Characteristics of mobile social media usage and dependence among college students in a Chinese provincial capital city

This study investigated preferences for mobile social media usage types, frequency and dependence among college students utilizing a questionnaire. Participants were recruited from five universities in a provincial capital in Central China, and data collection was conducted from September to December 2024. The survey recovered a total of 566 valid questionnaires from 288 female and 278 male respondents. Findings indicated that mobile social media have become major channels for students to maintain interpersonal relationships, and most students used two or more mobile social media platforms. A total of 31.25% of students used mobile social media for more than 4–6 h per day. Significantly higher scores for compulsion and conflict variables were detected in females vs. males while mobile social media dependence showed no gender differences. Moreover, the analysis of different grades showed statistically significant differences between lower- and higher-grade students in social gain, conflict and withdrawal but not prominence or compulsion. Analyses stratified by majors indicated statistically significant differences in social gain, compulsion, conflict and withdrawal. The survey also showed that nearly all the students engaged in paid consumption on mobile social media platforms. More than half of the participants believed that mobile social media had a substantially effected their lives, decreased real-life social skills and negatively affected long-term and stable interpersonal relationships. The proliferation of smartphones and mobile social media applications has significantly increased college students' dependency on these platforms. Addressing this reliance requires targeted interventions to promote healthier digital habits.

Introduction

In the Internet era, mobile social media has developed into a significant agent of socialization, profoundly affecting social patterns and the acquisition of information (Helmy et al., 2024; Al Sultan et al., 2025). Mobile social media platforms including WeChat, QQ, Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, and Bilibili, have attracted a vast user base in China by offering rich social interaction scenarios and diverse content. As a channel for connection, mobile social media is characterized by two-way communication, anonymity and diverse social functions, exerting significant influence on interpersonal communication, leisure activities, entertainment, work and study. Users can transcend the limitations of space and time to communicate, strengthen interpersonal connections and share information, thereby facilitating interactions and the integration of diverse cultures (Nesi, 2020; Luc and Antonoff, 2021). Furthermore, mobile social media has broadened the modes of social interaction and transformed communication patterns and behavioral habits in contemporary society (Idubor, 2015). However, mobile social media offers the convenience of instant messaging, information sharing and social interaction, it simultaneously heightens psychological dependence, disrupting work and daily life and causing psychological and behavioral changes (Dadgostar et al., 2025; Meng et al., 2025). Mobile social media contributes to issues such as distraction, decline in real-life social skills and diminished motivation to engage in daily life or academic pursuits (Koessmeier and Büttner, 2024). Furthermore, mobile social media exacerbates societal risks, such as information overload and privacy leakage, and individuals addicted to mobile social media may experience loneliness, anxiety or depression (Acar et al., 2022; Ayaz-Alkaya and Kulakçi-Altintaş, 2025).

In the contemporary digital landscape, mobile social media has become deeply integrated into daily life. According to the “Statistical Report on China's Internet Development,” as of June 2025, China's Internet users had reached 1.123 billion, predominated by teenagers, with mobile phones as the main medium for accessing the Internet (China Internet Network Information Center, 2025). Previous studies have shown that excessive use of mobile social media may be influenced by cultural standards, educational needs, gender and age (Gopakumar et al., 2025; Jaruga-Sekowska et al., 2025). Young people, especially college students, have been greatly impacted by mobile social media, with QQ, WeChat, and Weibo being the most frequently used platforms in this demographic (Wang and Zhang, 2015; Yan et al., 2024). Recent studies have demonstrated a high dependence on mobile phones among 18–25-year-old Chinese college students, with as many as 37.9% of students being dependent on mobile social media, with sex-based analyses showing that female college students reported spending more time actively using mobile social media than males (Qiu, 2019; Yan et al., 2024). Furthermore, 26.6% of college students were reported to exhibit problematic mobile social media use and this was significantly associated with higher daily active and passive mobile social media engagement. Moreover, the proportion of females within this grouping was significantly higher than males, potentially leading to increased low self-esteem, anxiety, poor academic performance, compulsive use, and social disengagement (Gopakumar et al., 2025; Li et al., 2025).

