Investigating microblogging addiction tendency through the lens of uses and gratifications theory

Purpose Considering the popularity and addictive attributes of microblogging, this paper aims to explore the key drivers of the microblogging addiction tendency, and to investigate the causal relationship between microblogging usage and addiction tendency through the lens of the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory. Design/methodology/approach By extending Uses and Gratifications (U&G) theory to accommodate the negative consequences of gratification, a research model that explains the relationships among microblogging use, gratification, and addiction tendency was developed and empirically examined based on the data collected from 520 microblogging users in China. Findings The results showed that different types of microblogging use lead to different categories of gratification to different extents, while different categories of gratification play different roles in determining the level of addiction tendency. Specifically, the effect of content gratification on addiction is marginal, while social gratifi...