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Social media offers both opportunities and challenges in everyday life information seeking ( ELIS). Despite their popularity, it is unclear whether the use of social media for ELIS heightens problematic outcomes, such as encountering too much information and finding irrelevant, conflicting, outdated, and noncredible information. In light of this gap, this study tested (a) whether the level of problematic informational outcomes varies with the use of social networking sites, microblogs, and social question and answer sites; (b) whether the problem level varies by gender and problem-solving styles; and (c) whether the aforementioned factors have significant interaction effects. An online questionnaire was used to survey 791 U.S. undergraduates. Irrelevant information was the top issue. Gender difference was statistically significant for conflicting information, which was more problematic for women. The multiway analysis of variance ( ANOVA) indicated notable problem-solving style differences, especially on the Personal Control subscale. This highlights the importance of affective factors. It is noteworthy that although social media use has no significant main effect, there were significant interaction effects between microblog use and the Approach-Avoidance and Problem Solving Confidence subscales. The impact of microblog use on ELIS outcomes therefore warrants further investigation. Five propositions are posited for further testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Sojourns to other countries, such as for studying abroad, are increasingly common. However, adjusting to life in a different country can be stressful and require significant effort. Sojourners need to not only maintain and expand their social networks, but they also continuously seek information about their new environment. While international students are a sizable group, their daily information behavior is not well understood. This study posits that social networking sites (SNS), such as Facebook, may play an important role in international students'' everyday life information seeking (ELIS). Using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and structural equation modeling (SEM), the study analyzed international students'' everyday life information needs, their usage of SNS for ELIS, and the relationships among demographics, personality traits, SNS usage, and perceived usefulness of the acquired everyday life information. Findings indicate that a majority of the respondents frequently used SNS for ELIS. Younger students, undergraduates, and extroverts were more likely to use SNS for ELIS, while no gender difference was found. Notably, among the nine user characteristics and behavior factors, SNS usage emerged as the only positive predictor of perceived usefulness of acquired information in meeting daily needs. This indicates that SNS serve as a valuable channel for purposeful everyday life information seeking. Beyond its social support value, the ELIS value of SNS is a fruitful area for future research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This cohort study examined longitudinal changes in undergraduates' use of social media as information sources in academic and everyday-life contexts, covering types of social media used, purposes of use, and evaluation strategies. Web surveys were used, collecting data from 1,355 and 928 undergraduates in 2013 and 2019. The study found that students used most types of social media less in 2019 than 2013 in both contexts. Only media-sharing services bucked this downward pattern. Overall, a majority of social media types underwent changes in the top three purposes of use. The 2019 cohort used most evaluation strategies more frequently in both contexts. However, they favored simplistic strategies relying on superficial physical cues when evaluating information. Based on the findings, this study provided recommendations for information literacy education and interface design, such as covering multimedia information evaluation, leveraging various heuristics to prime careful use of social media and analytical evaluation of information. • Students frequently used Wikis and Media-sharing services in both academic and everyday-life information-seeking contexts. • Media-sharing services was the only social media type with an increase in use in both contexts. • While using most social media less, students evaluated information from social media more frequently in both contexts. • Students evaluated information from SNS, Media-sharing services, and Microblogs more frequently in both contexts. • Students used superficial physical cues of information (e.g., length, image quality) for evaluation more in 2019 than 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]