College students exhibit distinctive transitional characteristics in their thinking, cognition and behavior, such as quick acceptance of new technologies without sufficient self-control. The rise of mobile social media aligns with the psychological needs of college students for novelty, self-expression, social identity, and fresh experience. It has become a critical nexus for these individuals to build social relationships, participate in public discussions and shape personal identity (Siddiqui and Singh, 2016). However, due to their immature cognitive development, their exposure to social media is often unconscious and unplanned. While mobile social media has brought convenience to their academic work and daily life, they have become strongly dependent on these platforms.

In this study, a questionnaire survey was used to systematically examine various aspects of mobile social media usage among college students, including their preference for mobile social media types, average hours per day spent on mobile social media and usage frequency. Comparative analyses of differences based on demographic variables, including gender, major and grade, were conducted to identify the characteristics of individuals highly susceptible to mobile social media dependence. A quantitative approach was adopted to assess the dependence level on mobile social media among college students. This study provided theoretical support for promoting healthy usage of mobile social media among college students and empirical support for the development of scientific and effective intervention strategies.

Materials and methods

Participants

This study was conducted between September and December 2024 on a sample of college students from five universities in a second-tier provincial capital city in Central China. The universities included comprehensive universities, normal universities, and medical universities, aiming to ensure the diversity of the research samples and the generalizability of the conclusions. The participants included undergraduate students from first to fourth or fifth year (with five-year programs applying to medical majors). Students in their first and second years were classified as lower-grade students, while those in their third to fourth or fifth years were classified as higher-grade students.

Questionnaire design and data collection

This study employed a modified version of the mobile social media dependence questionnaire for college students developed by Wu to ensure high quality of the overall questionnaire (Wu, 2014). Due to the proliferation of new mobile social media platforms and their corresponding usage scenarios in recent years, coupled with the need for greater question clarity and comprehensibility, some questions of the questionnaire were optimized. The modified questionnaire consisted of selected items, primarily closed-ended questions, with a few open-ended questions included to supplement the responses. The optimized items were selected to focus on the college students' usage of mobile social media in their study and daily lives based on types, duration, frequency, reasons for use, and effect on academic performance. The questionnaire was administered online by the researchers using the Wenjuanxing platform (https://www.wjx.cn/).

All the items were measured on a 5-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating higher dependence. The questionnaire was deemed invalid in the following circumstances: (1) no complete answers to all the questions; (2) the answers to the questions are completely inconsistent or have obvious irregularity; or (3) there were contradictions in the answers of the same scale in different parts.

The academic disciplines were categorized into four groups: humanities and social sciences, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), medicine, and art. The questionnaire comprised five dimensions: prominence, social gain, compulsion, conflict, and withdrawal. “Prominence” refers to the fact that individuals' use of mobile social media has become a major part of their thoughts and behaviors, assessed the extent to which the students expressed their personal thoughts through mobile social media, the Prominence Cronbach's α = 0.91 in our sample. “Social gain” refers to the improvement in interpersonal relationships that an individual experiences resulting from using mobile social media, evaluated the level of perceived improvement in the students' interpersonal relationships because of mobile social media use, in our sample, the Social gain Cronbach's α = 0.85. “Compulsion” refers to an overwhelming desire and urge to constantly use mobile phones and social media, assessed college students' uncontrollable desire and impulse to use mobile social media, the Compulsion Cronbach's α = 0.90 in our sample. “Conflict” refers to the situation where the use of mobile social media leads to contradictions with other behaviors in life, study and work, measured the contradictions caused by mobile social media use in students' lives, academic pursuits and work, the Conflict Cronbach's α = 0.89 in our sample. “Withdrawal” refers to the unpleasant emotions experienced when one is unable to use mobile social media, reflected the degree of unpleasantness experienced by the students when they could not use mobile social media, the Withdrawal Cronbach's α = 0.88 in this study.

