Pictures Speak Louder than Words: Motivations for Using Instagram

Eunji Lee, Jung Ah Lee, Jang Ho Moon, Yongjun Sung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

293 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

While Instagram, the rising photo-sharing social networking service, has received increasing attention from scholars and practitioners, little is known about the social and psychological factors that lead consumers to become fanatics of this app. To provide a baseline understanding of Instagram users, the current study aims to uncover the structural dimensions of consumers' motives for using Instagram and to explore the relationships between identified motivations and key attitudinal and behavioral intention variables. A comprehensive survey was developed in which a total of 212 Instagram users evaluated their motivation, primary activities, use intention, and attitude regarding Instagram. The results suggest that Instagram users have five primary social and psychological motives: social interaction, archiving, self-expression, escapism, and peeking. The implications of this study's findings are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)552-556
Number of pages5
JournalCyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
Volume18
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015 Sept 1

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Communication
  • Applied Psychology
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Science Applications

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Pictures Speak Louder than Words: Motivations for Using Instagram'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this