Article
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The Dynamics of Online Activities and Its Impact on Well-Being in Urban China
Version 1
: Received: 24 May 2018 / Approved: 25 May 2018 / Online: 25 May 2018 (10:25:29 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Huang, Y. The Dynamics of Online Activities and Its Impact on Well-Being in Urban China. Soc. Sci. 2018, 7, 101. Huang, Y. The Dynamics of Online Activities and Its Impact on Well-Being in Urban China. Soc. Sci. 2018, 7, 101.
Abstract
Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, this study examines the socioeconomic characteristics of Internet users, as well as the relationships between the dynamics of different forms of online activities and the subjective well-being of urbanites and rural migrants in urban China. The study finds that online behaviour may clearly reflect differences in individuals’ personal traits and socioeconomic positions. Patterns of the association between online activities and subjective well-being tend to differ among rural migrants and urbanites, especially in terms of depression. A difference-in-differences model is employed to estimate the impact of intensified engagement in online activities on depression and life satisfaction from 2010 to 2016. The results show that increased frequency of online entertainment exhibits a comparatively positive effect on depression and life satisfaction. Spending more time on online social networking has a similar impact on rural migrants, but not on urbanites. These findings suggest that the rapid development of urban China’s online community has important implications for residents’ subjective well-being.
Keywords
China; Internet; well-being; hukou; migrant
Subject
Social Sciences, Sociology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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