Presenter: Yubo Hui
Title: Digital Connections: Experience of Cross-Cultural Friendship
Type of Presentation: Oral
Abstract: As a first-year international student navigating the transition to university life at UBC, I have personally experienced both the excitement and anxiety of building friendships across cultural boundaries through digital platforms. Drawing on Social Penetration Theory (Altman & Taylor, 1973) and recognizing the limitations of existing quantitative studies that prioritize organizational outcomes over individual lived experiences (Pop et al., 2020; Han & Balabanis, 2024), this proposed oral presentation addresses a critical gap: how do first-year international students describe their social media use when building cross-cultural friendships during their initial semester? My methodological blueprint involves conducting 45-minute interviews with 8 to 10 participants recruited through sampling for this purpose at the International Student Centre, progressing from broad experiences to concrete friendship-building attempts. I will analyze data through thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to explore how students utilize social media for initiating cross-cultural relationships and identify difficulties when digital behaviors diverge from local norms. I anticipate revealing narratives of loneliness, connection, and cultural negotiation that numerical data cannot capture, while acknowledging limitations including self-reporting bias and the small sample size. This presentation will narrate the methodological journey and anticipated insights of this proposed research.
Biography: As a first-year international student navigating the transition to university life at UBC, I have personally experienced both the excitement and anxiety of building friendships across cultural boundaries through digital platforms. Drawing on Social Penetration Theory (Altman & Taylor, 1973) and recognizing the limitations of existing quantitative studies that prioritize organizational outcomes over individual lived experiences (Pop et al., 2020; Han & Balabanis, 2024), this proposed oral presentation addresses a critical gap: how do first-year international students describe their social media use when building cross-cultural friendships during their initial semester? My methodological blueprint involves conducting 45-minute interviews with 8 to 10 participants recruited through sampling for this purpose at the International Student Centre, progressing from broad experiences to concrete friendship-building attempts. I will analyze data through thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to explore how students utilize social media for initiating cross-cultural relationships and identify difficulties when digital behaviors diverge from local norms. I anticipate revealing narratives of loneliness, connection, and cultural negotiation that numerical data cannot capture, while acknowledging limitations including self-reporting bias and the small sample size. This presentation will narrate the methodological journey and anticipated insights of this proposed research.
