Author(s)

Yiyu Liu ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

Corresponding Author

Yiyu Liu

ABSTRACT

Social media, such as WeChat, is explicitly dedicated to forming and engaging in relationship maintenance. Numerous researchers have recognized the potential of social media for studying communication behaviors and have investigated how it is related to impression formation. While previous studies focused on the effects of social media, this study focuses on why people use social media and how different factors affect people’s behaviors, specifically, self-esteem and social activeness. The research is based on the use of WeChat Moment, as one of the most characteristic social networks among the majority of people in the mainland of China. The main research group in this study targets at university students in the mainland of China. Whether sense of belonging, self-image promotion, gratification (including learning gratification, connecting gratification, and acquisition gratification), and distance (including geographic distance and relational distance) interact and influence their posting behavior on WeChat Moment, along with the other factors, such as gender, monthly spending, and academic divisions in university.

KEYWORDS

Social Media, Wechat, Mental Health, Online Community, Sociology

CITE THIS PAPER

Yiyu Liu, An Investigation of the Relationship between WeChat Moment Usage Frequency and Influencing Factors Including Sense of Belonging, Self-Image Promotion, Gratification, and Distance. Journal of Sociology and Ethnology (2022) Vol. 4: 66-78. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/jsoce.2022.040710.

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