Data Sheet 1_Digital bridges or digital divides? Social media use and crosscultural interaction among students at a Chinese university.pdf

Background<p>Social media has become an important part of young people's daily lives, and both domestic and overseas platforms are reshaping cross-cultural interaction among Chinese university students.</p>Methods<p>Guided by uses and gratifications theory and acculturation theory, this study analyzed 640 valid questionnaire responses from students at Shandong University of Technology. The questionnaire covered social media use duration, platform use, cross-cultural interaction frequency, perceived importance, language barriers, information cocoons, and cross-cultural cyberbullying.</p>Results<p>Daily social media use duration was not significantly correlated with cross-cultural interaction frequency (r_s = 0.054, p = 0.170).

The distribution of cross-cultural interaction frequency differed significantly between students who used at least one overseas social media platform and those who did not, although the association was weak [χ²(4) = 11.358, p = 0.023, Cramér's V = 0.133]. Cross-cultural interaction frequency was positively correlated with perceived importance of cross-cultural interaction for personal development (r_s = 0.285, p < 0.001).