Abstract
The public introduction of social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook and exponential growth of social media as a medium in the last twenty years has been unprecedented, revolutionizing interpersonal interactions between people, marketing communication and driving up internet growth rates. The ongoing changes in preferences, uses and gratifications of SNS need to be examined, especially by communication professionals seeking effective ways to reach digital audiences, concerning the motivations behind people’s use and fulfilment of their use, supported by the uses and gratification theory. As part of a study evaluating online interpersonal communication, 23 in-depth interviews were conducted to evaluate their experiences on how they keep in touch with their personal networks i.e., social circles. Participants reported how their primary motivation on which social media to use are reliant on who they seek to communicate with, and how the ongoing rise of new SNSs has fragmented their attention and interests, making them feel less connected in their relationships, leading to reduced content shared. Seemingly the fewer participants SNS users post the lower their sense of connectedness, and the higher the likelihood of SNS use diminishing. There is also an increased rise in the use of more private social media features such as messaging to maintain interpersonal relationships through those platforms. Understanding how to SNS users’ online behavior changes as they seek to maintain personal connections and privacy is critical to informing successful communication practice in light of growing budgetary investment in social media advertising in the marketing communication mix.
Author Information
Karabo Sitto-Kaunda, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Paper Information
Conference: MediAsia2024
Stream: Social Media and Communication Technology
This paper is part of the MediAsia2024 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Sitto-Kaunda K. (2024) Understanding the Role of Personal Motivations in Social Media Use and Choices for Interpersonal Communication ISSN: 2186-5906 – The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film 2024: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 73-84) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5906.2024.6
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5906.2024.6
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