Restricted use of social media: A temporal view of overload change and the contingency of prominence

Abstract

This research is based on the stimulus-organism-response framework and adopts a temporal perspective to examine a relatively overlooked social media behavior, namely, restricted use. We specifically investigate how changes in social overload and information overload over time act as stimuli, resulting in dissatisfaction as a negative personal state, which in turn leads to the restricted use of social media. We employ a mixed-methods approach to examine this phenomenon. First, we conduct a quantitative study using a three-wave survey of 664 domestic Chinese social media users. Both social overload change and information overload change contribute to user dissatisfaction, consequently influencing restricted use behavior. Moreover, prominence negatively moderates the relationship between social overload change and dissatisfaction but does not affect the relationship between information overload change and dissatisfaction. Second, we triangulate these findings through in-depth interviews with 26 experienced social media users. The qualitative inputs from Study 2 help explain both the supported and unsupported hypotheses in Study 1. Our study offers new insights into the dynamic processes underlying restricted usage behavior within the context of social media.