Facebook versus Instagram: How perceived gratifications and technological attributes are related to the change in social media usage

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to explore which factors of users’ perceived gratifications and technology attributes are associated with changes in the usage level of Facebook and Instagram during the past three months. We identified common gratifications (social interaction, entertainment, passing time, browsing, need for recognition) as well as technology attributes (visual element, recommendation algorithm, privacy setting, openness, simultaneousness) of Facebook and Instagram and surveyed respondents who have both Facebook and Instagram accounts (n = 613). Respondents who were more gratified with entertainment and need for recognition aspects and those who have positive attitudes toward Facebook’s recommendation algorithm features were more likely to report that they have increased use of the platform during the past three months. Meanwhile, respondents who were gratified with the browsing aspect of gratifications and those who have positive attitudes toward levels of openness on Instagram tended to report that they have increasingly used the platform during the past three months.

Keywords:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Uses and gratification (U&G)
• Technology attributes

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Dongguk University Research Fund of 2017.

Notes

1 Common gratifications are captured based on 14 communication studies from the Scout data base (e.g., Lee et al., 2015; Malik et al., 2016; Quan-Haase & Young, 2010; Smock et al., 2011) as well as data from the Pew Research Center. Technological attributes are classified based on existing social media research from Scout (e.g., Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Chen et al., 2009; Oremus, 2016) and existing actual services/functions currently offered in Facebook and Instagram.

2 Different features of the two platforms are that Facebook offers games, the ability to create photo albums, news feeds, messenger, etc. Instagram provides location-based service and shows trending images, etc. Common technological features of the two platforms include the ability to edit one’s profile, seeking friends (or other users), like/comment/share, adding photo/videos, tagging, privacy setting, browsing contents, sharing contents, and a recommendation algorithm. We identified five types of technology attributes of Facebook and Instagram based on the isomorphic attributes.

3 Gender (male = 43.6%, female = 56.4%), Age (M = 32.73, SD = 9.78), Ethnicity (recoded into 1 = White, 25.7%, and 2 = other races, 74.3%), Educational background (M = 4.26, SD = 1.291 as 1 = less than high school degree through 6 = doctorate degree), and Household income (M = 4.98, SD = 2.14 as 1 = less than $10,000, 2 = $10,000 through 9 = $150,000 or more).

4 This study also assessed correlations between demographic characteristics and time spent on Facebook and Instagram. Significant correlations are described as follows: (a) older people are negatively correlated with time spent on Instagram (r = −.18, p < .01); (b) women who have Facebook and Instagram are more positively correlated with time spent on Facebook (r = .13, p < .01 for Facebook; r = .08, p < .05 for Instagram); and (c) White groups are positively related to time spent on Instagram (r = .12, p < .01).

5 Before running the regression models, we assessed time spent and frequency of Facebook and Instagram usage. Results showed the usage-level change between Facebook and Instagram has a similar pattern: 33.0% of people responded that they have decreased their time for Facebook usage, while 16.2% of respondents said that they have increased time for the platform, and 30.9% of respondents have less frequently visited Facebook, whereas 18.4% have increased visiting frequency. By comparison, 33.7% of respondents have decreased their time and their visiting frequency for Instagram usage. In the meantime, 21.3% have increased their time of Instagram usage, and 21.4% have increased their visiting frequency for Instagram usage during the past 3 months.