Interview Extract Codes

“Compared with my family, I communicate more with my friends. There is basically no difference in the way I communicate with them. At home, I mostly communicate face-to-face with my family members. Unless I’m not in a space, I will use WeChat or make a phone call. After I have WeChat, I don’t think the time of our face-to-face communication has changed.” Communication

Intimacy in communication

Face-to-face communication

Social media

Traditional communication

Relationships

Benefits of social media

“There are three groups about the family, my father, mother, and me, and some uncles and aunts. There is also a WeChat group with only me, my dad and my mom, this group does not have my brother, but only me and my parents. These groups are about the same level of activity, and sometimes what parents post is not interesting. I don’t know how to get involved. Or sometimes post some videos or moments, of course I don’t want to watch it.” Family communication

Group communication

Social media

Intimacy in communication

Traditional communication

Disconnect

Inauthentic communication

Relationships

Benefits of social media

“WeChat is very important to my life. It’s basically how I keep in touch with my family and friends back home. I use WeChat to contact almost everyone around me every day, including my Chinese friends in the UK. I may open WeChat dozens of times a day, and it is normal to get hundreds of messages. I must use WeChat every day, it has become my daily habit. I mainly use WeChat communicate with others, I used to read the official account articles, but now it may be less.”

Communication

Technology

Family communication

Relationships

Benefits of social media

“Online communication can’t control the other’s emotions and tone of speech in a timely manner, and you can’t feel the true mood of the other person. Through text, you may misunderstand the other person’s current mood or tone. Face-to-face communication can more intuitively feel the mood and tone of the other party’s words. When I communicate with my family, I think offline is more effective. Because I am more indifferent to my family online, and sometimes I find my family members very annoying, so I sometimes don’t even reply to their message. But online and offline I treat my friends the same.” Drawbacks of using social media

Disconnect

Face-to-face communication

Relationships

Traditional communication

Technology

Exhibit 1: Interview Extracts and Codes

Codes Theme

Traditional communication

Benefits of social media Traditional familial connections

Communication

Intimacy in communication

Face-to-face communication

Relationships

Family communication

Relationship building

Social media

Traditional communication

Group communication

Disconnect

Inauthentic communication

Technology

Drawbacks of using social media Inability to connect authentically

Exhibit 2: Codes and themes