operators to implement these services. Secondly, recently s-commerce is considered as a new form of social media that has arisen which due to its social features seem to have a great power of influence on consumers’ purchasing decision-making process. The marketing area has thus evolved from a time where marketers had the power of influence to today where consumers have a greater power of influence on their peers (Jaffe, 2010). Finally, with the advent of 4G mobile devices and the mobile location based advertising, consumers’ preferences can be pre-identified and advertising content can therefore be delivered to consumers at the right time and at the right place with the right message (Chen and Hsieh, 2012). Therefore, it becomes necessary and reasonable to enhance our understanding about the role of mobile advertising in mediating consumers shopping experience, since we begin to find ourselves bringing our mobile devices everywhere we go

Monitoring people using location-based social networking and its negative impact on trust: an exploratory contextual analysis of five types of friend relationships

Location based social networking (LBSN) applications are part of a new suite of social networking tools. LBSN is the convergence between location based services (LBS) and online social networking (OSN). LBSN applications offer users the ability to look up the location of another “friend” remotely using a smart phone, desktop or other device, anytime and anywhere. Users invite their friends to participate in LBSN and there is a process of consent that follows. This paper explores the potential impact of LBSN upon trust in society. It looks at the willingness of individuals to share their location data with family, friends, co-workers, the government, commercial entities and even strangers. The study used focus groups to collect data, and a qualitative approach towards analysis. The findings of the paper indicate that while most people are willing to share their real-time physical location with persons that they trust (e.g. family and close friends), they are generally reluctant to share such data with co-workers, government agencies and commercial entities. Even within the family context, people set limits to transparency depending on their personal circumstances (e.g. the parent-child relationship is quite different to the sibling relationship)