Get Tired of Socializing as Social Animal? An Empirical Explanation on Discontinuous Usage Behavior in Social Network Services

This research aims to explain users’ discontinuous usage behavior in social network context. With system features increasing, information flooding and personal network expanding of SNSs, users begin to emerge social network fatigue, and ultimately express discontinuous usage intention. To explain this phenomenon, we develop a research model based on a cognition-affection-conation framework. This study examines the role of perceived overload (in terms of system feature overload, information overload and social overload) in influencing users’ negative affections of SNSs including social network fatigue and dissatisfaction, and the effects of such emotions on users’ discontinuous intention, which are validated through an empirical study. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of the relationship among perceived overload, social network fatigue and users’ discontinuous usage behavior, and give some implications to SNSs providers to improve this situation.