The effects of Social Networking Site (SNS) use on college students' friendship and well-being

The present study was conducted with two goals in mind: (1) to examine the influence of using different types of SNS use on users’ well-being, and (2) to examine the mediating roles of online self-disclosure and friendship quality in the relationship between types of SNS use and well-being. Participants were from two large 4-year undergraduate universities in Southwestern China. The study was conducted during Spring semester, 2013, using advertisements that described the nature of the research and indicated that compensation for participation was U10 (about $1.5 U.S.). Of the 402 students approached, 337 completed the survey (i.e., response rate was 83.83%). Structural equation modeling showed that ‘‘social’’ type SNS use was positively related to users’ well-being, whereas ‘‘entertainment’’ type SNS use was not. In addition, online self-disclosure was a significant predictor of users’ friendship quality. However, there was an inverse relationship between ‘‘social’’ SNS use and online self-disclosure, and no relationship between friendship quality based on SNS use and well-being. It should be noted that generalizations of our findings should be made cautiously. The cross-section design and self-reported usage of SNS would also be limitations. Experimental and longitudinal studies should be conducted to provide stronger evidence of causal relations among variables examined in this study. 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.