Online or offline? The social capital

behind SNS in China—Basing on the

example of WeChat

by Huiqi Xie

2

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Online or offline? The social capital behind SNS in China—Basing on the example of

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Online or offline? The social capital

behind SNS in China—Basing on the

example of WeChat

Huiqi Xie

MA in Sociology

Department of Sociological Studies

September 2017

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Abstract:

With the increasing number of Chinese social network sites users and the

increasingly popular of WeChat, it is essential to study the behaviors and

attitudes of SNS users in China so as to explore the deeper reason behind

them, which is social capital. There are many scholars whose focus is social

capital however the research aims at studying the fluctuation of social capital

in the field of internet is limit. Therefore, this study aims at exploring online and

offline difference of social capital through investigating people’s behavior and

attitude toward social network sites and takes WeChat as an example to

explore the inner motivation of SNS users and use them to explain the

meaning of social capital.

Social capital generated from social network and developed through both

online and offline. Not only WeChat, but also almost all social network sites

have influenced the methods and forms of social capital. Users out of various

reasons to choose WeChat and the meaning of social capital has been

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revealed and explored. Social capital has addressed users to the choice of

WeChat in China to some extent and different types of social capital will have

different influences on users and show various aspects in terms of users’

choice and behavior.

This study uses mixed method of secondary analysis and semi-structured

interview in depth to collect reliable and valid data. After collected and

analyzed data, there are some findings of this research. There are different

types of social capital in WeChat interaction, bonding and bridging social

capital are two main kinds. Online social interaction and offline social

communication can both generate social capital and the two social can

inter-influence each other. The people who has speaking power offline in real

life are more likely to act like a leader in WeChat group. In the meanwhile, the

adverse of WeChat in terms of social capital will also be explored. The

dependency of WeChat, privacy problem and the concern for minority group all

belong to this field.

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Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Katherine Davies. She gave

me many valuable and useful advices and is always patient to guide me in

every stage of my dissertation. She is elegant and always willing to offer help.

Her patience, rigorous academic attitude and great passion have inspired me

a lot.

Otherwise, I would also like to thank all the teachers who has taught me or

enlightened me through any kind of way and all the staffs in the department of

Sociology Studies or in other departments of the University of Sheffield. I have

had really a good time here with your kindness and professionalism.

Moreover, I would like to thank all the participants who has consent to receive

my interview or offer help to me in many kinds of ways, I cannot accomplish

this dissertation without you, thank you all again.

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Finally, I want to express my appreciation to my parents, I have learnt much

more than I expected in this year and I cannot come here without your love

and support, thank you. Otherwise, I wish to thank my boyfriend and all my

friends, who has accompanied me when I was homesick and lonely and

helped me make it through those tough days.

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Abstract:...................................................................................................... 4

Acknowledgements .................................................................................... 6

Content ...................................................................................................... 10

I. Introduction ................................................................................................ 10

II. Literature review ........................................................................................ 18

1.Critical views of Social capital ....................................................................... 18

2.Social Capital: Online and Offline ................................................................. 22

3.SNS and social capital .................................................................................. 26

4. WeChat, Social Capital ................................................................................ 33

III.Methodology .............................................................................................. 37

1.Methodology matters .................................................................................... 37

2. Practical Methods ........................................................................................ 40

2.1 Interview Method .................................................................................................. 40

2.2 Secondary Analysis .............................................................................................. 42

2.3 Sampling ............................................................................................................... 44

2.4 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................ 47

3. Ethical considerations .................................................................................. 48

4. Limitation of the research ............................................................................ 50

IV.Findings ..................................................................................................... 53

1. The reasons why Chinese SNS users choose WeChat ............................... 53

1.1 emotional support ................................................................................................. 53

1.2 Necessity of work ................................................................................................. 57

1.3 Chinese Cultural habit .......................................................................................... 64

2. The relationship of online and offline interactions among WeChat users ..... 66

2.1 Offline social power has decided online social capital ......................................... 68

2.2 Online social power can create and develop offline social capital ....................... 70

3. The adverse influence of WeChat ................................................................ 76

3.1 The dependency on SNS ..................................................................................... 77

3.2 The concern of privacy ......................................................................................... 79

3.3 The ignorance on Minority group .......................................................................... 82

V. Conclusion .................................................................................................. 84

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1.Summary ...................................................................................................... 84

2.Achievement of this study ............................................................................. 89

3.Limitations of the research ............................................................................ 91

Bibliography .............................................................................................. 92

Appendix 1 ............................................................................................... 100

Appendix 2 ............................................................................................... 101

Appendix 3 ............................................................................................... 106

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Content

I. Introduction

Social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace and

Friendster, represent the newest trends and electronic technologies among

people in terms of their online interaction these years (Lipsman, 2007). Social

network sites (SNS) have played an increasingly significant role in

communication among human beings and which have also gradually become

the dominant interaction method. Due to the development of web 2.0, the SNS

related habits of people and other reasons, social media users have more

access to create and develop social capital. For example, only if a person

owns a smart phone and can log on internet, he or she can download a SNS

application and have conversation with friends, family, colleagues or even

strangers. Social capital in the field of internet means that social relationships

a user can make use of through internet, whether obtained online or offline.

Currently, the social capital, network relations, friends have become the key

words among SNS users and researchers. These SNSs have provided stages

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and spaces for users to publish and share their life, pictures, movies and

music to make them become available in public. Otherwise, they encourage

connections inside the site among users and encourage them to build and/or

keep friends groups (Pfeil, Ulrike, Arjan, and Zaphiris, 2009). These online

activities allow SNS users to socialize online and thus establish and continue

social capital though maintaining interaction between family and friends

(Ellison, Steinfeld, Lampe, 2006). SNS has attracted growing interests in terms

of establishing group and community behavior in online social platforms. The

growing number of SNS users (Lipsman, 2006) has affected the social

communication of a broader groups of people. Therefore, some researchers

have begun to explore the social communication and the creation of online

relation among or between different people within these sites.

WeChat (Weixin in Chinese version) is a kind of services that allow users to be

able to send instant text and voice message and enjoy other related services,

like friend circle and lucky money (or red pocket money, it happens between

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eldership and children during spring festival, elder generation normally give

lucky money to children in order to show their wish for children, but now on

WeChat, the forms and meaning of lucky money have changed. People will

send lucky money through WeChat to their WeChat friends, which is a good

way to show their friendship or enhance social relationship). WeChat is a kind

of product of Tencent Holdings Ltd. in China and developed on January 21,

2011. WeChat is similar with WhatsApp to some extent in that they both allow

text and voice messages. WeChat is available for users to download, install

and download, and meet the needs of different types of smartphone platforms,

like Android, iPhone and Windows Phone operating system.

Therefore, it is convenient for WeChat users to send and receive messages

across mobile platforms. WeChat has offered various online settings for users

to contact their friends, family, colleagues and other social relations, such as

text messaging, group messaging, voice messaging, picture messaging, emoji,

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location sharing, video messaging, message translation, WeChat pay and

friend circle (En.wikipedia.org, 2017).

Due to the popularity of online interaction and update of highly-standard smart

phone, WeChat now has 889 million monthly active users until the fourth

season in 2016, which has increased significantly. According to 2017

WeChat User Behavior Report, which is conducted by Tencent Penguin

Intelligence Consumer Survey Platform, WeChat now has reached to 10

million official accounts and 200,000 WeChat developers (Chinachannel.co,

2017). The number of contacts over 200 times in WeChat has increased

significantly from 27.7% in 2015 to 44.4% in 2016 and the average number of

WeChat contacts per user has grown notably to 194, which has surpassed 150,

the Dunbar number (2010). Users’ online activities in terms of WeChat range

from social interactions with friends to experience sharing of a product or

service and information exchange. WeChat has become a popularity in China

for users to enjoy social networking service and played a dominant role in the

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field of internet and computer-mediated interaction (Gao and Zhang, 2013).

The number of social media users in China has increased faster than other

parts of the world. Additionally, Chinese people are likely to use social media

platforms and easily influenced by some information on social media sites

(Harvard Business Review, 2017). Therefore, many people choose WeChat as

their main choice for the reason of business in China, because other social

media platforms, like Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, have been blocked

and not as convenient as WeChat in China for business person to contact their

Chinese customers directly (Li and Chen, 2014).

