Compulsive Instagram use: Roles of stickiness, gratifications, and mindfulness

Abstract

Accumulated reports have revealed the dark side of Social Networking Site (SNS) usages: compulsive use. How compulsive SNS use develops should receive more concern, so as to find a way to decrease its harmful effects. Based on uses & gratifications (U&G) theory and mindfulness, the present study aims to develop an integrated research model to investigate the enablers and inhibitors of compulsive Instagram use. Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach was employed to analyze data from 143 students in a northern Taiwan university who use Instagram as their preferred SNS to gratify their needs online in terms of self-documentation, entertainment, passing time, and self-expression. The findings conclude that: 1) users’ gratifications of self-documentation, entertainment, passing time, and self-expression are directly related to users’ stickiness toward Instagram; 2) stickiness is an important mediator in the process of forming compulsive Instagram use; 3) users’ trait of mindfulness can decrease their compulsive use; 4) users’ mindfulness can mitigate the effect of stickiness on compulsive Instagram use. This study, with U&G theory and mindfulness as its underpinning, thus, explains the formation of compulsive Instagram use and confirms the inhibiting effect of mindfulness on the compulsive use. It contributes to the understanding of two opposite forces, mindfulness and stickiness, acting on the compulsive use of SNSs, particularly for compulsive use of Instagram. Research and managerial implications - such as studying samples from adults and different populations, SNS operators fostering specific gratifications, and policy actions promoting mindfulness training - are articulated.