IAHRW International Journal of Social Sciences Review

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

Theorizing Social Media Usage Behaviour


Affiliations
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram, India
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


The lack of an integrative theoretical framework pushed most of the research on social media into cyclical form. This paper reviewed theories like uses and gratifications theory, social skills hypothesis and social capital hypothesis, as these theories previously guided social media research. In addition, this paper examined theories such as IPACE model, supernormal stimuli, behavioural economics, social brain hypothesis and psychological persuasion, which can provide a new perspective in understanding social media behaviour. Finally, this paper discussed the impetus for empirical research to test the validity of these theories.

Keywords

Social Media, Uses and Gratifications, Supernormal Stimuli, Behavioural Economics.
User
Subscription Login to verify subscription
Notifications
Font Size

  • Appel, H., Gerlach, A. L., & Crusius, J. (2016). The interplay between Facebook use, social comparison, envy, and depression. Current Opinion in Psychology, 9, 44-49.

  • Barrett, D. (2010). Supernormal stimuli: How primal urges overran their evolutionary purpose. WW Norton and Company.

  • Błachnio, A., Przepiórka, A., & Pantic, I. (2015). Internet use, Facebook intrusion, and depression: Results of a cross-sectional study. European Psychiatry, 30(6), 681-684.

  • Brailovskaia, J., & Margraf, J. (2017). Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD) among German students: A longitudinal approach. PLoS One, 12(12), e0189719.

  • Brand, M., Wegmann, E., Stark, R., Müller, A., Wölfling, K., Robbins, T. W., & Potenza, M. N. (2019). The Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model for addictive behaviors: Update, generalization to addictive behaviors beyond internet-use disorders, and specification of the process character of addictive behaviors. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 104, 1-10.

  • Chen, G. M. (2014). Revisiting the social enhancement hypothesis: Extroversion indirectly predicts number of Facebook friends operating through Facebook usage. Computers in Human Behavior, 39, 263-269.

  • Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319-340.

  • Davis, F. D., Bagozzi, R. P., & Warshaw, P. R. (1989). User acceptance of computer technology: a comparison of two theoretical models. Management Science, 35(8), 982-1003.

  • Dunbar, R. I., Arnaboldi, V., Conti, M., & Passarella, A. (2015). The structure of online social networks mirrors those in the offline world. Social Networks, 43, 39-47.

  • Ellison, N. B., Vitak, J., Gray, R., & Lampe, C. (2014). Cultivating social resources on social network sites: Facebook relationship maintenance behaviors and their role in social capital processes. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(4), 855-870.

  • Haidt, J., & Stockwell, T.R. (2019). The dark psychology of social networks: why it feels like everything is going haywire. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/ma gazine/archive/2019/12/social-media-democracy/600763/.

  • Johnston, K., Tanner, M., Lalla, N., & Kawalski, D. (2013). Social capital: The benefit of Facebook 'friends'. Behaviour and Information Technology, 32(1), 24-36.

  • Kahneman, D., & Riis, J. (2005). Living, and thinking about it: Two perspectives on life. The science of Well-being, 1, 285-304.

  • Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M. (1973). Uses and gratifications research. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 37(4), 509-523.

  • Keep, M., Janssen, A., & Amon, K. (2019). Image sharing on social networking sites: Who, what, why, and so what? In A. S. Alison, F., Chris, K., Melanie, and J. K. Daria (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of cyberpsychology (pp. 349-369). Oxford University Press.

  • Leary, M. R. (2005). Sociometer theory and the pursuit of relational value: Getting to the root of self-esteem. European Review of Social Psychology, 16(1), 75-111.

  • Matz, S. C., Kosinski, M., Nave, G., & Stillwell, D. J. (2017). Psychological targeting as an effective approach to digital mass persuasion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(48), 12714-12719.

  • Mercier, H. (2017). How gullible are we? A review of the evidence from psychology and social science. Review of General Psychology, 21(2), 103-122.

  • Muthukrishna, M., & Henrich, J. (2019). A problem in theory. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(3), 221-229.

  • Orben, A. (2020). The Sisyphean cycle of technology panics. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(5), 1143-1157.

  • Rauniar, R., Rawski, G., Yang, J., & Johnson, B. (2014). Technology acceptance model (TAM) and social media usage: An empirical study on Facebook. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 27(1), 6-30.

  • Ryan, T., Chester, A., Reece, J., & Xenos, S. (2014). The uses and abuses of Facebook: A review of Facebook addiction. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 3(3), 133-148.

  • Sagioglou, C., & Greitemeyer, T. (2014). Facebook's emotional consequences: Why Facebook causes a decrease in mood and why people still use it. Computers in Human Behavior, 35, 359-363.

  • Satici, S. A., & Uysal, R. (2015). Well-being and problematic Facebook use. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 185-190.

  • Shaw, A. M., Timpano, K. R., Tran, T. B., & Joormann, J. (2015). Correlates of Facebook usage patterns: The relationship between passive Facebook use, social anxiety symptoms, and brooding. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 575-580.

  • Steinfield, C., Ellison, N. B., & Lampe, C. (2008). Social capital, self-esteem, and use of online social network sites: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29(6), 434-445.

  • Uysal, R., Satici, S. A., & Akin, A. (2013). Mediating effect of Facebook® addiction on the relationship between subjective vitality and subjective happiness. Psychological Reports, 113(3), 948-953.

  • Valkenburg, P. M., Schouten, A. P., & Peter, J. (2005). Adolescents' identity experiments on the Internet. New Media and Society, 7(3), 383-402.

  • Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2007). Online communication and adolescent well-being: Testing the stimulation versus the displacement hypothesis. Journal of Computer- Mediated Communication, 12(4), 1169-1182.

  • Ward, A. F. (2013). Supernormal: How the Internet is changing our memories and our minds. Psychological Inquiry, 24(4), 341-348.

  • Wilson, T. D., & Gilbert, D. T. (2003). Affective forecasting. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 35, pp. 345-411). Academic Press, USA.

  • Wilson, T. D., & Gilbert, D. T. (2005). Affective forecasting: Knowing what to want. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(3), 131-134.

  • Zywica, J., & Danowski, J. (2008). The faces of Facebookers: Investigating social enhancement and social compensation hypotheses; predicting Facebook™ and offline popularity from sociability and self-esteem, and mapping the meanings of popularity with semantic networks. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14(1), 1-34.


Abstract Views: 164

PDF Views: 0




  • Theorizing Social Media Usage Behaviour

Abstract Views: 164  |  PDF Views: 0

Authors

Thipparapu Rajesh
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Mizoram University, Aizawl, Mizoram, India

Abstract


The lack of an integrative theoretical framework pushed most of the research on social media into cyclical form. This paper reviewed theories like uses and gratifications theory, social skills hypothesis and social capital hypothesis, as these theories previously guided social media research. In addition, this paper examined theories such as IPACE model, supernormal stimuli, behavioural economics, social brain hypothesis and psychological persuasion, which can provide a new perspective in understanding social media behaviour. Finally, this paper discussed the impetus for empirical research to test the validity of these theories.

Keywords


Social Media, Uses and Gratifications, Supernormal Stimuli, Behavioural Economics.

References