Developing Political Associational Ties on Mobile Social Media: A Cross-National
3.5 Discussion
Trends in Asia-Pacifi c According to the World Bank (2015b), mobile subscription in the world was 93 per 100. The average mobile subscription in Asia-Pacifi c coun- tries examined here was 115.41, which was greater than the world’s average. There were 1.753 billion active mobile social users in the world, accounting for a penetra-
Fig. 3.1 Signifi cant predictors of associational ties with political organizations on social media Note: ***p .001; **p .01; *p .05; N = 30
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tion rate of 24 per 100, but the average mobile social user per 100 in the Asia-Pacifi c region was higher at 30.5 per 100. Although countries in the Global North (Americas at 43 and Europe at 35) still have higher penetration rate of active mobile social media, the Asia-Pacifi c region in the Global South was close behind in terms of mobile phone adoption and mobile social media use.
However, it has to be noted that variations between individual countries were very large in Asia-Pacifi c. Mobile cellular subscription ranged from 11.0 in North Korea to 323.0 in Macau , and active mobile social use ranged from 0 in North Korea to 80 in Singapore . While countries in the same region may compete with each other economically and politically, the pace of mobile communication growth differed greatly among countries in Asia-Pacifi c. In particular, mobile communication’s importance in e-commerce has been growing differentially across the region.
The fi ndings of this country level analysis suggested that urbanization of a coun- try predicted mobile subscriptions , which in turn predicted mobile social media use.
As expected, the more urbanized a country is, the more mobile subscriptions and mobile social media use. Comparing with 2G mobile phones, 3G and 4G mobile communication requires a more advanced infrastructure, so Asia-Pacifi c countries that are less urbanized may fall behind in smartphone adoption and usage.
Mobile Social Media Use Across Cultures Indulgence is the only cultural dimen- sion that was signifi cantly associated with mobile social media use. Two implica- tions can be drawn from this fi nding. First, mobile social media can be well-adopted across most cultures, regardless of power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and long-term orientation. While culture can greatly affect people’s communication styles, mobile social media has the potential to penetrate different societies . People in societies expecting hierarchies, looking after the self instead of members in the same group, valuing achievements instead of coopera- tion, avoiding ambiguous and uncertain futures, preferring time-honored traditions and norms, used mobile social media as much as people in societies on the other side of the spectrum. Mobile social media can be a universal means of communication.
Second, higher indulgence was associated with greater mobile social media use – meaning that societies who gratifi ed basic and natural human drives were more likely to adopt mobile social media. Mobile social media users appear to appreciate enjoying life and having fun more, while societies regulating human needs by strict social norms might be more against mobile phones. It seems the mobile social media fi ts right in with the consumer culture of enjoying life and hav- ing fun in Asia-Pacifi c countries as income increased and markets opened up across the region.
Mobile Social Media Use for Political Engagement As expected, the more peo- ple are using social media on their mobile phones, the more they are engaged in Facebook pages and Twitter accounts of political organizations. Mobile social media use of a country signifi cantly predicted the number of fans on Facebook pages in four categories, including the government , politics, NGOs , and news. This
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implies that mobile media not only enhances people’s daily communication with their signifi cant others, but it also affects people’s associational ties with political organizations. Becoming a fan of a Facebook page is an active process. A person has to pick up the page he/she likes, and becoming a fan of the page will be shown on the person’s own Facebook page, which turns into a self-identity. They can also leave comments on the page and share the information on the page easily.
This study’s results suggest that with mobile media, people are no longer satis- fi ed with being a passive audience in society . While Facebook can be used on com- puters, mobile communication allows active selections of when and where to participate in politics, without waiting for the scheduled time of news broadcasts on traditional media. People actively seek out opportunities to build up associational ties with political organizations, by paying attention to the government , politics, NGOs , and news in their nations, anytime, anywhere.
Differences Between Facebook and Twitter for Associational Ties On the other hand, it is interesting that mobile social media use in a country only predicted the number of followers on Twitter accounts in the NGOs category, but not about the government and news. This may have happened due to the perception of many that mobile social media were more for fun instead of being informative and reliable.
Information about the government and news is too important for people to obtain from sources like Twitter in Asia.
Differences in predictors of Facebook and Twitter uses may be due to the differ- ent natures of Facebook and Twitter. Following a Twitter account means that the follower will see the Tweets on the main page when he/she logs in Twitter. Mobile users who assess social media regardless of time and place can be easily over- whelmed by a large amount of Tweets. As a result, they may not want to follow the Twitter accounts about the government and news, lest they are overwhelmed by the information. In addition, compared to the 140-character-limited Twitter, Facebook allows longer posts. Mobile users are more likely to subscribe a Facebook page for information related to the government and news. Such information is usually con- sidered important and crucial, and Facebook provides a better platform for under- standing the issues with more details. Future research can explore the implications of these differences for political communication .
Limitations Limitations of this study include methods of data collection. Due to the availability of databases, data obtained for each variable involved different countries. Some values were missing, and could only be processed with statistical procedures. Another limitation is that the examination of political social media uses in this study only involved Facebook and Twitter . While these two social media tools are popular worldwide, popularities may be different due to different habits of social media use and governmental control. For example, Facebook and Twitter were banned in China . People in Mainland China have to use different VPNs in order to access Facebook and Twitter, so the number of users is greatly reduced.
Further research can examine the most popular social media tools in politics of each country.
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