Information overload and the intention to reduce SNS usage: the mediating roles of negative social comparison and fatigu
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Information overload and the intention to reduce SNS usage: the mediating roles of negative social comparison and fatigue Gengfeng Niu 1,2,3,4 & Liangshuang Yao 1,2 & Yuan Tian 1,2,3 & Xiaojun Sun 1,2,3 & Zongkui Zhou 1,2,3
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Based on the development trend of SNSs (social networking sites) and individuals’ specific experiences on SNSs, the current study aimed to investigate the association between information overload and the intention to reduce SNS usage, as well as the mediating roles of negative social comparison and SNS fatigue in this relationship. A sample of 986 undergraduate students who had an active WeChat Moments (the most popular SNS in China) account was recruited to participate in this research. The results indicated the followings: (1) There was a significantly positive association between each two variables among information overload, negative social comparison, SNS fatigue and the intention to reduce SNS usage. (2) After controlling for gender and age, information overload was positively associated with the intention to reduce SNS usage through the mediating roles of negative social comparison and SNS fatigue, and this association contained three mediating paths – the independent mediation effects of negative social comparison and SNS fatigue and the sequential mediation effect of negative social comparison and SNS fatigue. These results not only expand relevant research but also provide practical implications for the reasonable use and sustainable development of SNS. Keywords Social networking site (SNS) . Information overload . Negative social comparison . SNS fatigue . Intention to reduce SNS usage
Introduction With the rapid development of information technology, the increasing growth and popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) has been a hot spot worldwide. According to relevant statistical results, the number of Facebook (the most popular SNS in the world) users has reached 2 billion (Facebook 2018); in China, the number of WeChat Moments and
* Xiaojun Sun [email protected] * Zongkui Zhou [email protected] 1
School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
2
Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior (CCNU), Ministry of Education, Wuhan 430079, China
3
Central China Normal University Branch, Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment toward Basic Education Quality, Wuhan 430079, China
4
Institute of Social Psychology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Qzone (the most popular SNSs in China) users accounts for 87.3% and 64.4% of Chinese internet users (829 million), respectively (China Internet Network Information Center 2018). However, the development of SNS has encountered unprecedented challenges recently: All these SNSs face a significant decline in the number of active users (Delegge and Wangler 2017; Zhang et al. 2016). Although SNS service providers have been working hard to improve user experience and provide new functions,
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