Effects of Social Media Use Intensity on Ethnic Cultural Identity among Chinese International Students in Malaysia

Social media is playing an increasingly important role in the daily lives of international students. A cross-sectional survey of 151 Chinese students studying in Malaysia, aimed to explore the relationship between social media usage intensity and ethnic cultural identity considering the mediating effect of social media use purpose (informational usage, social entertainment usage, and acculturation usage). SPSS and Regression PROCESS macro was applied to analyze the data. The findings show that social media use intensity positively predicts ethnic cultural identity, and also significantly influences informational usage, social entertainment usage, and acculturation usage after controlling demographic variables. In addition, informational usage and acculturation usage positively predict ethnic cultural identity while social entertainment usage is not. Among social media use purposes, only acculturation usage partially mediates the relationship between social media use intensity and ethnic cultural identity. These empirical findings enrich the understanding of the impact of social media usage on ethnic cultural identity in a cross-cultural environment. The limitations and implications of this research are also discussed.