Elsevier

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume 74, September 2017, Pages 257-264
Computers in Human Behavior

Full length article
Effects of using social networking sites in different languages: Does Spanish or English make a difference?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.031Get rights and content

Highlights

  • People depend on social networking sites for the purpose of social play.

  • Using social networking sites in different languages can affect people's cultural orientations.

  • Using social networking sites in Spanish or English leads to different effects.

  • Social media usage may influence people's culture-related brand perceptions and evaluations.

Abstract

Although a large volume of research on social networking sites (SNS) and their effects has been accumulated in the literature over the past few years, empirical studies examining how people use SNS in languages other than English are somewhat limited. Particularly, the use of Spanish SNS has rarely been investigated. To shed light on this research direction, the current study compared the effects of using Spanish and English SNS on individuals' cultural orientations and attitude formation. A total of 113 adult consumers participated in a laboratory experiment where they were asked to evaluate either of two experimental websites, one with Hispanic cultural connotations and the other with American cultural meanings. Their SNS usage and cultural orientations were measured. It was found that more frequent usage of Spanish SNS was significantly associated with a higher level of Hispanic cultural orientation and a more favorable attitude toward the website with American cultural meanings. However, the use of English SNS did not significantly influence people's American cultural orientations and their website evaluations. Usage of both Spanish and English SNS was found to be motivated by individuals' social play dependency on such media platforms.

Section snippets

SNS usage and media system dependency

The effects of media have been researched for more than half a century. Historically, scholars believed that media have a direct and uniform effect on their users. In such viewpoints, media and media messages are considered as persuasion-centered concepts whereas users are merely passive information receivers. However, the development of new technologies and increasing options of media platforms give users an opportunity to actively select particular media platforms to use and also determine

Study participants

The study participants were recruited at a metropolitan area in the U.S. where Hispanic residents constitute approximately two thirds of the local population and Spanish is the unofficial language. The recruitment message was sent out via online flyers (e.g., Craigslist) and oral in-class announcements at a local university. A total of 113 participants agreed to take part in the study on a voluntary basis, including college students, working professionals, and housewives or unemployed. The

Manipulation check

As expected, the Hispanic restaurant website was rated significantly higher on the Hispanic cultural orientation (M = 5.19) than did the American restaurant website (M = 2.32), t(111) = 12.21, p < .001 (two-tailed), confirming the success of experimental stimulus manipulation.

Tests of hypotheses

To test the five hypotheses, a structural equation modeling analysis was performed with Mplus 7. The four latent variables in the model were social play dependency on SNS, American cultural orientation, Hispanic cultural

Discussion

As more people adopt SNS for communication, research on the effects of using such social media is quickly growing. Most prior studies are focused on who use SNS, for what purposes, and how (Wilson et al., 2012). The current research makes a unique contribution to the literature by testing a causal relationship between people's SNS usage and their cultural orientations and culture-related website evaluations in a laboratory experiment. Using MSD theory as the framework, the results of this study

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