Page 141 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

Perceived social support versus homesickness. The findings showed differential relations of SNS social interaction with the host-country network with the two subjective outcomes included in this dissertation, perceived social support and homesickness (Chapters 2 and 3). The implications of these reciprocal associations of media use and the subjective outcomes diverge into two possibilities, negative feedback loop (homeostasis) or positive feedback loop, as theorized by Slater (2015). With the positive subjective outcome (i.e., perceived social support), the predicted implication of the combined long- and short-term reciprocal effects (i.e., the long-term negative effect of SNS use with the host- country network on perceived social support, and the short-term positive effect of perceived social support on SNS use with the host-country network) is a process towards homeostasis. This implies that SNS use could be fairly stable and regular in the context of a positive subjective outcome. On the other hand, with the negative subjective outcome, (i.e., homesickness), the combined long- and short- term reciprocal effects (i.e., long- and short-term negative effects of SNS use with the host-country network on homesickness; and the short-term positive effect of homesickness on SNS use with the host-country network) indicates a positive feedback loop, which implies that SNS use could lead to extreme levels. In other words, SNS use with the host country network could be alleviating homesickness among international students; and in turn, they used SNS more with the host country network whenever they felt homesick. These reinforcing spirals could potentially lead to excessive SNS use.
The explanation based on the positive feedback loop of media use is consistent with the two-process view of SNS use (Sheldon et al., 2011). This theory illustrates how two opposing conditions/effects can co-occur in relation to SNS use, and how this could lead to a downward spiral and problematic use. According to Sheldon and colleagues (2011), the negative condition/effect drives SNS use, while the positive condition/effect rewards it. The findings in Chapter 3 demonstrated these predictions; that is, increased homesickness (the negative condition) predicted higher SNS interaction, while higher SNS interaction decreased homesickness (the positive condition). This situation could potentially lead to a downward spiral because SNS interaction might function simply as a transient coping response to homesickness, but might not solve underlying social difficulties. Note also that increased SNS interaction with the host-country network could lower perceived social support over time, and, in turn, could lower psychological adjustment (Chapter 2). Thus, according to Sheldon et al. (2011), “the portrait that
General Discussion 139