Social and Parasocial Relationships on Social Network Sites(3)

By focusing on types of relationships formed via SNS,this study distinguishes reciprocal relationships where two users know each other from unidirectional ones where one parti-cipant knows the other but not vice versa.Borrowing the concept of parasocial relationships from media psychology,we focus on unidirectional SNS relationships in which an ordinary user watches the SNS activities of celebrities but the celebrities are not aware of the user’s activities.Results show that higher reliance on parasocial SNS relationships is posi-tively related with loneliness and distrust,with which de-pendency on social relationships is negatively related.However,both types of SNS relationship are correlated with addictive SNS use.

Our ?ndings clearly show that a monolithic view of the

effect of SNSs is na?

¨ve and unrealistic.From the perspective of psychological well-being,what matters is whether SNS related relationships are reciprocal (i.e.,interpersonal).De-pending on the type of SNS mediated relationship,SNS use may either enhance or harm users’psychological well-being.Despite the difference between SNS mediated and face to face interaction,the psychological functions of SNS relationships,if reciprocal ,would be similarly bene?cial to those of face to face ones.As far as SNS mediated rela-tionships are mutual,our ?ndings suggest that SNS effects seem to be positive for both individual mental health and social cohesion.However,if a person does not use SNSs reciprocally,s/he might not accrue mental bene?ts.There-fore,psychological research and/or clinical studies in the future should be oriented to such users,rather than SNS users in general.

Despite yielding interesting ?ndings about the effects of SNSs on users’psychological well-being,this study suffers from several limitations.First,causality based on cross-sectional survey might not be determined,and thus descrip-tion of our ?ndings fails to adopt causal terms.While prior studies assume the effect of media use on psychological well-being,cross-sectional survey data do not tell whether media use affects psychological well-being or vice versa.To solve this causality issue,future studies should replicate this one while relying on longitudinal panel data.

Second,this study lacks a mediating psychological state between dependency on SNS relationships and measures of psychological well-being.Prior studies found that people form different attachment styles,32,33which mediates para-social relationships with psychological outcomes examined in this study.Psychological mediators are imperative,especially for SNS addiction.While this study found that both social and parasocial relationships are related with SNS addiction,each relationship could be differently mediated.For example,SNS users highly dependent on social relationships may tend toward addiction in order to fortify their existing

Table 2.Results of Ordinary Least Square Regressions Testing the Effects of Types of SNS Relationships

on Loneliness,Interpersonal Trust,and SNS Addiction

Loneliness

Interpersonal trust SNS addiction

Baseline model

Test model

Baseline model Test model

Baseline model

Test model

Intercept 2.35***(0.25) 2.48***(0.26) 3.57***(0.23) 3.49***(0.24) 2.62***(0.29) 1.86***(0.28)

Gender (female =1)0.06(0.08)0.05(0.08)0.01(0.07)0.02(0.07)0.04(0.09)0.13(0.08)Age (unit =10years)0.13**(0.04)0.10*(0.04)-0.05(0.04)-0.02(0.04)0.04(0.05)0.05(0.04)Educational achievement 0.02(0.07)0.04(0.07)0.10(0.06)0.08(0.06)0.08(0.08)0.05(0.07)Household income 0.01(0.02)0.02(0.02)-0.03(0.02)-0.04(0.02)-0.02(0.03)-0.04(0.03)Time use for SNS (hour)0.02(0.01)0.01(0.01)-0.03**(0.01)-0.03*(0.01)0.04**(0.01)0.03*(0.01)Number of SNS accounts -0.06(.04)-0.07(0.04)-0.02(0.03)-0.01(0.04)-0.08(0.04)0.01(0.04)Twitter-only users (1if yes)0.04(0.08)0.04(0.08)

-0.01(0.08)

0.01(0.08)0.15(0.10)0.04(0.09)Number of social

relationships (log transformed)

-0.18**(0.06)0.15**(0.06)0.41***(0.07)Number of parasocial relationships (log transformed)0.14*(0.07)-0.16*(0.06)

0.36***(0.08)

R 20.040.070.040.060.050.20

D R 20.03**0.02**0.15***Adj.R 20.030.05

0.020.04

0.03

0.18

Note .*p <0.05,**p <0.01,***p <0.001.Columns indicate unstandardized regression coef?cients with standard errors in parentheses.Social relationship indicates that a user and the user’s SNS friends know each other,while parasocial relationship indicates that a user knows celebrities but not vice versa.

SOCIAL AND PARASOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS ON SOCIAL NETWORK SITES 515

friendships.However,those highly relying on parasocial re-lationships might tend toward addiction in order to escape from their existing friendships.Conceptualizing those miss-ing mediators may empirically solve why different types of relationships are similarly related with addictive SNS use. Third,this study focuses only on the number of relation-ships of each type,but not the intensity of each relationship. For example,assume two SNS users,one of whom forms10 reciprocal relationships while the other has100relationships. In terms of intensely interactive relationships,the two users might not be different because most SNS activities happen around a few selected friends.5Even if a person forms100 reciprocal relationships,she mainly exchanges messages with her close friends or family members.While the number of relationships is still a meaningful measure of SNS use,future studies might derive interesting?ndings by conceptualizing different dimensions of SNS use that are not examined here, such as relationship intensity.

Fourth,parasocial relationships can be further divided.For example,SNS users can form parasocial relationships with noncelebrities(e.g.,famous bloggers).Also experience of parasocial relationships with celebrities might not be homo-geneous because some are responsive whi …… 此处隐藏：6135字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……