Social media literacy in the age of Artificial Intelligence

In the age of Artificial Intelligence, college students have adapted to interact with the world in a new media ecosystem. Since the era of web 2.0, social networking site (SNS) combined attributes of interpersonal communication technology and mass media, and its arrival made “many to many” interaction mode easily available. Young people especially rely on social media to socialize, entertain, seek information, and present themselves. Scholars and educators have paid more and more attention to the youth digital literacy as well as their new media literacy. How college students’ social media involvement influences their psychological well-being has been researchers’ concerns. To better understand current situation of college students’ social media literacy, this empirical research conducted a survey on college students’ social media use behavior and stress coping preferences. A total of 431 undergraduate students participated in an online survey in 2023. Three mediators between student participants’ individualized social media involvement and their adaptive stress coping are tested by AMOS. A few social network attributes are tested as moderators through multiple linear regression by SPSS. Findings suggest that college students’ social media involvement assist their psychological well-being in some way. Sample students’ frequency of participating in social media groups is positively related of adaptive stress coping. Their perceived social support from SNS is a key mediator between individualized SNS involvement and adaptive stress coping. However, sample students’ online role modeling behavior is negatively associated with their adaptive stress coping. Implications of these findings are further discussed.