However, although there are so many scholars concentrate on social network

and the derived social online relationship and social capital, SNSs have some

shortages in people’s daily interaction. Online and offline interactions are not

always corresponding. Offline interaction often come with the facial expression,

body language and personal background while online interaction could be

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anonymous and invisible. The SNS users in terms of young adults consider

their friendship with peers as crucial not only for building offline benefits in

social life, normally understood as social capital, but also for psychosocial

development. Social capital is regarded as a flexible conception to explain the

benefits received from the relationships and connections with other people (Lin,

1999). Ellison et al. (2007) argued that frequently connection on SNS are

similar with the formation and continuance of social capital. They did a survey

of undergraduates in a large university and found that the use of SNS is linked

tightly with evident features of social capital. For example, bridging social

capital (focus on the benefits of a various network of weak correlation), and

bonding social capital (concentrates on the emotional benefits generated from

strong correlations of friends and family) (Putnam, 1995). Furthermore, Ellison

et al. (2007) have also pointed out that according to the evidence they found in

the survey, self-esteem could be regarded as a moderator to cope with the

correlations of social capital and SNS. In a similar way, self-esteem is of less

importance in the use of Facebook among young people and young people

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who have lower self-esteem are more likely to achieve in peer relationship

(Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe, 2007). The role of SNS and social capital could

not meet the real need of users, like these young person and self-esteem, and

online and offline interaction can be contradicted and inter-influenced. Many

online social platforms, like WeChat, Facebook and Instagram, have been

significant in boosting the continuance of strong relationships (some

relationships you contact regularly) and weak ties (some relationships that you

contact occasionally) that can be benefit for users to establish the bridging

social capital. SNS users can sustain weak social interaction with a wider unit

of acquaintances and connect offline friends with the help of the capacity that

make use of SNS (Steinfield, Ellison and Lampe, 2008).

Since WeChat has the largest number of users in China, many related and

derived phenomenon appears. Users’ behavior need to be studied in terms of

social capital because social capital is an appropriate theory to explain the

various reasons behind users’ behavior and attitudes of social network sites.

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This study examines the range of social capital within the SNS and which

fluctuated online and offline. Secondly, this study also try to explore the

relation and incidence between online communication and offline interaction in

terms of WeChat. Additionally, to what extent social capital has played a role in

the process of online and offline contact behavior are also studied.

Therefore, the research question of this study is to explore the meaning of

social capital through the behavior and attitudes both online and offline of SNS

users in China and take WeChat as an example.

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II. Literature review

1.Critical views of Social capital

During these decades, there are many controversies of the notion of social

capital and various focuses on its meaning when human world come across

internet era. Disagreements raise frequently when scholars study the

accurate definition of social capital and the ways of how to measure it during

the research, the methods of how particular users to obtain it on the internet

and the its influence and consequences (Portes, 2000; Skocpol, 1996).

However, almost every widespread contemporary theory in terms of social

capital may be regarded as one of the neo-capitalist theories apart from these

controversies (Lin, 1999, 2001). The School of neo-capitalism normally can be

divided into two dominant theoretical positions. The first can be traced back to

Marx, he has related class goods with social capital especially when the class

goods are made use of a factor in preserving resources and offering exclusion

(Julien, 2015). Durkheimian perspective of social relations can be regarded as

the origin of second position that is synthetic (Lin, 1999, 2002) and ‘as the

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tradition of American Communitarianism’ (Siisiainen, 2000; Huysman and

Wulf, 2004, cited in Julien, 2015, p357). Social capital has been thought by

American Communitarianism as mainly a benefit for the general public but not

for some classes (Lin, 1999, 2002; Huysman and Wulf, 2004, Daly and Silver,

2008 and Coleman, 1988).

Pierre Bourdieu is the first person to put forward the systematic analysis of

social capital. He has also defined social capital in the Actes de la Recherche

en Sciences Sociales in 1980 as “the aggregate of the actual or potential

resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less

institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition” (Bourdieu

1985, p. 248). This article was introduced to English world after 5 years and

included in the book Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of

Education. Bourdieu equaled social capital as power, he argued that different

types of social capital (Putnam, 1995).

20

Otherwise, there are other scholars have studied social capital and put forward

some theories. The conception of human capital that put forward by Theodore

W. Schultz in the 1960s has expanded the extension of social capital (Lin,

2002). Bourdieu has also categorized capital as three kinds: financial capital,

cultural capital and social capital and pointed out that these three capitals can

exist in harmony and transmute into each other under some situations

(Putnam, 1995). Financial capital is regarded as profits that used for financial

investment, similarly, Bourdieu has compared educational investment and

financial investment (Putnam, 1995). In Bourdieu’s survey, he has focused on

the relationship between the original family of students and their school record.

If economists can answer why the high tuition fee enable people to reach

better-paying salaries, then according to Bourdieu, the reasons why the

investments of education of different families, different status and different

institution are so different (Putnam, 1995). Therefore, Bourdieu has argued

that social capital is made up of social relationships, and which can be

21

regarded as an institutionalized relationship that is based on financial capital

and socialization-shared (Putnam, 1995).

Therefore, the discussion of social capital has been addressed to some

differences when compared the definition and explanation of social capital

from classical perspective with the perspective of Bourdieu. The primary

concern of social capital has converted from macroscopic marketplace to

Microscopic individual or organization (Lin, 2002). Which means individual has

replaced integration to be the dominant focus in the field of sociology in terms

of social capital. Otherwise, Bourdieu has argued that he disagrees with Marx

in terms of the description of social structure because from his perspective,

class antagonism is not the main subject of social structure any more but

individual is rooted in some fields and then cultivate the formation of some

specific habitus (Bourdieu and Bao, 1997). Different individual tends to

generate diffident habitus when they have experienced different cultures and

contacted related cultural production, which will be revealed subconsciously or

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purposely in their behaviors. That is why people get used to the environment,

either natural or humane, that they are familiar with rather than a totally

different but reasonable. Additionally, Bourgeoisie is not the only protagonist in

marketplaces but almost everyone can choose various capital to invest (Lin,

2002). Since social capital has been addressed significantly in social

interaction and the construction of social relationship, different people can

benefit distinctively in their trace of social capital.

2.Social Capital: Online and Offline

In real life, the benefits of social capital have often lied in various types of

positive social influences, including promoting the quality of public health,

achieving a more active capital market and reducing the crime rate (Adler and

Kwon, 2002, cited in Lu and Reve, 2011). However, the trend of social capital

keeps reducing after it has been tested and measured in terms of some criteria

in recent years (Putnam, 2000). The adverse consequences are often

accompanied with the decline of social capital, which include the rising rate of

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social disorder, decreased participation in public affairs, and possibly decline

of distrust among individuals in communities (Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe,

2007). The accumulation of social capital can advance the power of

commitment and create the capacity to handle group behaviors apart from

other influences (Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe, 2007). In the meanwhile, there

are many situations that social capital is used negatively, but commonly social

capital has much more effective influences in the relationship in terms of a

social network among people (Helliwell and Putnam, 2004).

Furthermore, individuals may find it beneficial for them to obtain social capital

from their social network groups in terms of their relationship with other people.

Social capital has also provided a great number of help for individuals to rely

on their group members in social networks (Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe,

2007). The social capital can be assumed as useful interactions, helpful

information only transmitted among friend circles, the opportunity and ability to

organize a group and intimate relationship (Paxton, 1999). The relationship

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outside the close friend circle of individuals can bring unexpected profits,

including the rise rate of employment opportunities (Granovetter, 1973).

Otherwise, the finding of social capital scholars is that the forms of social

capital are various, and these different types of social capital, such as the

relationships with families and friends, are often linked with psychological

states, including life satisfaction and self-esteem (Helliwell and Putnam, 2004).

Social capital can be classified as bridging social capital and bonding social

capital (Putnam, 2000). Bridging social capital is normally regarded as “weak

ties” by many scholars in social network theory, which means loose social

relationship in social networks is more likely for individuals to generate new

ideas or discover new perspectives rather than obtain emotional support

(Granovetter, 1982). However, bonding social capital emphasis on the tight

relationship between individuals, and it is different from bridging social capital

it provides encouragement, which is emotionally closely relationship, like

family and friends (Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe, 2007). In addition, Ellison et

25

al (2007) have introduced a conception of ‘‘maintained social capital’’ which

allow individuals to explore whether online social relationship can remain

connection after the disconnection offline. In their survey, they measured and

tested social capital among college students. According to their research

results, SNS seems have more effects on bridging social capital rather than

bonding and maintained social capital. However, the authors only relate social

capital online with the intensity of use in terms of SNS and didn’t explain it in

this essay.

In addition, Putnam (1995) has referred SNS to many social problems, like the

emergence of “Couch Potatoes” and “Internet Potatoes”. Due to the

emergence of SNS, people would rather stay at home and play with their

smartphones or social online, which may result in the decline of civil

participation and awareness. The opinions toward social capital online and

offline are so different, whether we deal with the influence of social capital

need to be considered significantly. It is universally accepted that social capital

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has many influences in traditional social community, but what is the real role of

social capital in terms of SNS? Whether social relationship between individuals

is closer or alienated when social capital is linked with SNS after we enter in

the internet era requires our consideration.

