Social Media Use and Daily Well-Being: The Role of Quantity and Quality of Social Support.

There have been mixed findings on whether social media use is positively or negatively related to well-being. Using the Midlife in the United States Refresher study (N = 782, age 25-75), multilevel structural equation modeling examined social support quantity (time giving and receiving) and quality of as mediators at both the within- (intraindividual) and between-person (interindividual) levels. Giving support significantly mediated at within- and between-person levels: more social media use was associated with more time giving support and worse well-being. Receiving support significantly mediated at the between-person level: more social media use was associated with more time receiving support and worse well-being. When examining social support quality as a mediator, findings showed that more social media use to contact family/friends was related to better social support quality and better well-being. Results added to our understanding of the relationship between social media use and well-being by considering the role of social support quantity/quality.

A Social Exergame Intervention to Promote Physical Activity, Social Support, and Well-Being in Family Caregivers.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Family caregivers often experience a high level of stress, social isolation, a sedentary lifestyle, and poor mental and physical health. An exergame intervention was developed to promote physical activity and well-being in family caregivers and to test social support as a mechanism for behavior change. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: The current study was a randomized pilot trial (N = 76) to compare the effectiveness of Go&Grow (social vs nonsocial exergame) to promote well-being through increased social support and physical activity for family caregivers over a 6-week intervention. RESULTS: The treatment group increased significantly more than the control group in well-being (management of distress) and social support (satisfaction with contact quality). Social support served as a mechanism (mediator and moderator): The treatment group increased more than the control group in satisfaction with social contact quality, which led to more positive affect and less loneliness. Moreover, those in the treatment group who increased more in overall social support and knowing others' experiences increased their steps more than those with less support, whereas the change in steps for the control group was not related to a support level. Those in the treatment group who used more social features of the app had a greater increase in steps compared with those who used it less. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Social support in technology interventions is a promising direction to promote caregivers' well-being and physical activity. Social support served as a mechanism of behavior change that can inform more engaging, sustainable, portable, and scalable interventions in the future for sedentary and socially isolated family caregivers.Clinical Trial Registration Number: NCT05032872.

Diversity of network communication mode and interpersonal interactions: Relationship with social support and well-being.

Social interactions today expand beyond in-person interactions. Therefore, it is important to recognize that social interactions can occur with social network members across multiple communication modes (in-person, phone, and online). The current study explored the role that social support plays in the relationship between mode frequency (in-person, phone, and online), network communication mode diversity (breadth and evenness of communicating with network members via different communication modes), and well-being (positive affect, stress, and loneliness) from the 3-year UCNET (UC Berkley Social Networks Study, N = 1159) dataset. The study contained samples for two age groups (cohorts) - 21-31 year-olds and 50-70 year-olds, which also allowed for an exploration of age differences in these relationships. Longitudinal random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM) showed a high degree of stability over the 3 years for all variables. Cross-sectional structural equation mediation models showed that social support mediated the relationships of mode frequency (in-person, phone, and online) and network communication mode diversity with well-being (more positive affect and less loneliness and stress). Age differences were found in the relationship between frequency of communication modes and social support, in that the frequency of communication mode was positively related to social support for younger adults, but not for middle-aged/older adults. Current findings provided future research directions geared toward further understanding of the mode frequency and network communication mode diversity constructs and how they relate to various psychosocial outcomes.

Daily Stress and Affect Across Adulthood: The Role of Social Interactions via Different Communication Modes.

Communication with one's social network can take place in-person or using technology. Past studies have mainly focused on the effects of communication modality (in-person, telephone calling, text messaging, and internet) on stress and affect at a between-person level by exploring the individual differences. Yet few studies have compared such effects at a within-person level, that is, how an individual varies over time. We conducted a diary study over seven days for 145 participants (ages 22 to 94) mostly from the greater Boston area to test the role each communication mode played in daily stress exposure, stress reactivity, and positive and negative affect using within-person analyses. Multilevel modeling results revealed that days with more frequent text messaging were associated with greater stress exposure and negative affect. Days with more in-person communication were associated with more positive affect. Days with more telephone calls were associated with less negative affect. Internet communication was not associated with stress or affect at a within-person level. To address the directionality of our findings, we also conducted lagged analyses that suggested higher previous day frequency of text messaging was related to higher stress exposure on the subsequent day. In addition, higher previous stress exposure was related to less telephone calling on the subsequent day. Implications and future research are discussed with a focus on how social interactions via different communication modes with one's social network can make a difference for daily well-being.

