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The purpose of this paper is to investigate university students’ WeChat usage during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in relation to the mediating role of online self-disclosure on their quality of friendship and well-being. A model is proposed to explain how students’ interactions occur during the lockdown and the mediatory role which self-disclosure plays in influencing their socio-psychological markup.

The research model was tested empirically through a survey conducted online with 600 research participants, comprising of university students in China.

Results in structural equation modeling show that WeChat interaction significantly correlates with the quality of friendship, online self-disclosure but not significantly correlates with well-being, but an indirect relationship was found out in the mediation analysis. There is also a significant relationship between online self-disclosure, quality of friendship and well-being. Mediation analysis shows that online self-disclosure mediates the relationship between interactions on WeChat and quality of friendship; it also mediates the relationship between WeChat interaction and well-being. In all, the results achieved in this study will significantly help provide more insights in comprehending the nuances attached to some socio-psychological aspects of WeChat and how its usage affects people during the period of crisis.

Theoretically based investigation of WeChat usage among university students and its relationship with online self-disclosure, quality of friendship and well-being is still quite scarce, thereby underscoring the needs and significance of a theoretically based study in this regard. This study tested the credibility and validity of the proposed model in the context of the recent COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in China, which is one of the first in recent times.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of multidimensional friendship networks on economic outcomes in the domain of online people-to-people (P2P) lending markets.

The empirical analysis is based on the data set of transactions and friendship networks from PPDai.com market, the most prominent P2P lending market in China. A friendship hierarchy is proposed in this paper to conceptualize friendship network types. Furthermore, methodologies of t-test, logistic regression and ordinary least squares regression are implemented to measure the impact of multidimensional friendship network variables on the probability of successful funding, as well as the interest rates on funded loans.

The study demonstrates significant effects of structural, relational and cognitive friendship networks using PPDai.com data. The results indicate that structural friendship network measured in terms of the number of friendship ties is a significant factor of funding performance. Additionally, borrowers, who are involved in higher-quality friendship networks, are more likely to be funded and pay lower interest rates on funded loans. Also, the deeper the level of the relationship is in the friendship hierarchy, the more significant will be the effect of friendship on the final economic results. Furthermore, quality is more important than quantity in determining funding performance.

This paper is the first to study the effects of multidimensional friendship networks on economic outcome variables in the domain of online P2P lending, thus broadening the theory of multidimensional social capital, which can deepen our understanding about how social networks work and have significant implications practically and theoretically.

The present study aims to clarify how online friendships between local residents and tourists are made in a hospitality exchange network, one of the not-for-profit sharing economy platforms. Specifically, the study empirically examines three topics: the properties of dyadic relationships in the platform; the effect of face-to-face interactions on online friendships in the platform; and the role of locals in building host-guest relationships in the hospitality exchange network.

Social networks data in CouchSurfing.org were collected and analyzed using a social network analysis (SNA) program. Along with the descriptive analysis of the actors in the online hospitality network, several SNA indicators, including the degree of centrality, density and centralization, were measured to explore the nature of the network and identify the gatekeepers.

Findings suggest that latent ties between tourists and hosts are likely to be manifested through face-to-face events. In particular, local people play central roles in establishing host-guest relationships.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the sharing economy in hospitality by synthesizing two areas in the literature, the host-guest framework and the online hospitality networks.

The social psychological aspects of the sharing economy have yet to receive attention from hospitality scholars. In addition, studies have largely focused on profit-driven models in the sharing economy (e.g. Airbnb). This study fills this gap by examining the host and guest behavior empirically in one of the not-for-profit hospitality sharing economy platforms.

This study aimed to find out the web content accessed by university students and to compare the level of interaction with real-life friends and online friends.

In this study, the quantitative research design used, and the researcher collected data through the survey method. The population comprises all undergraduate students at the University of the Punjab, Lahore. The sample of 320 students, age ranges from 18 to 22 years from eight selected departments, collected through a simple random sampling technique and after extraction 284 questionnaires evaluated by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

The findings of the study showed that students preferred activities on the Internet is to access social networking sites. Additionally, the mobile phone is the most commonly used device among university students to access the Internet. Furthermore, students mostly used Facebook to keep in touch with their old friends and talk on different topics more easily with their online friends as compared to real-life friends. The study also shows that the results of both the hypothesis are significant; therefore, no difference exists regarding time spent on the Internet in real-life friendship patterns and online friendship patterns.

The research was used to find out the difference between the online friendship and real-life friendship patterns of the two groups who use the Internet for less time and who spend more time on the Internet among the university students.

