engleski

Measuring the influence of social media and instant messaging usage on weekday and weekend face-to-face social activities

Recent developments in Information and Telecommunication Technologies (ICT) lead to the emergence and development of the web 2.0 and social media, as well as the dissemination of smartphones and related web applications. These technologies and devices could potentially influence travel behavior, and in particular social travel and activities. Here, we use a web-based survey implemented in three European Universities (Zagreb – 1059 respondents, Lisbon – 459 respondents and Granada – 936 respondents) to study the relationships between social media, social networks characteristics and face-to-face social activities. Using structural equation modeling we will investigate the relationships between face to face social activities (both on weekdays and weekends), the frequency of social media and instant messaging systems (e.g. Skype, Gchat, Whatsapp) and the size and interconnectedness of social networks. Preliminary results imply that social media and instant messaging on weekdays acts potentially as a planning tool for both face to face social activities on weekdays and weekends, whereas its use on weekends appears to act as a substitute of face-to-face social activities. Also social network size and interconnectedness, and social media network size (e.g. number of Facebook friends) influence positively the frequency of social activities. Although these trends hold globally for the 3 places, there are relevant differences which are related with the different intensities of use of ICT devices and social media, as well as the different characteristics of the students and their socioeconomic characteristics.

social media ; social networks ; social travel

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