Go&Grow: An Evaluation of a Pervasive Social Exergame for Caregivers of Loved Ones with Dementia.

Caregivers of persons with dementia (PWD) experience higher rates of stress, social isolation, and poor mental and physical health compared to non-caregiving populations. There is a vital need for engaging, sustainable, and scalable resources to support social, physical, and emotional wellbeing amongst caregivers of PWD. To explore this open design space, we designed and conducted a 6-week mixed-method evaluation of Go&Grow, a pervasive social exergame in which flowers grow as users increase physical activity and interact with other caregivers of PWD. Our findings showed that using Go&Grow helped participants relieve stress, increase physical activity, and develop empathy for and patience towards the loved one with dementia that they cared for. At the same time, tension arose as some caregivers desired to learn about the life challenges that Go&Grow users faced, while others hesitated to share such content. We discuss our findings and recommendations for future technology that promotes caregivers' time for themselves, understanding of PWD, and connections with other caregivers.

64 Gb/s PAM4 VCSEL-based FSO link.

A 64 Gb/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL)-based free-space optical (FSO) link with an external light injection scheme is proposed and successfully demonstrated. Experimental results show that the 11.2 GHz VCSEL with an external light injection scheme is sufficiently powerful for 64 Gb/s PAM4 FSO links. This study is the first one that adopts a 1550-nm VCSEL transmitter with an external light injection scheme in a 64 Gb/s PAM4 FSO link. The link performances of the proposed PAM4 VCSEL-based FSO links have been analyzed in real-time in terms of eye diagrams and offline processed by Matlab in terms of bit error rate (BER) performances. Good BER performance and clear eye diagrams are acquired over a 100-m free-space link. Such a proposed 64 Gb/s PAM4 VCSEL-based FSO link with an external light injection scheme is a promising one for providing high transmission rate and long transmission distance.

45 Gb/s PAM4 transmission based on VCSEL with light injection and optoelectronic feedback techniques.

A 45 Gb/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) transmission based on an 850 nm/7.4 GHz vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) with light injection and optoelectronic feedback techniques is proposed. Experimental results show that such an 850 nm/7.4 GHz VCSEL with light injection and optoelectronic feedback techniques is powerful enough for a 45 Gb/s PAM4 signal transmission. To the best of our knowledge, this Letter is the first to adopt a VCSEL transmitter with light injection and optoelectronic feedback techniques in a 45 Gb/s PAM4 transmission system. Good bit error rate performance and three independent clear eye diagrams are achieved over a 200-m OM4 multimode fiber transport. This proposed 45 Gb/s PAM4 VCSEL-based transmission system has great potential for providing effective bandwidth in short-reach optical data communications.

Bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-IVLLC integrated system based on polarization-orthogonal modulation scheme.

A bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-invisible laser light communication (IVLLC) integrated system that employs polarization-orthogonal modulation scheme for hybrid cable television (CATV)/microwave (MW)/millimeter-wave (MMW)/baseband (BB) signal transmission is proposed and demonstrated. To our knowledge, it is the first one that adopts a polarization-orthogonal modulation scheme in a bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-IVLLC integrated system with hybrid CATV/MW/MMW/BB signal. For downlink transmission, carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR), composite second-order (CSO), composite triple-beat (CTB), and bit error rate (BER) perform well over 40-km single-mode fiber (SMF) and 10-m RF/50-m optical wireless transport scenarios. For uplink transmission, good BER performance is obtained over 40-km SMF and 50-m optical wireless transport scenario. Such a bidirectional fiber-wireless and fiber-IVLLC integrated system for hybrid CATV/MW/MMW/BB signal transmission will be an attractive alternative for providing broadband integrated services, including CATV, Internet, and telecommunication services. It is shown to be a prominent one to present the advancements for the convergence of fiber backbone and RF/optical wireless feeder.