A qualitative study exploring behaviours which underpin different types of social media use

LINDA KAYE, Isabel Egan, Brian Rowe, Jasmyn Taylor

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (journal)peer-review

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Abstract

Despite the popularity of social media, we have little understanding of how “social” these platforms actually are. “Social media use” is often considered in generic terms or dichotomised into active or passive use. However, this does not explain the specific behaviours users engage in. We explored this in respect of different social media platforms; namely Instagram and Facebook. The overall sample of nine participants included four males and five females between the ages of 18 and 36. Participants took part in semi-structured interviews to describe their behaviours when using either Instagram (n = 4). or Facebook (n = 5). From reflexive thematic analysis, the first theme was “Determinants of using social media”, with two sub-themes. This main theme describes factors which generally motivate people to use the respective social media platform. However, the second theme was “Determinants of behaviours” with seven sub-themes, which relate more specifically to particular actions or behaviours which specific platforms afford users to be able to do. There were clear distinctions between what might constitute social media “use” (first theme) and social media “behaviours” (second theme). Our findings suggest that concepts of “active” and “passive” use are not sufficient to capture the complexities of underpinning behaviours or sensitive to the within-person and between-context variations which explain behaviours underpinning social media use.
Original languageEnglish
JournalPsychology of Popular Media
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 23 Feb 2024

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