Gender Issues in Social Networking Site and Driving Factors to Join Virtual Community among Students: Social Network Analysis

Abstract

Various Social Networking Sites (SNS) are widely used by university students to achieve their own respective goals and motivations not only in communication but also in association or education. This research uses Social Network Analysis (SNA) with the help of Ucinet and NetDraw software. To determine the popularity and factors that encourage the use of SNS, SNA which is equipped with network visualization based on the 2-mode network is applied. The used graph layout type is graph theoretic layout with centrality measures of degree centrality and closeness centrality. The number of respondents was 372 respondents consisting of 190 male and 182 female who filled online questionnaires through Google form for two weeks in December 2018. There was a difference in popularity ranking of SNS viewed from a gender perspective. The popularity ranking of SNS based on degree centrality regardless of gender is Line, Whatsapp, Instagram, Google+, and Facebook. The popularity ranking for female is Whatsapp, Line, Instagram, Google+, and Twitter. The popularity ranking from the male perspective is Line; Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook, and Google. The types of virtual communities that are most widely followed based on their objectives are lectures groups and alumni groups. Male are subsequently more likely to belong to a special group on hobbies or interests while female are more likely to be in extramural groups/ organizations. The main factors which encourage students to join virtual communities consist of two categories: utilitarian motivation and hedonic motivation. Utilitarian motivation includes usefulness, followed by support and recognition while hedonic motivation includes positive experiences, followed by entertainment, attractiveness, and happiness.

Keywords: gender issue; social networking site; social network analysis; virtual community.