A Study Of Trust Relationship In The Online Social Networks Of Post-90College Students

Trust is a timeless topic. Trust issues have existed in a variety of human relationships since the human society appeared, and its forms have been changing with the development of social history. In different eras and under different historical conditions, there have always been many different forms of trust due to the different scopes, scales and natures of social interaction. Trust online is a new form of trust which appears along with the advent of the network society, and it belongs to the same trust category with the issue of trust in real society.Trust online is not only one of the specific social issues in the network society, but also an important factor to maintain lasting, stable interpersonal relationships online. Trust online is like air which can’t be seen or touched, but it is a necessity of Being Digital, which is as important as water and air to life. However, trust online is a fragile luxury, not easy to get, but easy to damage. In view of this, this study chooses interpersonal trust in the network context as the research topic, takes post-90college students for example to discuss the trust in the interpersonal relationships online, and explores the value orientation of the social life of the young generation growing up in digital environment. It contains three central issues-the elements, the constructing process and the influential factors of trust online. Accordingly, this paper is specifically divided into the following sections.Firstly, at the beginning of the study, it describes the research status at home and abroad of trust online, and reflects on the deficiencies in the current domestic research and the breakthrough in the future. With respect to the centuries of traditional trust research, trust online is a new research field, few scholars have got involved, and there have been few mature studies worth learning. However, trust online is similar to trust in reality, so part of the existing trust theory is still applicable to the network scenario, and can be used as references for this study. Learning from history, we can understand and consider the issue of trust online more deeply and systematically. Therefore, according to the defined scope of trust issues, this study first briefly describes the classic trust research in the field of sociology and psychology before summarizing the existing domestic and international research status of trust online. Clarifying the established research will help us to understand the issues of trust online, and to analyze the related problems of trust online.Secondly, it constructs a web-based trust model on the basis of Schultz’s "situational trust framework model", and details the four elements of the trust model-"who to trust","what to trust","where to trust", and "why to trust"."Who to trust" analyzes the subject of the trust online relationship;"What to trust" refers to the types and dimensions of trust online;"Where to trust" involves the occurring situations of trust online--the object of the trust online relationship;"Why to trust" discusses the main reasons of creating trust online. Both the trustors and the trustees of trust online are the virtual characters created by the purposeful actors. Therefore, the establishment of the trust online relationship is certainly not a hot-headed, impulsive result, but is a careful choice and decision made by the subjects in the network scenarios. Meanwhile, different subjects create different types and different dimensions of trust online.Thirdly, it explores the construction process of trust online on the basis of the interviews. It finds that trust online is not a priori existence of interaction between individuals in the network, but is the product of social interaction during a certain stage. In the construction process of trust online, the interdependence between actors and the attendant risks are the prerequisites of constructing trust online, while the acquaintanceship during the interaction is the basis of constructing trust online. Trust online goes through several processes as following:the establishing stage, the maintaining and deepening stage, the broken stage and so on. and some even can develop into real trust. The construction of trust online is the result of actors’multiple games, and it involves the recognition and judgment of the two sides in this process. The turning point of each stage varies from person to person due to individual differences. Meanwhile. in different stages of network interaction, the dimensions and the degrees of trust online accordingly exhibit certain differences.Finally, on the basis of empirical investigation about "the construction process of trust online" and around "the elements of trust online", it focuses on exploring the effects of three factors (including the individuals, the circumstances and the media) in the construction of trust online from the theoretical level. It attempts to apply the sociologist Goffman’s "self-presentation theory" to discuss how the virtual characters of trustors and trustees impact on the construction of trust online. Meanwhile, it tries to analyze the effects of the real social factors and the network situational factors on trust online from the perspective of the theories of sociology, psychology and other disciplines, and explores the effects of different properties of the communicative media. In the above discussion, it does not discuss the effects of all factors, but analyzes the roles of specific factors.At the end of this paper, it summarizes the research conclusions, and points out the innovation of the study, the inadequacy of the research and the research directions in the future.