3.SNS and social capital

Social capital is likely to have two-sides influences when it has connection with

Internet. There are some researchers have studied this topic. The use of

internet detracts from the communications in real life and may reduce the

possibility for individuals to obtain social capital (Nie, 2001). However, there is

a strong voice in criticizing this view (Bargh and McKenna, 2004). Otherwise,

many scholars have argued that online interactions may become the dominant

communication method to replace the face-to-face interaction and save every

minute with the technology of internet (Wellman, Haase, Witte and Hampton,

2001).

27

SNSs have provided many useful and easier ways for users to generate or

develop weak tie. Recently, many scholars point out the online interaction

have played a significant role in creating and shaping weak tie (Ellison,

Steinfield and Lampe, 2007). Individuals are more likely to form their online

relationships with the help of technology, such as search engine, picture

sharing and distribution lists (Resnick, 2001), Ellison et al (2007) have linked

the appearance of new types of social capital with online SNSs. Not only the

technology, but also the SNSs matter in forming new forms of social media

and boost users’ online and offline behavior. Bridging social capital, which is

one of the main approaches in generating weak ties and encourage individuals

to cultivate and develop broader and diffuse social relationship from where

they could explore social capitals, can get improved with online social network

sites (Donath and Boyd, 2004; Resnick, 2001; Wellman et al., 2001). Many

hypothesis have been draw out that internet technology is suitable for weak tie

to maintain with lower cost and barrier and thus social network sites can play a

positive role in this process. (Donath and Boyd, 2004).

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Apart from bridging social capital, bonding social capital have also showed a

strong linkage with internet and SNS. According to Putnam (2000), bonding

social capital can represent the strong tie which can support individuals and

supple insufficient social resources from an emotional angle in terms of close

social relationship, such as family and good friends. Some empirical

researches have explored the relationship between bonding social capital and

SNS, which criticized an argument that if Internet have complement social

capital or replaced (Bargh and Mckenna, 2004; Williams, 2006). Many

researches have shown that Internet cultivate new forms of interaction and

encourage connection between individuals since it enriched the ways for users

to contact each other and share their point of views or interests. (Parks and

Floyd, 1996; Ellison, Heino and Gibbs, 2006). Otherwise, new online

connections could be accord with the rising of social capital (Ellison, Steinfield

and Lampe, 2007), for example, the result of a 2006 Pew Internet survey

reports demonstrates that individuals who are active online are more likely to

29

cultivate closer social connection from main social network members than

those people who is non-Internet users (Boase, Horrigan, Wellman and Rainie,

2006).

However, the difference between online and offline connection in terms of the

occurrence of social capital is so close that it is quite unclear for researcher to

distinguish. Although some researchers have explored how users lost some

social resources and benefits offline because of their focus on online

interaction, the benefits and compensation of online behavior have been

ignored (Williams, 2006). According to above perspectives, it can be assumed

that the frequency of users to use SNS can be linked with the bonding social

capital, which indicates that users who spend more time on SNS tend to get

more online social capital.

In addition, Internet and related technologies can also be a useful way for

those people who find it hard to create and develop either strong tie or weak tie

30

or both, such as those people who live alone but want to have the connection

with outside world. Social network can be regarded as specific tools when

referring to individuals who may not forming and maintain social ties easily

(Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe, 2007). In addition, some research results have

indicated that Internet technologies may help people who are suffering social

inhibition and other psychological diseases, such as those people who

maintain low tie with their friends and neighbors because of low psychological

well-being (Bargh and Mckenna, 2004). Due to the emergence of various

computer-mediated interaction, people who may be in above trouble can

obtain benefits and lower or diminish these barriers (Bargh, Mckenna and

Fitzsimons, 2002; Tidwell and Walther, 2002); therefore, these tools have

played roles in enabling connection and communications with low possibility.

In the other article of Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe in 2008, they have

concentrated on bridging social capital and explored the relationship of

bridging social capital, the usage of Internet and SNSs, self-esteem and the

satisfaction of campus life. Their research results show that the more college

31

students make use of social network sites, the better involvement for them to

engage in college life. In addition, they tend to become more confident and

satisfied with their college life since SNS allow them to make acquaintance

with more friend, which means to obtain more social capital.

Otherwise, the combined influence of social capital and social network sites

have been affected some people in terms of minority groups. Parker and Song

(2006) has studied how Internet site has influenced the second generation of

Chinese immigration in Britain and their research results indicate that SNS is

helpful for them to overcome the geographical barriers and make new friends.

However, it is claimed that this kind of online interaction is not “weak tie”, like

the bridging social capital among other immigration group in Britain, and not

“strong tie”, like the social relationship maintained among Chinese circles.

Although the authors haven’t decided which types of social capital this kind of

social phenomenon belongs to, it may be just online interaction accompanied

with SNS because it is interaction for those who may find difficult to

32

communicate in real life but obtain encouragement through social network

sites, which has shown a characteristic of social interaction.

Moreover, age has been considered as a part in terms of social capital

comparison research. Pfeil, Arjan, and Zaphiris (2009) have defined social

capital as the interaction between online friends within SNS and the social

resources gained through online interaction. They have found in their study

that teenage group (aged between 13-19 years old) have more numbers of

online friends and they prefer to communicate with peers while elder group

(aged over 60 years old) are more likely to interact with friends from different

age groups. Therefore, it is a significant way for researchers to study online

social capital through comparing various age groups, in this way the difference

in different groups in terms of social capital can be found and studied. Similar

divide exists between urban and rural area as well, the number of friends

online in rural area is less than it in cities. Rural SNS users prefer strong tie

33

during their daily interaction their friend circle is quite small, that’s maybe why

they think more highly of their privacy (Gilbert, Karahalios, and Sandvig, 2010).

4. WeChat, Social Capital

WeChat is one of the most popular social network platforms in China and has

surpasses QQ in season 4 2016 to become a leader APP and have the largest

number of users in China. Tencent Penguin Intelligence published WeChat

User & Ecosystem study in 2017 this year, which has shown that there are

8,89 million monthly active users world-wide and has activated 1742.5 million

Yuan in terms of information consumption within a year (Tech.qq.com, 2017).

Users choose WeChat as their dominant interaction approach out of many

reasons.

(Chart 1) Data Source: Penguin Intelligence Survey Platform;

34

China Tech Insights

This is a multiple responses question

The use of social network sites is often linked with the need of users, so does

WeChat. Lien and Cao (2014) have found in their survey that there is a

positive linkage among WeChat, crucial elements of social network

communication, user’s attitude and their behaviors. The research results have

indicated that the influence of trust, entertainment and information are

addressed on WeChat users’ attitudes. In addition, this research has revealed

that more than half of WeChat’s young users are educated well, single and

have less than 100 WeChat friends. Most of them are old and active WeChat

users (use WeChat for more than a year and for more than an hour a day).

The increase of more available application aimed at entertaining users has

interacted with the Chinese SNS users in terms of the formation of their online

habits and attitudes. Otherwise, WeChat is regarded as a useful and

35

convenient method for users to obtain large amounts of information in time,

information here can be understood as social capital since users can benefit

from timely information, especially in terms of work. Therefore, social capital

can influence users’ attitude and behavior because they can benefit from it, for

example, a timely information on WeChat can help an officer to know the latest

news of their customers or potential customers so that he or she can be very

responsive to the needs of customers and earn profit. It has been proved that

there is a positive relation between the users’ attitude and the influence of

information, and the research results are consistent as well (Chang and Zhu,

2011). Sun et al. (2014) have also argued that one of the dominant aim of

Chinese SNS users who choose WeChat is searching for latest and helpful

information. WeChat is a beneficial tool for Chinese users to send and receive

information timely, regardless of the degree of importance (Lien and Cao,

2014).

36

WeChat has created a unique way for Chinese users to build their trust online,

trust is an important basis of the use and interaction of SNS, such as Hongbao

in 2014 (Relax, 2017), normally understood as red packet, is a specific way for

Chinese people to connect with each other and enhance or develop social

capital. WeChat use this kind of Chinese style application to meet the need of

Chinese customers and WeChat users can use these specific applications, like

WeChat payment, to connect social online relations more easily and

convenient (Europe.chinadaily.com.cn, 2017). Bourdieu has associated social

media with power, and in the field of social network sites, the social capital

could be not only the number of online friends a person has, but also to what

extent a person can make use of his or her online power, can arouse their

online friends and achieve something. Otherwise, WeChat, as a kind of SNS,

has similar power and feature in this field.

