Antecedents and effects of social network fatigue

Abstract

Guided by literature on “fatigue” from within the domains of clinical and occupational studies, the present article seeks to define the phenomenon termed social network fatigue in the context of one of the popular uses of social networks, namely, to stay socially connected. This is achieved through an identification of the antecedents and effects of experiences that contribute to negative emotions or to a reduction in interest in using social networks with the help of a mixed‐methods study. Five generic antecedents and varying effects of these antecedents on individual user activities have been identified. Fatigue experiences could result from social dynamics or social interactions of the members of the community, content made available on social networks, unwanted changes to the platform that hosts the network, self‐detected immersive tendencies of the users themselves, or a natural maturing of the life cycle of the community to which the user belongs. The intensity of the fatigue experience varies along a continuum ranging from a mild or transient experience to a more severe experience, which may eventually result in the user's decision to quit the environment that causes stress. Thus, users were found to take short rest breaks from the environment, moderate their activities downward, or suspend their social network activities altogether as a result of fatigue experiences.