Drawing from the social capital framework and socioemotional selectivity theory, this study examines how individuals’ future time perspective (FTP) alters their social capital processes, which further influences their well-being. A two-wave survey was conducted across WeChat users possessing different FTPs. The findings showed that bonding and bridging social capital accumulation were attributed to differential WeChat affordances, which in turn exerted disparate influences on individuals’ positive affect and psychological well-being. Importantly, multigroup analyses revealed that future-oriented users were more fulfilled from the broadcasting affordance, whereas present-oriented users derived more emotional gains from the association affordance. Notably, frequent engagement with the reviewability affordance was found to diminish WeChat bonding social capital only for those who possessed open-ended FTP. The findings contribute to theoretical knowledge of social media affordances and provide practical implications for social media developers in harnessing social media to improve users’ well-being across lifespans by considering their priority of social goals.

中文翻译：

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时间很重要？一项调查微信可供性对社会资本和幸福感影响的两波小组研究

借鉴社会资本框架和社会情感选择性理论，本研究考察了个人的未来时间观 (FTP) 如何改变他们的社会资本过程，从而进一步影响他们的幸福感。对拥有不同 FTP 的微信用户进行了两次调查。研究结果表明，联系和桥接社会资本的积累归因于不同的微信可供性，这反过来又对个人的积极情感和心理健康产生不同的影响。重要的是，多组分析显示面向未来的用户从广播功能中获得更多满足感，而面向现在的用户从关联功能中获得更多情感收益。尤其，研究发现，频繁参与可审查性功能只会减少那些拥有开放式 FTP 的人的微信社交资本。这些发现有助于社交媒体功能的理论知识，并为社交媒体开发人员利用社交媒体通过考虑他们的社交目标优先级来改善用户在整个生命周期中的福祉提供实际意义。