Many researchers have noticed psychological elements in terms of their study

of social capital and

37

III.Methodology

1.Methodology matters

Methodology has played a significant role in the process of social research,

which can guide researchers to explore their interested and good project

topics, for example, how to decide the most appropriate method to study social

actions and social facts. In the meanwhile, methodology is the basic element

for researchers to search for the specific method to investigate the social world

and verify facts (Stanley, 1997). Otherwise, quantitative method and

qualitative method are different, which require researchers to make a proper

use of them (Bryman, 2012). Therefore, this part mainly study about the

different choice in terms of qualitative research and quantitative research.

The distinctions between the two types of research are many. Qualitative

research tends to use inductive method to explain the importance of

investigating the individual world quite deeply. Additionally, qualitative

research focus on the communication of people and specific human world.

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However, quantitative research is used as a deductive method to explore the

observable social facts and social actions and is often related with the science

and technique of mathematics, statistic and analysis. Otherwise, quantification

has provided a way for researchers to concentrate on the collection and

analysis of data in that the research result can be verified or rejected through

collecting and measuring data (Bryman,2012). To conclude, Bryman (2012)

has pointed out that an extant reasonable sample is significant in verifying or

rejecting the hypothesis while quantitative method can objectify academic

views of the existence of a human world. In addition, qualitative research

emphasis that the generation of theory lies in the process of understanding

individuals and their inner thoughts and behaviors (Mason, 2002).

Mixed methods are the most appropriate approach in this study, which will

make use of both qualitative method and quantitative method. Greene et al

(1989, p255) has concluded five primary purposes, including triangulation,

complementation, development, initiation and expansion. Triangulation refers

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to an idea that all kinds of methods have intrinsic preconceptions and

restrictions, thus mixed methods can reduce the limitation of single method in

order to test and obtain the maximum potential and reliability of a research

(Greene et al, 1989). Complementation support that different method stands

for different perspectives and can explore different parts of the research

(Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998). Otherwise, initiation can generate new

explanations, advise new field for more studies, or reshape the whole research

topic and project. Initiation require researchers to create new ideas and

cultivate broader perspective and achieve the leap of research view rather

than in search of verified evidences. Initiation means exploring verifying

evidence and “design searches for the provocative" (Rossman and Wilson,

1985, pp. 637 and 633). At last, expansion means that mixed methods can

extend the boundary of research, which implies that mixed methods are

benefit for the collection and verification of liable research data.

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This study try to investigate the SNS users in China in terms of their views and

behaviors both online and offline. Specifically, this study will take WeChat as an

example and explore the reasons behind the features of WeChat users’ online

and offline perspective and behavior. In addition, this study try to know about

the relations between online and offline interaction and how social capital work

in the process. Therefore, mixed methods are appropriate for ensuring the

completion of data and extension of findings in this research. The data

gathered from quantitative method can enhance and fulfill the finding of

qualitative method. Moreover, researchers can use mixed methods to compare

the results of qualitative and quantitative methods to test the paradoxes

(Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998).

2. Practical Methods

2.1 Interview Method

Semi-structured interview is one of the dominant approach to study the

research and it is conducted through a series of open questions with

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implications to fit for the answers that may be flexible and variable (May, 2001).

The aspiration, opinions, words, gestures, experiences and communications,

which are all significant for answering researcher’s topic question, need to be

recorded in every detail. According to the interview method, the depth and

flexibility of data should to be ensured and individual experience and

interpretation can be considerable part of knowledge (Mason, 2002). In this

study, every participant has his or her own experiences, attitude and habits in

terms of WeChat. Therefore, conducting semi-structured interview in depth

helps this study to gather different data to call for generation of theories. In

addition, the communication between participants and interviewer during the

semi-structured interview is more likely to boost unpredictable ideas, which will

be meaningful and complementary resources for other research methods,

including questionnaire survey and structured interview (Mason, 2002).

Because of the above reasons, semi-structured interview method will be the

dominant approaches to gather data in this study. Due to the features of

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semi-structured interview, planning a time schedule and preparing some

questions focusing on the topic are quite essential. Moreover, deciding the

scope, order and feeling of interview is of great importance. Researchers

should make clear that which question can be asked to start the interview and

warm the atmosphere and what kind of question can be asked further.

Otherwise, semi-structured interview need to be conducted face-to-face and

last no more than 45 minutes.

2.2 Secondary Analysis

Secondary analysis is one of the main methods in sociological research, and

this study also try to use secondary analysis to answer the research question.

The concept of secondary analysis can be compared with primary data

analysis, which is the re-analysis of original data and make use of quantitative

method to do statistical analysis with the view of answering research questions

or exploring new research questions (Glass, 1976). Secondary analysis has

played a crucial role in research and evaluation enterprise. Cook (1974) has

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pointed out the main aim and approach of secondary analyzed methods at

Northwestern University. Many excellent researchers have chosen to

undertake the secondary analysis so exaggeratedly to the extent that the

significance has been far away from primary analysis (Glass, 1976).

There are some advantages for researchers to use secondary analysis. First, it

is much quicker to collect secondary data; second, secondary data collection

is more like to save money compared with source material; third, the process

to obtain secondary data is much easier; the last but not the least, it can

provide assistances in analyzing the primary data, which means the secondary

data can guide researchers to gather original data. In the meanwhile,

secondary analysis has offered a useful and efficient way for researcher to be

familiar with related research projects timely and confirm the conception,

direction and basis data about research topic, which will be helpful in the

process of primary data analysis.

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In this study, the official report “2017 WeChat User Behavior Report” published

by Tencent Penguin Intelligence Consumer Survey Platform” (Tech.qq.com,

2017) will be used to assist the research results in terms of interview, and the

findings and conclusion are based on the combination of part of this report

data and semi-structured interview. Collecting enough primary data is hard to

achieve in master’s dissertation, therefore, combing this report and

semi-structured interview in depth can enable researcher to grab more

complete data and then get more realistic results. For example, the design of

semi-structured interview schedule is accord with the big data of report. Big

data of this report can sometimes provide a macro view in mastering social

facts, like the use of social network sites and users’ behaviors and views.

2.3 Sampling

This study adopts “stratified purposive sampling”, because the chosen sample

must be accord with research topic, especially the focus of sampling lie on the

effects of culture and location (Bryman, 2008, P414). Because the research

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targets at create ng new theories according to the results of sample, which can

become the useful and meaningful guide for researchers to know about social

facts and theories and put forward some arguments under some specific

situation (Mason, 2002). Since the master’s dissertation has been restricted by

time and writing limitations, no more than 9 participants in this study will be

recruited. This study try to choose and adopt samples out of the consideration

of both theoretical and empirical. There are three conditions should meet in the

process of choosing samples. First, he or she must be WeChat users and

contact through WeChat frequently, which means only if the users are monthly

active users could be recruited in this study. The criteria comes from Users

and Gratification theory that people who use social media will be actively

online to satisfy themselves.

otherwise, as for the location of participants, this study only recruit residents of

China and here are the two reasons: (1) the aim of this study is to investigate

the interaction of Chinese people in order to explore the social capital from the

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back. (2) WeChat is the dominant social media among Chinese social media

users and is universal used and accepted in many parts of China. Moreover,

the age of SNS users range from 13 to 34 years old and account for 73% of all

SNS users in China (Guo, Shim, and Otondo, 2010). Many researches have

recruited younger participants to investigate their behaviors and ideas in terms

of social media (Correa et al., 2010). This study chooses participants aged

between 18 and 65 years old and they will be chosen from different social

status so as to obtain research data more broadly. In addition, the gender

difference is also considered in this study, so 5 male participants and 5 female

participants will be recruited. Moreover, WeChat is not only used as research

object but also the approach to recruit participants. Participant’s consent form,

the information of this study and the sampling requirement will be sent through

WeChat with an invitation message. Otherwise, due to the private

characteristic of WeChat, snowball method is also recruited apart from

WeChat group.

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2.4 Data Analysis

After discussed the method of sampling, this part mainly talk about ways of

researching this field and the aim of this consideration is to test the selected

research method and data collection in terms of this study. Many data analysis

approaches are suitable for qualitative research. Thematic analysis is one of

the useful way and a kind of inductive way to analyze qualitative data.

Encoding qualitative data is a dominant process of thematic analysis that

requires the validity and reliability of code. Additionally, the code could be an

outline of theme structure or samples accompanied with themes, implications

and limitations (Boyatzis,1998). Otherwise, the thematic analysis can help

researchers to generate theory inductively out of original data and information,

and use the experience of previous theory and research (Boyatzis, 1998).

