Page 79 - Never Too Far Away? The Roles of Social Network Sites in Sojourners’ Adjustment

2015). This means that the alleviating effects of Facebook use on homesickness could potentially lead to ever increasing Facebook use (Slater, 2015). Sheldon, Abad, and Hinsch (2011) offered a similar explanation as to how Facebook use could lead to extremes (e.g., Facebook addiction). Using the two-process view of Sheldon et al. (2011), the findings of this current study could be interpreted as: Increased homesickness might serve as a motivation for Facebook interaction with the host-country network; and decreased homesickness could be an outcome of Facebook interaction with the host-country network. One possible implication of these relations based on the two-process view is that users are likely to build reliance on Facebook for relief; and this reliance might lead to more negative consequences such as Facebook addiction (Sheldon et al., 2011). Thus, the positive feedback loop between Facebook use with the host-country network and homesickness suggests a possible mechanism in which international students could become embroiled in Facebook use with the host-country network because of the solace it provides. This is not to say that Facebook use should be avoided, when in fact it does help international students alleviate homesickness. However, Facebook interactions should not be viewed as an exclusive mechanism to relieve homesickness. Otherwise, the continuous rewards that they get from Facebook interactions with the host-country network might eventually lead to greater psychological dependency on this type of interaction (Griffiths, Kuss, & Demetrovics, 2014). It is important to note that in a previous study, homesickness has been found to be associated with Internet addiction among freshmen students (Ni et al., 2009).
Our results also showed that Facebook interaction with the home-country network did not have an effect on homesickness. On the one hand, it could be that Facebook use with the home-country network was not sufficiently relevant to have an impact on one’s longing for home. On the other hand, it could be that the lack of significant effects was due to the co-existence of both positive and negative effects of Facebook use with the home-country network on homesickness. For instance, it has been shown that maintaining connections with home via regular mediated communication promotes healthy connection and positive adjustment while one is away (Thurber & Walton, 2012). However, it is also possible that constant interaction with the home-country network could cause more homesickness and distress, rather than an opportunity to cope with homesickness (Klingensmith, 2010; Stroebe et al., 2015b). The design of our current study could not account for concurrent positive and negative effects of Facebook use with the home-country
SNS, Homesickness, and Adjustment 77