Interacción social de universitarios colombianos y españoles en medios sociales y perfiles predominantes

Abstract

University students interact and communicate using social media (SM) and developonline activities that define their profiles as users. This research investigates the uses of SM madeby Colombian and Spanish students (N=501) to interact socially, while identifying their profilesassociated with the activities they perform. A quantitative methodology of a descriptive nature isadopted, with a subsequent analysis of variance confirming the existence of statisticallysignificant differences depending on the variables gender, age and nationality. The results showthat university students stand out above their peers by having a greater presence, social activityand involvement in the SM, frequently perform tasks of updating their status, publishingmessages, comments, videos or photographs, sending messages, visiting and valuing otherpeople's accounts. This helps to outline profiles as creators and critics, and on the contrary, theirpeers adopt collector and viewer profiles. Heterogeneous profiles associated with age related tothe interests of university students are observed. By nationality, there are differences in thewidespread use of certain SM and in user profiles. Spaniards stand out for being creators andspectators, and Colombians prioritize creative and critical profiles. The SM establish their ownformulas of expression, so university students should choose those that best fit their objectives