Having considered and decided the research method and approach of data

analysis, I will conduct this study as following ways: (1) As I have chosen

semi-structured interview method and sampling as my research methods,

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before interview, I met every participant face-to-face online through WeChat

and told them the nature and main concentration of this study. In this way, I

made my time schedule and the list of interview question. (2) The last

interviews are also conducted online with WeChat, I got the consent of every

participants to record the whole interview and take down every detail in of their

expression, including facial and body, interpretation as more as possible,

which is meaningful and useful for collecting data. The use of WeChat can

remind the interviewers of their communication and views of WeChat. Cohen

et al. (2007) has pointed out that the data gathered in this process is valuable

and meaningful for analysis. After these procedures, researcher need to

transcribe every recording completely in order to assist in recollecting and

re-finding valuable information that is ignored previously.

3. Ethical considerations

Apart from the consideration of how the mixed methods provide various ways

for researchers to collect richer data, there are some other concerns need to

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be addressed in the study and ethical problem is one of the most significant

one. Generally ethical issues have four types of considerations, including the

adverse influence on participants, privacy infringement, the deficiency in

necessary consent and in case of the fraud (Bryman, 2012). Rose (2012,

p.309) has also related ethical issues with the significance of consent, the

invasion of anonymity and the risk of copyright infringement.

Therefore, ethical considerations are concerned strictly in this study. This topic

and research have been approved by the University of Sheffield, which do no

harm to participants and are not sensitive. Furthermore, the consent form will

be sent to every participant along with a brief introduction and some

implications of this study and they are informed for consent for second time to

make sure they are totally agreeable to participate in the research at the

beginning of formal interview. In addition, the invasion of privacy will not

happen in this study in that every detail of participants’ information is kept

confidential seriously and all the interviews are recorded anonymously. At the

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meanwhile, every citation in this study will be encoded randomly so as to

ensure that the identity of every participants will be kept safe.

Moreover, since this study may record the video of interview online through

WeChat, every recorded video will be deleted completely and immediately

after the finish of transcript on a password-protected laptop. At the same time,

once the photographs or other similar private information were put into

“appendices”, the raw information will be deleted directly. All the above

procedures are trying to achieve the protection of participants’ information and

privacy.

4. Limitation of the research

In spite of the beneficial characteristics of semi-structured interview, there are

some restrictions in this study. Constraint by time and space in master’s

dissertation, researcher need to consider to what extent the research can be

conducted and how much contents of research can be organized and

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disposed here. Hence, the topic of this study should be selected and narrowed

from multi-angled and far-ranging research directions.

In addition, due to the nature of social science, the changeable and flexible of

participants can result in the deviation of research plan, which may not be

accord with the main topic. However, if so, Bryman has argued that the

interestingness will be reduced when participants remember every questions

and research points and keep the path with interview plan and time schedule.

It will reduce the possibility for researchers to find new angle in the study.

Otherwise, the method of interview is not object enough since interview is

always trying to know about participants’ personal views and related behaviors

rather than outside world so as to collect inductive data to build a model for

further research. In this process, personal information, including the gesture,

eyesight and interpretations, and surroundings, including the light of room,

internet connect quality may influence not only the efficiency of collecting data

52

but also the validity of data. Additionally, it will spend researchers much time to

transcript interview data after collection (Bryman, 2012).

Therefore, researcher need to prepare well for the study beforehand. Firstly,

the topic of the research and some related extended information should be

mastered in case the interviewee will talk about something that researcher

does not know and find it difficult to ask further questions. Secondly, the

consideration should be addressed on a situation that participants are

enthusiastic on irrelevant topics, if this happen, researchers need to shift

topics moderately and subtly. Moreover, this study has integrated interview

with the official users research project to confirm the completion and validity of

data.

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IV.Findings

1. The reasons why Chinese SNS users choose WeChat

1.1 emotional support

There are many reasons of Chinese users to choose WeChat as their the most

commonly used smart phone App according to the finding results of

semi-structured interview and the secondary analysis of the WeChat report.

The first reason might be emotional support.

Since I am an international student and now study in Britain, it is really far

away from my family and close friends. To be honest, I feel lonely here (UK)

because I have many homework to do and have no time to socialize. I normally

have video chat with them every night before I go to sleep. WeChat has

achieved face-to-face talk though internet, which has helped releasing my

homesick feeling. (participant 5)

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In the meanwhile, other people have used WeChat as a method to fall in love

with or keep in touch with girlfriend or boyfriend, especially for some couples

who are involved in long-distance relationship.

My girlfriend is pursuing a master degree in England now, we are in a

long-distance relationship. Basically, we talk with each other every day using

WeChat. During workdays, we may talk about one to two hours if we are not

very busy. During weekends, our talk can begin when I get up and end when

she goes to sleep. Sometimes we do our things without talking with each other

but with the video on. If I must say an approximate hour for every day, I think it

is 2 or 3. However, I also use WeChat to communicate with my friends and

supervisor, but not very long. (participant 2)

The emotional support in terms of WeChat is one of the influence of bonding

social capital. Bonding social capital has provided emotional support from

intimacy, such as family members or close friends, which can be regarded as

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strong tie. The comparison can be conducted between the concept of bonding

social capital (Putnam, 2000) with Bonding social capital Bonding social capital,

on the contrast, describes close relationships in which emotional support is

exchanged. It de- scribes the relationships we might have with very close

friends or family members. Bonding social capital can be compared to

Granovetter’s (1982) term of ‘‘strong ties” (Pfeil, Arjan, and Zaphiris, 2009).

Steinfield, Ellison and Lampe (2008) have agreed with Ellison et al. (2007) that

the use of Social network sites, like Facebook, is lined with the measurement

of social capital, including bridging social capital and bonding social capital. In

the meanwhile, bonding social capital can offer emotional benefits through

intimacy. Other than bridging social capital, bonding social capital help people

to obtain benefits in terms of emotion and dependency, which is a “strong tie”

(Granovetter, 1982).

Otherwise, according to WeChat User & Business Ecosystem Report 2017,

WeChat moments have played a social role in WeChat so that many WeChat

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users see WeChat moment as private area. Over 60% of the WeChat users

choose to use WeChat moments as the record of their personal life and they

prefer to see more private life information of others, such life record, express of

perspective and opinions. However, different from the main stream of WeChat,

job content is not so universally accepted in WeChat moment while only 33%

of WeChat users are used to share their work-related information and only

23.6% of WeChat users are willing to see the post of job content on WeChat

moment. Therefore, due to the obtaining of personal information and private

life, users have regarded WeChat as an approach to know more about their

friends in WeChat, and with the help of quantitative data, it can be combined

and concluded that WeChat user emphasis personal feelings and emotions

when using WeChat, which has enhanced their strong tie and also allowed

them to obtain bonding social capital. All in all, WeChat is useful and

convenient in offering emotional support and enhance bonding social capital.

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(Chart 2) Data Source: Penguin Intelligence Survey Platform;

China Tech Insights

This is a multiple responses question

1.2 Necessity of work

Apart from emotional support, WeChat also matters in the field of work. In

other words, job demands have required more SNS users in China to choose

WeChat as their dominant method for communications at work.

I was required to use WeChat much more frequently after I started to work. My

company has set up an official account and every employee in this company

need to follow and focus because company will publish some important

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information through WeChat. In addition, my sector asked us to sign in

WeChat group every morning to simply give an account of every day plan.

Well, it is totally necessary for me to connect my colleagues with WeChat.

(participant 4)

The links between employees and companies are so tight in terms of WeChat

that many people find it common for them to receive some important or useful

information related with job on WeChat, which because not only now many

companies, including head-hunting company, have applied official account

and choose WeChat as their dominant method to push notifications, but also

WeChat is timely and universally so that it enables communication to be

quicker and more efficient.

I have been working at an International company for one and a half years and

WeChat has become the most crucial part in my work time since my job is to

do content creation. I need to read many articles pushed by various official

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accounts, many of them will publish company information and important

notifications in WeChat, which has not only helped me to collect a great

number of information to prepare for my content, but also it is useful for their

employees to catch up with the blueprint of company in time and grab the

opportunities. (participant 5)

The meaning of information and opportunities mentioned in the interview can

be accord with the concept of bridging social capital. In terms of bridging social

capital, WeChat has become a platform for its users to generate and obtain

online social relationship associated with work. This kind of work interaction

can offer benefits to users and also has many influences in their both online

and offline social interaction. Putnam (1995) has already addressed bridging

social capital as the most effective method for people to enhance social

cohesion, achieve trust in communication and build a democratic society. SNS

is of considerable importance in cultivating bridging social capital and strong

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ties. Additionally, bridging social capital is helpful in broadening the view of

specific area (Parker and Song, 2006), such as the field of work.