Statistical analysis

Microsoft Excel 2020 was used for raw data entry. SPSS Statistics 26.0 was employed for statistical analysis through methods such as the independent samples t-test and the one-way ANOVA. P < 0.05 indicated a significant difference.

Results

Population characteristics

A total of 728 questionnaires were distributed, and 566 valid questionnaires were recovered. The average age of the participants was 20.82 ± 1.71, comprising 288 females (50.90%) and 278 males (49.10%; P > 0.05; Table 1). Among these, humanities and social sciences (n = 214; 37.81%), and STEM students (n = 213; 37.81%) accounted for the majority of students with Medicine (n = 95; 16.75%) and Art students comprising the smaller categories (n = 44; 7.81%). The number of lower-grade students (50.06%) was comparable to that of higher-grade students (49.94%; P > 0.05; Table 1).

Table 1

Table 1. Demographic statistics in this study (n = 566).

Types of mobile social media use

The top five mobile social media platforms used were WeChat (95.17%), QQ (93.67%), Douyin (80.22%), WeChat Moments (75.61%), and Weibo (75.24%). Most students (87.4%) primarily used two mobile social media platforms, while smaller numbers used 1 (3.91%), 3 (4.29%), or 4 (3.5%) platform types with only 0.90% of participants never using mobile social media (Figure 1A). Comparative analysis based on academic disciplines revealed that art students were significantly more likely to use Weibo and image- or music-featured platforms than other students. Usage duration analysis showed that students using mobile social media between 4 and 6 h per day formed the largest category (31.25%), while those using for 6–8 h (16.64%), 8–10 h (14.60%), or >10 h (8.56%) also constituted a large percentage with just 2.35% of students using these platforms less than 2 h (Figure 1B). Analysis of usage frequency revealed students' mobile social media use occurred in a highly random, irregular, and fragmented pattern. Participants engaged with these platforms in short, intermittent sessions at various times and locations, such as between classes or while waiting in line. This behavior reflects a pattern of spontaneous, habitual use.

Figure 1

Figure 1. Statistical analysis of the types (A) and duration (B) of mobile social media usage.

Content preferences in mobile social media usage

Students' preferences for mobile social media content exhibited several characteristics. They used mobile social media as a tool for daily communication. Instant messaging platforms, such as WeChat and QQ, have become major channels for students to maintain interpersonal relationships. Notably, 91.38% of the participants used these platforms as a substitute for phone calls to keep in touch with their friends and families. They believed that these platforms could effectively bring them closer to each other. Furthermore, these platforms were leveraged as a space for self-presentation and social identity construction. Nearly all the students posted updates on mobile social media through their mobile devices. Of these users, 67.23% synchronized their content across two or more platforms, while 78.12% of the posts predominantly involved personal status and emotional experiences. Beyond interpersonal communication, mobile social media also served as a primary channel for information access, with 67.31% of students reporting platforms as their main sources for news and content.

Students also used mobile social media as a tool to assist in their academic work. As many as 65.83% of the participants had installed educational apps, such as Zuoyebang and Xuexitong, suggesting strong preferences for mobile social media applications for educational purposes. Moreover, they used mobile social media for recreational purposes (56.34%), such as listening to music, watching videos, and playing games.

Gender and mobile social media dependence

The usage of mobile social media by college students shows a macroscopic difference where men tend to focus on tools, while female tend to social interaction and aesthetics. Women tend to prefer mobile social media for in-depth and frequent social interactions, they pay more attention to likes, comments and shares, regarding these platforms as being important for maintaining social relationships, expressing emotions, and documenting their lives. Men tend to view mobile social media more as tools, accessing these platforms for course group discussions, receiving notifications, and transmitting files, etc., with the intensity and depth of social interaction in males being relatively lower than females. Both male and female college students used WeChat, QQ Weibo, and Douban more frequently than other platforms (P < 0.05).