Despite the growing popularity of internet based social media on e-commerce platforms, systematic examination of the emerging phenomenon is scarce. This paper aims to study whether online retailers ' social activity on e-commerce platforms improves their business performance, and if it does, what are the underlying mechanisms.

The paper proposes a typology of online retailers ' social activities on e-commerce platforms. Then drawing on social capital theory and social network theory, the authors develop hypotheses that relate online retailers ' social activities to their business performance. The hypotheses are tested using a large dataset collected from an e-commerce platform in China.

The paper shows that: online retailers ' social activities for friend-making improve their business performance, regardless of the directional attribute of the activities; social activities for advice-seeking decrease online retailers ' business performance; and social activities for advice-giving increase online retailers ' business performance.

The data in the empirical study are from an e-commerce platform in China, hence the research results may lack generalisability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed hypotheses further.

The paper includes implications for e-commerce market makers and online retailers operating on e-commerce platforms. The authors show that online retailers ' social activities on e-commerce platforms can be an important source of business value. However certain types of social activities may hurt online retailers ' business performance, implying the necessity of a thoughtful social activity strategy in online marketplaces.

This paper represents an early effort to study whether online retailers ' social activities on e-commerce platforms improve their business performance and the underlying mechanisms of the effect.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between online friend networks and the mental well-being (MWB) of adolescent males.

The study used a mixed methods approach: first, questionnaire involving a validated MWB scale and questions regarding online friendship to 14-15 year old males (n=521); and second, focus group interviews (n=8) of between six and eight members three months later.

Positive and negative associations were recorded between online friends and well-being. A positive relationship (p < 0.05) was found between the number of online friends and well-being scores. However, higher numbers of online friends were also associated with increases in negative online experiences namely, receiving embarrassing posts online or risky activities such as, chatting frequently with strangers. Online friends may influence perceptions of social support, status and belonging, each of which may contribute positively or negatively to well-being. However, by increasing these perceptions, online friends may cause additional distress when their presence does not provide tangible support during a crisis period.

Online friends provide the context to which young males explore and negotiate the online world. To date, little mixed methods research has focused exclusively on the MWB of online friends. Policy makers could do well to consider the growing prominence of online social networking and produce targeted programmes to educate young people on the benefits and pitfalls of building large online “friend” networks.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the methodological significance and potential of integrating Facebook in ethnographic research. The authors discuss how friendly relationships with participants could be initiated, fostered and managed by incorporating Facebook in ethnographic data collection and how such relationships deepen ethnographic interpretation.

This paper focuses on the methodological implications of adopting “friendship as method” during ethnographic research. The discussion is premised upon a longitudinal, multi-method ethnographic research process exploring new family identity formation in Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

Building on friendship theories, the authors suggest that Facebook engagement helps overcome three challenges inherent to ethnographic research: gaining access and immersion, capturing multiple perspectives, and developing rich and thick interpretations. The findings illustrate that adopting Facebook as a platform to strengthen friendships with research participants expands the researcher’s field by enabling him to follow the ethics and pace of conventional friendship and by inspiring dialogical interaction with participants. Thus, it is suggested that Facebook helps diluting the power hierarchy in the participant–researcher relationship and encourages participants to reveal more subtle details of their mundane lived experiences.

Even though researchers have often used social media interactions in ethnographic research, there is no theoretical foundation to understand how such interactions could better inform the depth and richness of research phenomena. Particularly, considering the emerging significance of social media in personal identity construction, sustenance and enactment, it is import to understand how such mediums enable researchers overcome inherent methodological complexities. Therefore, this paper contributes to literature on conventional ethnography, netnography and friendship theories by presenting a theoretical framework to understand how Facebook interaction contributes to overcome challenges in conducting ethnographic research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of online conferencing platforms for focus group discussions with teenage girls.

The paper discusses the use of online conferencing for focus group discussions with Australian teenage girls aged 12–14 years who were participating in a study about their online interaction with friends. It examines both the practical application of online conferencing as a qualitative method as well as the inherent challenges of this context for youth research. Design decisions are explained and methods for ensuring rich contribution are detailed.

Online conferencing offers three distinct advantages for focus group work. First, the environment consciously engages participants in spontaneous interaction with other participants by using communication tools familiar to them. Second, elaborated discussion can be stimulated by introducing ideas and trends through visual mediums and artefacts. Third, the virtual setting provides remote access by the researcher which shifts power relationships so discussions flow more naturally between participants.

