Contributing factors towards enhancement of social cohesion in virtual communities
An ethnically heterogeneous population requires the acceptance of differing values and tolerance for diversity per se. Frequent changes within the environment lead to uncertainty in human society. Several social exchange theories have justified factors that influence social cohesion, but it wa...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/99648/1/FBMK%202022%2024%20UPMIR.pdf |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | An ethnically heterogeneous population requires the acceptance of differing
values and tolerance for diversity per se. Frequent changes within the
environment lead to uncertainty in human society. Several social exchange
theories have justified factors that influence social cohesion, but it was the theory
of relational cohesion that illustrates the micro and macro level of human
interactions. Given the rapid technological changes in society, people face
changes in almost every area of the economy, society, and culture, thus
maintaining social cohesion can be quite challenging because commitment
requires emotional reactions. To influence a person’s membership attitude and
behavior towards a group, the anxiety and uncertainty management theory said
the members should be cooperative, trusting, tolerate diversity, and emit positive
emotions. Youth nowadays prefer spending time on social networking sites as a
virtual community platform to communicate effectively. To emit cooperative,
trusting, and positive attributes in virtual communities, members can
communicate effectively by having tolerance for diversity. Referring to the
universal-diverse orientation model, multicultural awareness is developed when
people are mindful and accept both the similarities and differences among
people to avoid offending others. Hence, to attain the truth about this
phenomenon lies in the deductive approach based on the theoretical research
framework. This research is quantitative in nature and a multi-stage
homogeneous sampling approach is applied, whereby 600 youths are chosen to
represent each zone for inclusivity of the youth population and equal distribution.
The data is analyzed using SPSS and Partial Least Square (PLS) Structural
Equation Modelling (SEM) to explore the theoretical framework. In conclusion,
interaction within social networking sites or virtual communities can enhance the
sense of social cohesion among Malaysian youths if they socially categorized
themselves as being part of the group, feel connected to others, personally and
socially identify themselves as members, and positively react to others. Rural
youths especially, have better communication effectiveness in virtual communities than their urban counterparts when they manage their level of
anxiety and uncertainty through personal/social identity, motivation to interact,
and situational processes. Although communication effectiveness and tolerance
of diversity did not affect anxiety and uncertainty management directly in
enhancing the sense of social cohesion in virtual communities, it was proven that
a micro-macro level online interaction could enhance social cohesion among youth. |
|---|