The analysis of gender differences in mobile social media dependence found no statistically significant differences in prominence (P = 0.06), social gain (P = 0.07), and withdrawal (P = 0.07), while the differences in compulsion and conflict were statistically significant. However, female college students scored higher in compulsion (P = 0.03) and conflict (P = 0.04) than males, demonstrating significant differences (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Figure 2. Comparison of social media dependence among students based on gender.

Grade and mobile social media dependence

98.94% and 96.11% people used chat software like in lower-grade students WeChat and QQ for contacting family and friends, which were higher than that of 92.23% and 91.87% used them in higher-grade students. The higher-grade students favored platforms such as Douyin (88.34%), WeChat Moments (81.27%), and Weibo (80.92%) for self-presentation and content consumption, which were higher than the lower-grade students (72.08%, 69.96%, and 69.61%). Furthermore, higher-grade students reported utilizing functional platforms like Bilibili, Zuoyebang, and AI tools to support their academic work, including homework and thesis preparation. Interestingly, the five student participants who never used mobile social media were lower-grade (first-year) students.

Analysis of mobile social media dependence among students of different grades identified statistically significant differences between lower- and higher-grade students in social gain (P = 0.04), compulsion (P = 0.04), and withdrawal (P = 0.04), while, no-significant different between lower- and higher-grade students in Prominence (P = 0.07) and Compulsion (P = 0.06; Figure 3).

Figure 3

Figure 3. Comparison of social media dependence among students of different grades.

Major and mobile social media dependence

Among all the major student samples surveyed, the use of instant messaging applications—such as WeChat and QQ—was universal. A disciplinary variation was observed in the preferences for other types of digital platforms: students in the Humanities and Social Sciences and Arts tended to engage more with social and content-sharing platforms like Weibo and WeChat Moments, whereas those in STEM and Medical fields showed a stronger inclination toward utilizing Bilibili, Zuoyebang, and various AI tools. However, these differences in platform preference across academic majors were not statistically significant (P > 0.05).

The analysis of mobile social media dependence across majors suggested statistically significant differences in social gain (P = 0.01), compulsion (P = 0.01), conflict (P = 0.01), and withdrawal (P = 0.01; Table 2). Further comparisons showed statistically significant differences between students majoring in STEM and those majoring in humanities and social sciences, or art based on social gain, compulsion and conflict. However, no significant difference was identified between students majoring in humanities and social sciences and those majoring in art (P = 0.06). Regarding withdrawal, significant differences were observed between students majoring in humanities and social sciences and those majoring in STEM or in art. However, no significant difference was identified between students majoring in STEM and those majoring in art.

Table 2

Table 2. Comparison of social media dependence among students based on majors.

Attitudes toward mobile social media usage

Survey data indicated that paid consumption on mobile social media platforms was highly prevalent among the student respondents. The primary expenditures were for digital content, including games, videos, and online tools. Among all the students sampled, over half (55.69%) spent no more than RMB¥ 50 per year to paid consumption on mobile social media platforms, 23.60% of the students spent RMB¥ 50–100 per year, and 20.71% of the students spent more than RMB¥ 100 per year (Figure 4A).

Figure 4

Figure 4. Statistics on paid (A), impact on personal life (B), social skills, and (C) toward the use of social media on mobile phones.

Mobile media has become an inseparable and profoundly influential element of college students' life. With 97.33% of students reporting a significant impact, indicating that mobile social media are integral to how they socialize, access information, manage their time, and entertain themselves. Few college students responded that mobile social media influenced their lives with either “No impact” (1.20%) or “Not sure” (1.47%) responses (Figure 4B).

Mobile social media can affect the social interaction skills of college students. A significant majority of 52.66% of college students report a decrease in their social interaction abilities, which stands in sharp contrast to the 32.75% who feel their social interaction skills have been enhanced; only 14.59% of students believed that mobile social media had no impact on their social interaction skills (Figure 4C).

