Excessive use of WeChat, social interaction and locus of control among college students in China

Abstract

In China, the number of college students using mobile phone based messaging and social networking applications like WeChat is increasing rapidly. However, there has been minimal research into the addictive nature of these applications and the psychological characteristics associate with their excessive use. There is also no published scale available for assessing excessive use of WeChat and similar applications. In the current study, we collected data from 1,245 college students in China (715 females) and developed the WeChat Excessive Use Scale (WEUS). We then assessed the relationship between excessive use of WeChat and excessive use of a social networking application-Weibo, problematic use of mobile phones, external locus of control, and social interaction skills. Our 10-item scale featured three factors, namely- “mood modification,” “salience” and ‘‘conflict”- critical factors in assessing different forms of addiction. The WEUS was found to be a reliable instrument in assessing excessive use of WeChat as it showed good internal consistency and correlated with other measures of problematic use social networking and mobile phone addiction. Our results showed that excessive users of WeChat are more likely to excessively use Weibo than they are to problematically use mobile phones. Our study also showed that greater excessive use of WeChat is associated with higher external locus of control and greater online social interaction skills. These results reveal that WeChat has unique and strong appeal among college students in China. Further, practitioners should consider dealing with malleable factors like locus of control and real life social skills in treating people with problematic messaging and social networking.

Mesenchymal stem cells in the treatment of Cesarean section skin scars: study protocol for a randomized, controlled trial

“…Trained out-patient doctors will introduce the details of the trial to each potential participant during a clinic visit. The trial coordinator will contact the interested participant by mobile phone and WeChat, a very popular social networking app in China [ 34 ]. Eligible participants will be introduced in the trial.…”

Uses and Gratifications of Problematic Social Media Use Among University Students: a Simultaneous Examination of the Big Five of Personality Traits, Social Media Platforms, and Social Media Use Motives

“…In the literature, PSMU has been investigated in relation to specific SMSs such as Facebook (Andreassen et al 2012;Hong et al 2014), Twitter (Davenport et al 2014;Kircaburun 2016a;Kim et al 2008), Instagram (Kircaburun and Griffiths 2018a, b), Snapchat (Punyanunt-Carter et al 2017), WeChat (Hou et al 2017), Youtube (Balakrishnan and Griffiths 2017), and social media in general (Andreassen et al 2017;Bányai et al 2017;Kircaburun 2016b;Kircaburun et al 2018a, b). These studies have shown that PSMU is associated with various psychological, personality, and individual difference factors.…”

Social Networks Use Disorder and Associations With Depression and Anxiety Symptoms: A Systematic Review of Recent Research in China

“…Given that, researchers should abstain from overpathologizing everyday life behaviors (Billieux et al, 2015), it is important to mention that SNS use can have positive effects on well-being. In this context, research observed that non-problematic use of SNSs was associated with higher external locus of control, greater online social interaction skills and higher life satisfaction (Nadkarni and Hofmann, 2012;Liu et al, 2016;Hou et al, 2017;. Active (vs. passive) use of SNSs together with meaningful interaction between people represents nonproblematic use of SNSs (e.g., Escobar-Viera et al, 2018).…”