Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine social media use and its impacts on first generation students by answering the two questions: how do FGS use social media on college campuses, compared to their peers? How does the use of social media affect their academic experiences?

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study adopted social capital theory as a sensitizing framework for understanding the social media (SM) use and the resources valued by first-generation students (FGS) and used a revealed causal mapping method to analyze the narratives of 96 informants to identify key constructs and linkages on SM use and perceived outcomes.

Findings

The revealed causal mapping (RCM) analysis revealed nine key constructs that shaped the SM use and academic experience of FGS and their peers. The linkages among the nine constructs: three types of social capital (bridging, family bonding and friend bonding), three types of SM use (social, cognitive and hedonic) and three outcomes (academic support, emotional support and distraction to work) were different between FGS and their peers. Among FGS, SM use and perceptions differed by gender.

Originality/value

Leveraging social media is critical for universities to enhance FGS persistence, yet knowledge remains limited. This study showed FGS differed from their counterparts in the SM use and perceptions. Among FGS, the SM use and perceptions differed by gender. The research contributions are: (1) SM technology can empower FGS by building social capital, impacting their academic experiences and psychological well-being and (2) the intersection of gender and student generation status is worth investigation. This paper enriches FGS research by proposing a model of SM use and social capital.

中文翻译：

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第一代大学生使用社交媒体和两种形式的社会资本：一种揭示的因果映射方法

目的

本研究的目的是通过回答以下两个问题来检验社交媒体的使用及其对第一代学生的影响：与同龄人相比，FGS 如何在大学校园中使用社交媒体？社交媒体的使用如何影响他们的学术经历？

设计/方法/方法

这项定性研究采用社会资本理论作为理解社交媒体 (SM) 使用和第一代学生 (FGS) 重视的资源的敏感框架，并使用揭示因果映射方法分析 96 名线人的叙述以确定关键结构以及关于 SM 使用和感知结果的联系。

发现

揭示的因果映射 (RCM) 分析揭示了九个关键结构，这些结构塑造了 FGS 及其同行的 SM 使用和学术经验。九种结构之间的联系：三种社会资本（桥梁、家庭纽带和朋友纽带）、三种类型的 SM 使用（社会、认知和享乐）和三种结果（学术支持、情感支持和工作分心）是不同的FGS 和他们的同行之间。在 FGS 中，SM 的使用和认知因性别而异。

原创性/价值

利用社交媒体对于大学提高 FGS 持久性至关重要，但知识仍然有限。这项研究表明，FGS 在 SM 的使用和认知方面与同行不同。在 FGS 中，SM 的使用和认知因性别而异。研究贡献是：（1）SM 技术可以通过建立社会资本、影响他们的学术经验和心理健康来增强 FGS 的能力；（2）性别和学生一代状态的交叉点值得研究。本文通过提出 SM 使用和社会资本模型来丰富 FGS 研究。