Social Network Sites: Antecedents of User Adoption and Usage

The use of social networking websites has become a current international phenomenon. Popular websites include MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster. Their rapid widespread use warrants a better understanding. However, there has been little empirical research studying the factors that determine the use of this hedonic computer-mediated communication technology This study contributes to our understanding of the antecedents that influence adoption and use of social networking websites by examining the effect of the perceptions of playfulness, critical mass, trust, and normative pressure on the use of social networking sites.. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the patterns of inter-correlations among the constructs and to empirically test the hypotheses. Each of the antecedents has a significant direct effect on intent to use social networking websites, with playfulness and critical mass the strongest indicators. Intent to use and playfulness had a significant direct effect on actual usage.