Pictures speak louder than words: motivations for using Instagram
Abstract
While Instagram, the rising photo-sharing social networking service, has received increasing attention from scholars and practitioners, little is known about the social and psychological factors that lead consumers to become fanatics of this app. To provide a baseline understanding of Instagram users, the current study aims to uncover the structural dimensions of consumers' motives for using Instagram and to explore the relationships between identified motivations and key attitudinal and behavioral intention variables. A comprehensive survey was developed in which a total of 212 Instagram users evaluated their motivation, primary activities, use intention, and attitude regarding Instagram. The results suggest that Instagram users have five primary social and psychological motives: social interaction, archiving, self-expression, escapism, and peeking. The implications of this study's findings are discussed.
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Instagram can be used for self-expression and social interaction.
“Instagram can be used for self-expression and social interaction (Lee et al. 2015)”
The motivations statements were adopted from L. Eunji and Jung-ah [28].
“The motivations statement were adopted from L. Eunji and Jung-ah [28].”
From Watch, Share or Create: The Influence of Personality Traits and User Motivation on TikTok Mobile Video Usage (2020) · cites this paper as [28]
The link between social media use and well-being may be moderated by an individual's personality characteristics or goals.
“Instead, emerging perspectives suggest that the link between social media use and well-being may be moderated by an individual's personality characteristics or goals (Lee et al., 2015; Rae and Lonborg, 2015; Sheldon and Bryant, 2016; Sheldon et al., 2021; Tobin et al., 2020; see Orben, 2020).”
From Social media use and systemic inflammation: The moderating role of self-esteem (2021) · cites this paper as Lee et al., 2015
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- Authors
- Lee, E., Lee, J.-A., Moon, J. H., & Sung, Y.
- Affiliations
- Korea University (KR)
- Sookmyung Women's University (KR)
- Corresponding author
- Moon, Jang Ho
- Venue
- Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2015-09-01
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 552-556
- ISSN
- 2152-2715 (ISSN-L)
- 2152-2723
- OpenAlex
- W2152176249
- Cited by
- 589
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 60 · 2023: 67 · 2022: 97 · 2021: 100 · 2020: 85 · 2019: 63 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 11
- FWCI
- 67.44
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Technology Adoption and User Behaviour
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Keywords
- Instagram, motivations for social media use, social interaction, self-expression, escapism, archiving, intention to use, user attitudes, consumer behavior
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attitude, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Korea, Male, Motivation, Photography, Intention, Young Adult, Social Networking, Social Media
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