Discussion

Contemporary Chinese college students are digital natives whose lives are deeply interwoven with the Internet. Mobile social media, in particular, has become a cornerstone of their social existence (Siddiqui and Singh, 2016; China Internet Network Information Center, 2025). Although mobile social media facilitates interpersonal interactions, it has also fostered a growing dependency among many college students. Over-reliance on mobile social media consumes considerable energy, negatively affecting their daily lives and studies. Similar to previous research, our study shows that college students expend significant time using mobile social media, leading to indifference and detachment in real-life interactions (Wu, 2014). Likewise, this study suggests that mobile social media use contributes to a deterioration of offline social competencies and interpersonal relationships, which in turn is associated with increased experiences of loneliness, social detachment, and emptiness (Luo et al., 2025; Simşek et al., 2025). Moreover, our study also supports the views from previous research indicating that excessive use of mobile social media affects the development of psychological health of students, creating conflicts and leading to problems, such as social dependence, social fatigue, increased emotional imbalance, and information disorientation (Simşek et al., 2025; Tuck et al., 2025).

This study found no statistically significant gender differences in prominence, social gain and withdrawal, suggesting that as a universal communication tool, mobile social media plays a fundamental role in the daily lives of both of female and male college students, the common needs of college life of them are highly consistent (Liu and Cai, 2015; Zhang et al., 2015). Female college students scored higher in compulsion and conflict than males, suggesting that female users may more frequently experience an uncontrollable and hard-to-suppress impulse to use mobile social media, and that they may face more intense inner conflicts or contradictions with real life in their mobile social media usage, meanwhile, it also suggesting that the difference is reflected in content preferences rather than usage behaviors themselves (Liu and Cai, 2015; Zhang et al., 2015; Ye and Gao, 2025).

Mobile social media can bring social gains to students in different grades, helping them expand interpersonal interactions and meet diverse social needs. For example, higher-grade students can maintain their alumni networks and obtain career opportunities through mobile social media, while lower-grade students can use online platforms to integrate into new environments and build a sense of belonging (Lapolla, 2014; Alahmar, 2016). In addition, higher-grade students have more need of academic pressure, social needs, career development by using mobile social media (Alahmar, 2016). This study did not identify significant differences in prominence based on majors, indicating that mobile social media has become an integral part of the students' daily lives and has evolved into a lifestyle. Compared to students majoring in STEM, those majoring in humanities and social sciences or art scored significantly higher in social gain, compulsion and conflict. This may to be the academic requirements of the humanities and social sciences, and art were much closely aligns with the content of mobile social media, whereas platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin offer a good, low-cost and highly shareable avenues for humanities and social sciences, and art students (Rui and He, 2023).

Several limitations of this study warrant attention that may affect the generalizability of the conclusions. Due to time and financial considerations, the study was limited to a questionnaire survey and conducted among college students from a provincial capital. These factors create limitations in geographical coverage of sampling and sample size. Consequently, ongoing studies are warranted to expand these findings to broader, more geographically diverse populations and, crucially, to investigate how these psychosocial effects shift alongside the continuous and rapid evolution of the platforms themselves.

Conclusions

A survey of over 500 students across five universities in a major central Chinese city found near-universal mobile social media use, with most students actively using two or more platforms curated to their specific needs. Significantly higher scores for gender differences in compulsion and conflict variables were detected in females vs. males while mobile social media dependence showed no gender found no statistically significant differences. Moreover, the analysis of while the differences in compulsion and conflict were statistically significant. Analysis of different grades showed statistically significant differences between lower- and higher-grade students in social gain, conflict and withdrawal but not prominence or compulsion. In addition, the survey data revealed that paid consumption on mobile social media platforms was nearly universal among the student respondents, primarily involving purchases of paid games, videos, and online tools. This study provides valuable information about the trends and impacts, social support and psychological well-being of college students' use of mobile social media. These conclusions must be balanced against the inherent regional limitations of these findings.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author contributions

GL: Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

Funding

The author declares that financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article. This research was supported by the Natural Science Foundation for the Higher Education Institutions of Anhui Province of China (grant no. KJ2021A0246).

Conflict of interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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The author declares that no Gen AI was used in the creation of this manuscript.

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