Otherwise, according to statistical data of WeChat Users & Business

Ecosystem Report 2017, work-related content and behavior have mattered

dominantly in terms of work value. Over 80% WeChat users have work-related

behavior on this platform and over 70% self-employed people have used

WeChat to transfer (www.sohu.com, 2017).

(Chart 3) Data Source: Penguin Intelligence Survey Platform;

China Tech Insights

This is a multiple responses question

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This figure is consistent with the results of interview, over half of the

participants (participant 1, 3, 4, 7, 8) have mentioned that most of their

WeChat friends are work-related friends, such as colleagues, customers or

bosses.

(Chart 4) Data Source: Penguin Intelligence Survey Platform;

China Tech Insights

This is a multiple responses question

Due to the advancement and simplification of WeChat Pay function, many

users claim that they have used WeChat pay to work through WeChat office.

The influence of WeChat in terms of mobile office is especially crucial for

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self-employed labors, over 90% of them have work-related behavior. WeChat

is of great importance in simplify the process of generating online social

interaction, which has worked efficiently in obtaining new social capital.

(Chart 5) Data Source: Penguin Intelligence Survey Platform;

China Tech Insights

This is a multiple responses question

WeChat has become the dominant platform in occupationally social network

site and occupied a core position in the link chain of “weak tie”. Over 40%

WeChat users join big WeChat group out of the reason to be a member of

corporate internal communications. Otherwise, around 34.3% WeChat users

have considered extending professional network to join in WeChat group of

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over hundred people. Therefore, weak tie has been emphasized among

WeChat groups, which may benefit them offline in their daily work and/or in

their career.

(Chart 6) Data Source: Penguin Intelligence Survey Platform;

China Tech Insights

This is a multiple responses question

WeChat has set up official account in 2014 and started WeChat of official

version in 2016 to attract companies. Currently, over 80% WeChat users still

locate WeChat in a tool for useful communication. There are around 32%

users think WeChat can make it easier to manage personal networks.

To conclude, fostering and developing weak tie and bridging social capital at

work are essential and significant reasons for users to use WeChat.

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1.3 Chinese Cultural habit

The function of WeChat in terms of post and post by group are suitable for

Chinese communication method. Chinese people have get used to

communicate within friend circles and restricted the entering of other people

who not belong to this friend circle. Moreover, according to the setting of

WeChat’s post function, A person cannot see the C person’s comment and like

of B’s post if A and C are not friends. This function has been accord with the

communication culture in China and meet their need of privacy and constraints

on friend circle. Therefore, compared other SNS with WeChat, this reason

could be one of the dominant reasons to explain the popularity and high-speed

development of WeChat.

I won’t add strangers to my Wechat. I never attempt to build trust with the

people I don’t really know, needless to say transferring the online friendship to

the offline one. I think WeChat is convenient for me to constraint my friend

circle and never let other people know about me, I feel ease to post my life on

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it because I know others I’m not familiar with will not be able to see my post

(participant 9)

Participant 9 is a PHD student who major in information security, therefore

he/she is highly sensitive in personal information privacy. However other

participants have also concentrated on the restriction of friend circle.

I only add new friends who I met in reality and have to contact him or her later

either at work or in my life and I never add strangers online. Generally, I never

introduce my friend from this friend circle to the other friend circle unless I had

to because not only my friend but also the member of my friend circle will feel

uncomfortable, not to say it’s difficult for an outsider to get involved in a totally

strange group. (participant 1)

In terms of Chinese cultural habit, WeChat seems cater to Chinese users in

terms of their special need in social interaction. Friend circle and post by group

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can be regarded as methods for Chinese users to select their kinds of social

capital if work-related friends are bridging social capital and close friends and

family are bonding social capital. Selecting different friends through deciding

which post can be seen by them. Combining part 3.1.1 and 3.1.2, the

contradiction between users’ preference and the potential behavior, it can be

assumed that WeChat users may understand what kind of social interaction

they need and which social capital they may be benefit from.

2. The relationship of online and offline interactions among

WeChat users

The attraction and meaning of social capital lies in facts that a person can

benefit considerable profits from social capital regardless of he or she is

less-educated, lack of money, weak and sick. For example, the middle-class

parents in China have a great desire to send their children to top international

school or elite school, from one hand, the teachers, facilities and reputation of

these schools are excellent, not to say children can make acquaintances with

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the children from the same social status or even higher social status, which

could be important social capital and social network for their children in the

future. Moreover, the investment in education and school is to generate and

choose a social network or social status for their children, which is believed by

these parents to decide the social status of their children when they grow up.

However, similar but different, the charm of social network sits has been

addressed on the available for long-distance, anonymous and huge data of

social interaction. A person can maintain maximum 150 friends while he or she

can have thousands of millions of friends online. Over 45% WeChat users

have more than 200 friends and the proportion of users who have over 500

friends is 13.5% (Tech.qq.com, 2017), which has surpassed considerably

Dunbar Number. Dumber (2010) has argued that human intelligence only

allows individual to maintain a social network of no more than 150 people.

Extending social network infinitely can be achieved online.

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Moreover, to what extent this kind of social network can become real social

capital and benefit individuals? If social capital is a collection of actual or

potential resources, these resources is related with the social network that

consisted of social relationships by default or recognized (Bourdieu, 1984).

Coleman (1988) has argued social capital contain three main forms:(1) the

form of social interaction and trust; (2) social network; (3) shared value system.

Therefore, social network sites have been accord with their concept of social

capital. Achieving the traction of social capital from online to offline enable

users to obtain more benefit or harmful consequences need to be considered

in depth, or vice versa. In this part, the result of interview will try to illustrate the

flow of social capital and take WeChat as an example.

2.1 Offline social power has decided online social capital

Although WeChat has become the main social communication method,

individual put most of their focus on social relationship built offline. In the

meanwhile, the form of online relationship has been shaped and decided by

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offline social capital. People who have power in real life may have more power

on social network sites in a group. In terms of WeChat chat group, people

who has more social power, such as a team leader, are more likely to have

more reply or raise the focus of group members.

I have noticed many times that if my team leader speaks in our WeChat group,

them it seems everyone has just grab their mobile phone and is enthusiastic

with talking. They act like they are always prepared when leader talks about

work and they pretend (may be real) to be interested in every topic come up

with the leader’s interest. (participant 7)

Similar situation also happens on other participants.

I need to follow the group chat even every second! Or I may miss some

important details of our team. Of course, the topic is guided by our group

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leader and sometimes we need to extend our talk when we are required to

have more passion. It’s our team culture. (participant 8)

This kind of online situation could be explained by Bourdieu’s theory that SNS

users are main subject in generating and diffuse “Internet memes” (Julien,

2015.) A group can offer social resources by itself, in the meanwhile it has

been identified as the origin of influences, hierarchy and value (Bourdieu,

1986). Offline social status and relationships have decided and shaped the

pattern of online interaction. Just as what Bourdieu has argued, powerful

people always control the speaking right. In the field of internet, users have

continued their habitats, such as the respect for power and social status.

2.2 Online social power can create and develop offline social

capital

However, some online social interaction has helped the generation and

extending of offline social capital. For example, the trend of internet celebrity

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can be regarded as an explanation to some extent. The process of how

internet celebrity become popular and attract attention is equal with the

conversion from online social power to offline.

I have many online friends. Actually, I have 170k friends on Weibo (the other

social network site in China, similar with Instagram) and I have added many of

them to my WeChat, some of them even come to visit me. One of them has

become my sisterhood and we exchange presents and she came to Sheffield

from Australia to accompany me to travel. We are in a close relationship now,

a best friend. For me, many of my good friends come from internet, but only if I

have talked enough with them and share interests and views together which

allow me to know enough about this person, I can communicate with him or

her in real life. (participant 7)

Participant 7 is a master student but is quite famous on Weibo, she has

numbers of fans online and can be regarded as an Internet celebrity to some

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extent. She has obtained numbers of social relationships though internet and

transferred them to reality. Moreover, these social online relationships have

helped her to some extent, such as the emotional accompany and real

friendship.

I am little be shy and lazy in real life, sometimes I find it difficult for me to talk

with strange people and I am afraid that other may dislike me and reject me

and I don’t like trouble others, but I have got the complementary from Internet.

