Why we migrate in the virtual world: factors affecting switching intentions in SNS

Fear of Evaluation and Online Self-Disclosure on WeChat: Moderating Effects of Protective Face Orientation

“…The phenomenon of social avoidance is similar to the research on debaters by Lin ( 2019 ), lack of presence on SNSs, and lack of caring or effort dedicated to social interactions with members of one's network. Interestingly, given limited resources of time and energy (Hwang et al, 2019 ), people usually adopt a principle of low cost and high efficiency to improve the quality of the content they disclose online to restore or reshape their self-image, such as decreasing the AOSD while increasing the DOSD. Consistent with the existing literature (Wood and Forest, 2016 ; Zhang et al, 2019 ), to lessen the sting of rejection, individuals with a fear of evaluation may perceive greater role stress and may manage their public image and regulate their behavior in interpersonal life more cautiously and strategically when receiving public attention.…”

“…When confronted with face threats, people use defense as the mainstay instead of outputting and packaging themselves in an offensive manner; instead, individuals block fear from the source and regain face in a gentle and conservative manner with defense as the mainstay likely because the face culture in the Chinese context still carries the label of traditional Confucianism (Tu, 1999 ); when conflicts occur, people tend to compromise, give in and remain calm (Oetzel et al, 2001 ). This type of self-disclosure, which is almost abandoning the maintenance of personal settings, may also be caused by complex factors, such as social fatigue, complicated interpersonal relationships, and excessive maintenance costs (Hwang et al, 2019 ). Therefore, even if the psychology of face-saving awakens their determination to rebuild or repair their personal image (Lee and Jang, 2019 ), their response behavior appears somewhat half-heartedly.…”

“…Individuals with fear of negative evaluation are afraid of being blamed, criticized, or ridiculed, sarcasm, and receiving other negative feedback that may damage their personal image, status and even self-confidence (Hwang et al, 2019 ), resulting in social avoidance (Lombardo and Fantasia, 1976 ; Heimberg et al, 1988 ). Such individuals might reduce the number of on-screen appearances or extend the interval between self-disclosures.…”

“…Therefore, due to their negative beliefs and emotional experiences of social interactions, SNS users who are afraid of being evaluated by others and do not want to be noticed disclose less personal information on their profile pages to protect themselves from harm and disappointment (Chen et al, 2019). In other words, individuals may reduce their amount of online self-disclosure as the simplest way to reduce the risks of wasting personal time and effort and damaging their image (Hwang et al, 2019). Accordingly, we propose the following hypotheses:…”

Do Diversity and Context Collapse Kill an Online Social Network?

“…For example, social capital benefits can explain when and whether people abandon an online social network (Lőrincz et al, 2019). Other studies concentrate on the effects of interaction overload and unwanted relationships on leaving (Hwang et al, 2019). Furthermore, recent studies have found that using attributes computed from the local community around the user allows building a robust statistical model to predict churn (Garcia et al, 2013;Lengyel et al, 2020;Ngonmang et al, 2012;Török & Kertész, 2017).…”