Outcomes indicate that online conferencing is an effective method for encouraging participants to share ideas and experiences about aspects of their lives that are often private and/or sensitive.

Technological advances in online collaboration tools have resulted in an increased use of online conferencing platforms across disciplines especially for teaching and learning contexts. However, application of online conferencing for focus group discussions with young people has not received much attention. Research presented here demonstrates that it is a useful tool for engaging teenage girls in focus group discussions.

This research examined the social interactions of online game players based on the proposed motivation model in order to understand the transitions of motivation of online game. The authors also separated samples into four categories to compare the difference of different type of online game players.

This study proposed a motivation model for online game player based on existence–relatedness–growth theory. The authors also analyze the transitions of motivations via first-order and second-order Markov chain switching model to obtain the journey of online to offline socialization.

Teamwork–socialization players preferred to make friends in their online gaming network to socialize. Competition–socialization players were mostly students who played games to compete and socialize and may share experience in online or offline activities. Teamwork–mechanics players purely derived pleasure from gaming and were not motivated by other factors in their gaming activities. Competition–mechanics players may already have friends with other gamers in real life.

More samples can be added to generate more generalizable findings and the proposed motivation model can be extended by other motivations related to online gaming behavior. The authors proposed a motivation model for online to offline socialization and separated online game players into four categories: teamwork–socialization, competition–socialization, teamwork–mechanics and competition–mechanics. The category of teamwork–socialization may contribute to online to offline socialization area. The category of competition–mechanics may add value to the area of traditional offline socialization. The categories of competition–socialization and teamwork–mechanics may help extant literature understand critical stimulus for online gaming behavior.

The authors’ findings can help online gaming industry understand the motivation journey of players through transition. Different types of online games may have various online game player's journey that can assist companies in improving the quality of online games. Online game companies can also offer official community to players for further interaction and experience exchange or the platform for offline activities in the physical environment.

This research proposed a novel motivation model to examine online to offline socializing behavior for online game research. The motivations in model were interconnected via the support of literature. The authors also integrated motivations by Markov chain switching model to obtain the transitions of motivational status. It is also the first attempt to analyze first-order and second-order Markov chain switching model for analysis. The authors’ research examined the interconnected relationships among motivations in addition to the influential factors to online gaming behavior from previous research. The results may contribute to extend the understanding of online to offline socialization in online gaming literature.

Because information technology (IT) can change the way we look at the world, some benefits for human communities, such as trust, care, friendship and commitment can be clearly noticed as contributors to society. Providing an innovative way to help human society, enabling the achievement of good lives by evaluating information related to the concept of wisdom, this paper aims to propose technical guidelines as a reference model, specifically for empowering both professional and ethical bases associated with the instructional application strategy for adopting technology.

This study attempts to investigate the professional and ethical engagements that can underlie technology adoption. To achieve this, a literature review of peer-reviewed journals, conferences and books was conducted to propose the framework model for strengthening moral engagement in the digital era. By using keywords derived from the professional and ethical skills involved with technology adoption, multiple research findings can be achieved using meta-synthesis alongside an integrating, evaluating and interpreting process. As a result, phenomenological and grounded theories and ideas, extracted to identify their common features, elements and functionalities, can be integrated and used to propose a theoretical guideline.

The findings reveal that to engage the professional and ethical bases associated with the instructional strategy and application in technology adoption demonstrates how humans, with all their potency, can contribute significantly to society at large by enhancing their abilities and improving their capacities for the wise and appropriate utilization of technological tools.

With regard to experiences in the digital era, across differing cultures and age groups, based on emerging technology, it is necessary to use technological tools properly and wisely. An effort to foster positive outcomes as a result of increased digital media use, and address potential issues raised by empowering applications and strategies associated with professionalism and ethics, plays a significant role in contouring the main foundations for how to use technological tools in all the comprehensive coverage concerning the theory and applications addressed by this work.

What is significant and essential about the technological bases examined is their core element of enabling humans to enhance any benefits garnered for social and personal development. This paper intends to expand upon how professional and ethical aspects of technology adoption should involve a wide exchange of particular elements that underlie the wise and appropriate fostering of technological implementation.

Emerging technology with its distinct facilities could enhance individual performance by improving abilities and capacities for wise and appropriate operation of technological tools. By critically exploring the professional and ethical balance involved with technology-based tools in society and how they might underpin their users’ social and personal awareness, this paper gives feedback that provides insights about emerging technological trends. This is done with reference to particular guidelines, enabling a clearer understanding of the importance of the impact of technology on the human condition.