Mobile SNS Addiction and User Continuance: An Empirical Investigation of WeChat

Abstract

Mobile social networking sites (SNS) have become one of the most popular means of online social interactions. However, that excessive and uncontrolled SNS use may have negative consequences. Recent statistics show that use of mobile SNS can be addictive for some individuals, which can lead to some significant behavioural or psychological problems. This study has extended the dual-process continuance model by examining the impact of users' levels of addiction as important factors that influence their continuance intention to use WeChat, as one of the most popular mobile SNS in China. Structural equation modelling was used to validate the proposed models and assumptions. Based on survey data from 495 valid responses of WeChat users, we found that the level of mobile SNS addiction augments users' perceptions of perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, trusting beliefs and habit, whereas it has no impact on users' satisfaction and loyalty. It can serve as a platform for future research on technology addiction, and for better understanding of addiction-driven system overuse behaviours and their effects on users. The results suggest that the increase in usage time and frequency of use does not necessarily mean higher satisfaction and loyalty to the mobile SNS, perhaps certain addictive symptoms occurring.

Exploring the determinants of students’ academic performance at university level: The mediating role of internet usage continuance intention

“…Literature directed towards understanding the continuance use of technology is growing (Authors et al 2016) (Pai et al 2018) (Bölen 2020). However, the Internet is rich cases for studying as they have high levels of interactions between users and would help researchers explore the different factors that affect continuance intention to use technology (Gao et al 2014) (Fang and Liu 2019). Consequently, it is necessary to do exploratory research to identify and measure factors affecting continuance intention to use Internet sites.…”