Now I become more confident and I know how to communicate with people

better. What’s more, my friends are willing to help me when I feel homesick or

in other trouble (participant 7)

We can induct from the interview that online social interaction has some good

effects on offline social relationship, and this transformation can become social

capital to some extent. At the beginning, participant 7 is afraid of

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communicating with strangers but at last she has become an internet celebrity

and make many close friends who can offer a hand to her.

Otherwise, apart from internet celebrity, other participants also have similar

experience in transferring online social relationship to offline social capital.

I often communicate with different people online because I need to search for

a considerable number of online literature resources, which is part of my job.

Then I need to contact them and ask for their permission, sometimes some of

them will like to talk with me. There is a time one of my online friend has

helped me and we have a date, from then we become familiar and gradually

wo found we have same interest, that is amazing! (participant 8)

Conclude from above interview, online social relationship could transfer to

offline social interaction but only when the construction of intimacy completes.

Just like Bourdieu’s theory, the behaviors of individuals indicate their social

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status and has been decided by their field of life. Therefore, when they can

offer or share the social resources at the same scale, which can be understood

as social network, they can exchange social resources in this social network

(may be field). Participants in this interview can share same interests and

benefit from online social relationship with strangers (at first, but after

communication they have become close friends) and choose to extent online

relationship, which can be assumed that their online relation has transformed

to offline social interaction and is regarded as social capital.

Moreover, the role of trust has been of considerable importance in

transforming from online strangers to offline social capital. Many participants

distrust online relationship and they have shown a strong sense of distrust

toward online relationship.

Yes, the most significant difference is that online social interaction makes

distance unimportant. If you interactive with your friend that you know very well,

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you can share your experiences or feelings with your friend regardless the

distance. However, offline interaction happens when you are in a same place.

Another difference is that you should be aware that the person you are talking

with may be not the person you think if you two are communicating through

WeChat. The problem will not happen in offline interaction because you two

can see each other. (participant 2)

I will add everyone I know to my WeChat and if I need something or help from

some strangers, I may also add them to my WeChat. (participant 9)

Individuals may be conservative whey add strangers to WeChat, which may

partly due to the privacy feature of WeChat, but trust can change the situation.

The experiences of Every participants have indicated that only if trust appears

in online social interaction, offline social capital can come out. Trust is a

necessary process in generating social capital, especially in the field of

Internet. Trust is one of the most dominant elements in sustain social capital

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(Parker and Song, 2006: putnam.1995 Huysman and Wulf, 2004; Lin, 1999).

Maintaining an online communication without trust will be easily interrupt and

individuals are more resistant on internet rather than offline.

To conclude, it is much easier for high-quality social relationship transfer from

offline to online, but for strangers, online may continue and transfer to offline

only when trust was built.

3. The adverse influence of WeChat

Social network site, like WeChat, has bring about many convenience and extra

benefit for both individuals and groups. In the meanwhile, their behaviors

changed with the development of internet technology and the trend of

information era. However, there are many adverse effects：

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3.1 The dependency on SNS

Individuals relying on the frequently use on social network platform, which has

arisen a debate of social network sites and internet bring closer relationship or

cause alienation among different people. SNS, in terms of WeChat, help

people to get rid of barriers of communication, such as time slot and long

distance. However, individuals may have cultivated habitats of smartphone

and ignore the real life and people beside.

My friends and I have a rule that anyone who touches his or her smart phone

first need to pay the bill after meal. Because every one of us just keep playing

with our mobile phone and we even don’t talk with each other during our date.

Can you imagine most of the times we talk on WeChat during our date time!

Even we are face to face, we still communicate with each other in our WeChat

group, then we admitted that this kind of situation must get changed, so we

made this rule. (participant 5)

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Putnam (1995) has named those people who always stay at home and

immerse in television and Internet as “Couch potatoes” and “Internet potatoes”.

This kind of trend has influenced the civil participation in America, which

indicates that Internet alienate people. Now similar situation happens in China.

Mobile phone addiction now is very popular. Some people worried that others

may sends them messages so that they check their WeChat frequently. Due to

that, they cannot focus themselves on the work they are doing. (participant 2)

(Chart 7) Data Source: Penguin Intelligence Survey Platform;

China Tech Insights

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Combined with the official report, the proportion of WeChat numbers in 2016

has increased when compared with 2015. In addition, the number of WeChat

users who spend more than 4 hours a day has doubled in a year. The data

collected by QuestMobile has revealed that the use of WeChat mobile phone

application has reached to 1967 minutes per user (Tech.qq.com, 2017).

Therefore, the dependency on SNS has become one of the most crucial

problems and the trend in China has become gradually clear and obvious.

3.2 The concern of privacy

Concerning on privacy has raised with the development of era. Many SNS

companies have published terms and privacy in their settings, however very

few people will look at them carefully and check if there are some bugs that

may lose their private information. Due to the fast speed of WeChat, many

users will add many people as their friends and may forget to delete them,

which may cause information disclosure to some extent.

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As for bad effects, I worry about my privacy. As the users of WeChat grows

every day, the number of my WeChat friend is bigger and bigger. I may do not

know some of my WeChat friend and they can see my every post. The posts

that I want to share with my real friends can be the information that they use to

fraud my friends and families. I have to delete some unfamiliar friends regular.

(participant 2)

Moreover, there are some frauds in terms of WeChat have bring the loss and

WeChat has taken measures to solve this problem but individuals still confront

this risk and raised people’s attention.

I have come across a fraud on WeChat, the cheater pretended that she

wanted to buy my second-hand goods and insisted on video chat with me, I

feel a little bit confused but at last I agreed. Who knows she is a cheater, she

added my friends through WeChat and pretend that she was me. My friends

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come to me and asked me if I need help. Then I see some other students in

second-hand WeChat group. WeChat have some hazard indeed and users

should be aware of that. (participant 5)

Participant 5 added this fraud in a WeChat group, she said that many students

sell second-hand products in that group so she trusts the cheater at first and

think she was student, too. She also admitted that many students in that group

claimed that their friends have been cheated and lost some money. In fact, the

cheater combined QQ (the other smart phone application published and

created by Tencent as well) because she cannot see users’ friends on WeChat

however she can see them on QQ, which indicates that WeChat has some

risks in privacy protection but may be better when compared with other social

network sites.

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3.3 The ignorance on Minority group

Many individuals may be far away from internet, such as those people who live

in remote mountainous region or senior citizens. These groups of people have

limit opportunities or are unable to make use of social network sites, which

may result in invisible alienation to some extent and bring loneliness and

misunderstanding among different status of people.

Every time my children and grandchildren come to visit me, I noticed that they

keep playing with their mobile phones and rarely talked with me. So, I asked

them what interested them and they told me the existence of WeChat and my

granddaughter downloaded it for me and taught me how to use, but due to

presbyopia, it is really difficult for me to see the words on mobile phone clearly.

Then I give up, but I still wonder what they are talking about. I think I am too old.

(participant 6)

83

Participant 6 is an old man whose age is over 90 years old and sometimes

feels lonely. He felt abandoned by time and difficult to integrate into the close

talk among younger generations. He can’t understand and is unable to learn

continuously because of the age and health. Many senior citizens may

confront similar problem.

The old men or women are restricted to areas which are kept far from social

network sites, it is tough for them to obtain the knowledge of Internet and SNS

like WeChat. In addition, connecting with Internet and use SNS may also be

hard to achieve for those people who live in remote area. Their life circle is

limited and because of the hostile environment for infrastructure, accessing to

Internet will be costly and unnecessary.

I usually use video chat on WeChat to contact my parents, however there is no

internet at my home because they use internet rarely. I live in a remote village

in north of China. It is a poor village and my parents think it unnecessary to

install an internet network. Therefore, they often visit my relative’s home to

connect to internet and talk with me. (participant 2)

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The further research may need to try to find methods in establishing a

mechanism for minority groups who cannot integrate into society and catch up

with the pace of era.

V. Conclusion

1.Summary

The era of information and internet is the age that risks and opportunities

coexist. The development of internet technology has changed our daily life, so

individuals will also generate different behaviors and views in terms of online

and offline social interaction, and social capital behind have been addressed

and studied.

The develop speed of China in terms of social network sites and the number of

SNS users have increased considerable. In the meanwhile, WeChat has

become the dominant smart phone application for social interaction. Therefore,

taking WeChat as an example to explore the behavior and attitudes of social

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network sites Individuals users and or organizations choose WeChat out of

various reasons. Social capital is one of their main focus in the process of

social communication.

The concept of social capital has raised debates in sociological sphere and it is

understood as the benefits or values it generated in social networks,

regardless of online or offline. In addition, many researchers have put forward

different definitions of social media, but in this study, social capital relates to

the social interaction and can bring real benefit for individuals, which lies in the

field of internet and the use of SNS. Additionally the social capital of Bourdieu

have been applied in the study of social capital from offline to online, which

indicates that social capital is consisted of social relationships and focus on the

institutionalized relationship. Bourdieu’s theory has been shown clearly in

WeChat group, the behavior and words of every member are influenced and

shaped by the group institution and group leader is a symbol of the group

principle. Bourdieu also relates individuals with field, and individuals have

86

rooted in field and then cultivate associated habitats. In the field of internet and

social network sites, individuals remain contradictory attitude and behavior. On

the one hand, they have enjoyed and benefited from social capital brought by

social network sites; on the other hand, they need to confront the risks of

internet because online behavior may cause privacy disclosure and then fraud.

Otherwise, the types of social capital are good methods in explaining users’

motivation, social communication behaviors and thoughts. Bonding social

capital and bridging social capital are two main types of social capital, which

are put forward by Putnam and used universally in studying social capital in

terms of internet field. In addition, bonding social capital and bridging social

capital can be related with strong tie and weak tie separately. Strong tie, may

be bonding social capital has provided emotional support in a long time,

however weak tie, may be bridging social capital can extend the friend circle of

WeChat users and obtain more opportunities at work.

87

Online social capital and offline social capital can be interconverted with the

construction of trust. In other words, trust can transfer online “fake” friends to

offline “real” friends and has played a crucial role in the foster and

development of social capital, either online or offline. Therefore, transferring

offline friend to online is easier than transferring online friend to offline because

our trust is based on enough communication and the familiar with the

background of a person.

It can be observed that the number of WeChat friends of many WeChat users

have broken the restriction of “Dunbar number” in 2016, in the meanwhile,

some users’ friends number remains increasing, which has indicated that

WeChat is a good social network platform for users to get access easily,

communicate with WeChat friends efficiently and can self-refresh. Under this

trend, WeChat friends has changed from only “strong tie” to multiple varieties

of social relations. The great number of friends will push users to select their

friends according to the information they obtained through social interaction of

88

both online and offline. In this situation, social capital has been significant and

raised users’ concern. Therefore, making use of social power and various

social capitals, including bonding social capital and bridging social capital, and

considering if they can be exchanged in terms of online and offline have

entered in every SNS user’s life and will gradually become core part.

Combing the social capital with SNS has become a trend in the age of internet.

WeChat has connected offline social behavior with online interaction although

it is only a social network platform, which has integrated daily life with internet.

However, there are some adverse effects of SNS need to be addressed.

People may find it difficult to concentrate on in real life and become a “Couch

potato”. Therefore, it is hard to decide whether WeChat has closed the

relationship between individuals or alienated them. Relying on internet and

online social network but ignore people beside seems like a bad influence.

What’s more, minority people could also feel constraint from main-stream

89

society, which should raise the attention of policy makers, social workers, SNS

companies and the whole society.

2.Achievement of this study

First of all, this study try to explore the SNS users’ behavior and attitudes of

social network sites and the to what extent has social capital influenced their

behavior and attitude. In the meanwhile, there are other significance of this

study. WeChat is a good example to study Chinese SNS users but few

researchers have noticed the meaning of social capital in it and few of them

have focused on the adverse effects of social network sites in terms of social

capital. However, the users of WeChat can represent most of the social

network sites groups in China because it has the greatest number of users in

China and has attracted an increasing number is in the third in the list of SNS

users’ number of social network sites.

90

Otherwise, the minority groups have been ignored by many researchers

although some comparison studies between teenage group and the elderly

group. However, they lack the attention on older group who don’t have the

capability in immersing into internet and associated social capital. In addition,

this study combines secondary analysis and semi-structured interview as

research methods, which have assisted this study to collect enough and

reliable data to answer research questions. Moreover, this research has some

original findings. The combined research on users of WeChat have shown a

trend that the social capital has different types and has played a significant role

in online social communication. Chinese cultural is different from western

culture, which is one of the dominant way to illustrate why WeChat can be

popular and universal to some extent. Additionally, the focus of minority group

who has found it difficult in immersing in new forms of social communication

and lack of social capital generated by internet. To conclude, here are the

achievements of this study.

91

3.Limitations of the research

The achievements of this study are various, however, there are many

limitations in this study. As this is a master’s dissertation, researcher has bias

beforehand and is restricted by personal experience and cultural background,

individual perspective will affect this study. For instance, researcher’s attitude

and behavior may influence participant during the interview process. What’s

more, researcher illustrate and transcript interview according to personal point

of view, which will also cause bias in this study and decrease the objectivity. In

addition, due to the limitation of time and location, this study only recruit 9

participants who has been recruited through the method of snowball and

interview them in depth, which may influence the variety of research result.

Otherwise, there are many conceptions of social capital, but this study only

focus on the theory of Bourdieu and Putnam to explain the social capital

fluctuated online and offline of SNS users. Therefore, this study is lack of full

scale of the conception of social capital.

92

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Appendix 1

Interview schedule

1. Basic information (age, sex, location, education background)

2. How often do you use WeChat? Basically, how many hours a day?

3. Which applications or functions you normally use in terms of WeChat?

4. Which are your favorite or which you use more frequently?

5. Which are helpful for you to enhance your friendship or colleague

relationship?

6. To whom you will contact through WeChat, are there other contact methods

for you to use often? Why?

7. What are the reasons for you to choose WeChat rather than any other

kinds of smart phone App?

8. Do you trust the sales in your friend circle? Can you describe in what kind

of situations you will trust and purchase in WeChat?

9. What kind of friends you will add to your WeChat? After added, how you

could build your trust toward your online friends? In what kind of situations

you will transfer your online relationship to offline relationship?

10. According to your view, is there any difference between online social

interaction and offline interaction? How these two factors influence each

other? Can you list some examples based on your own experience?

11. Do you like WeChat? Why? Are there any bad effects of WeChat? What

are they?

12. Will you change your harmful behavior related with WeChat? Can you

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Change?

13. Your communication with your friends is closer or further with WeChat?

Why?

14. Do your actions change with WeChat or other social network sites that you

often use?

15. What kind of change?

Appendix 2

Secondary analysis

This study has combined interview and secondary analysis. In the part of

secondary analysis, the official statistics report, WeChat User & Business

Ecosystem Report 2017, by Tencent company (the same company of

WeChat). Therefore, the data is reliable and valid). What’s more, this report is

the latest publish of official company.

This study use the charts of the survey and use the data in them to make

complementary explanation of interview transcript. Each chart below has a

short explanation and quantitative data to explore research question.

102

(Chart 1)

(Chart 2)

(Chart 3)

103

(Chart 4)

(Chart 5)

(Chart 6)

104

(Chart 7)

Analysis note:

The official data is complete and reliable, therefore, with the help of

quantitative data, semi-structured interview in depth can obtain a strong

quantitative support. It is crucial to know about how most users behave in

WeChat and the trend of attitudes. This study attempts to induct a general

theory through the analysis of big data and qualitative data in depth.

Secondary analysis is using existed data to conduct research and get a related

research result.

105

The combination of interview and quantitative data will provide a more

complete research data so as to obtain a reliable result in depth. The

secondary analysis has several advantages in this study: saving the time and

money to get a big data of WeChat users’ behavior in terms of social capital.

Although the report didn’t aim to investigate social capital, however there are

some implications of their behavior.

The University of Sheffield

Participant Consent Form

106

Appendix 3

Title of research Project: Online or offline? The social capital behind SNS in China—Basing on the

example of WeChat

This project is part of an assessment for SCS6046 MA in Sociology Dissertation

Student Contact:

Huiqi Xie, Department of Sociological Studies, the University of Sheffield

Hxie4@sheffield.ac.uk

Please tick

1. I confirm that I have read and understand the information sheet explaining the above

research project and I have had the opportunity to ask questions about the project.

2. I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time

without giving any reason and without there being any negative consequences. In

addition, should I not wish to answer any particular question or questions, I am free to

decline.

3. I understand that my responses will be kept strictly confidential.

I give permission for members of the research team to have access to my

anonymised responses. I understand that my name will not be linked with

the research materials, and I will not be identified or identifiable in the

report or reports that result from the research.

4. I agree to take part in the above research project.

________________________ ________________ ____________________

Name of Participant Date Signature

(to be signed and dated in the presence of the participant)

Copies: Once this has been signed by all parties, the participant should receive a copy of the signed and

dated participant consent form, the letter/pre-written script/information sheet, and any other written

information provided to the participants. A copy of the signed and dated consent form should be placed in the

project’s main record (e.g. a site file), which must be kept in a secure location.