5. Discussion and Conclusion
5.1. The Typology of Motivations for Instagram Stories Use
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CHAPTER 5
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Considering that Instagram Stories are used by 500 million users every day (Instagram, 2020) and the lack of understanding into the psychological mechanisms behind such growing phenomenon, this research builds on the U&G theory to first understand specific motivations for users to engage with the fastest growing feature of Instagram, and then examines the associations among engagement, emotions, and social media dependency with a specific focus on Millennials in the U.S., because the U.S. headed the ranking of the countries with the most Instagram users, especially popular among young adults (Statista, 2019d). This research is significant in that, it contributes to the U&G literature by developing a typology of motivations underlying Instagram Stories use. This research also applies the engagement framework from the literature (Muntinga et al., 2011) to examine engagement with Instagram Stories and demonstrates psychological effects of such usage.
5.1. The Typology of Motivations for Instagram Stories Use
Eight motivations for Instagram Stories use were obtained in this research:
exploration, recognition-seeking, perceived functionality, entertainment, social sharing, interaction, novelty, and surveillance. The results suggest that users of Instagram Stories not only share several key motivational dimensions with other SNS users (Whiting & Williams, 2013), but also have motivations that are unique to this feature.
Of the eight motives, exploration was the strongest motive driving Instagram Stories use, which illustrated and confirmed that many users use Instagram Stories to explore, acquire knowledge and keep up with current trends to learn new things. This motive is associated with the “virtual exploration” motivation identified by Mull and Lee (2014) in that, users are motivated to explore image-based SNSs to search for interesting images and ideas. Similarly, in this study, participants were found to use Instagram Stories to interact with brands, to browse and buy products/services, to get free and exclusive information in real time, to keep up with current trends, and to learn about new things. Due to the nature of Instagram Stories and its features, users
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are allowed to get quick updates easily and exclusively on Instagram Stories by following different types of accounts, such as brands and influencers/celebrities. For instance, brands use Instagram Stories to showcase the latest products/services or tutorials without the full description. Users can also get a sneak peek of certain products/services and to swipe up to be redirected to brands’ websites or landing pages for more detailed information.
The recognition-seeking motive suggested that participants used Instagram Stories for self-promotion and popularity obtainment, which is similar to the
“coolness/popularity” motivation proposed by Sheldon and Bryant (2016) that people are interested in using cool features and being on a platform that is popular among peers. Likewise, Instagram Stories users tend to use Instagram Stories to create their own portfolios to promote themselves, show off, and become popular. For example, Instagram Stories users are likely to post content of “self-experiences” to showcase their tastes or lifestyles to be seen and valued (Greenwood, 2013) and they may feel appreciated and respected accordingly. While Instagram users can gain a substantial amount of “like” on their posts, they can gain a substantial amount of “viewing numbers” or “emoji reactions” on their Stories, which indicate and validate their popularity and can positively affect their self-worthiness and self-identity.
The perceived functionality motive indicated that users of Instagram Stories considered the feature easy to comprehend, simple to navigate, convenient, casual, and real, integrating usability and functionality (Korhan & Ersoy, 2016). While posts on Instagram tend to be unrealistically edited and create feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem (Macmillan, 2017), Instagram Stories are relatively unedited or authentic (Facebook, 2018), since the embedded camera within Instagram Stories allows the content to be shot casually, easily and quickly (Wagner, 2018). Therefore, such perceived functionality may encourage users to share the content spontaneously without time-consuming editing and help reduce their feelings of deficiency and inferiority.
The entertainment motivation showed that participants used Instagram Stories for fun, enjoyment, pastime, and they expect to gain entertaining experiences on Instagram Stories. According to a study from Facebook, 55% of Instagram users in the U.S. use Instagram Stories to see playful or funny content (Facebook, 2018). As Instagram constantly introduces new features on Stories, users are enabled to use
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various filters or stickers to entertain themselves. For example, Instagram Stories utilized AR technique and introduced a variety of prediction filters, such as “which Disney character are you?” or “In 2020 I will be.” The filters randomly select a Disney character or an adjective to describe what users will be like this year, and display the outcome above users’ head. Besides, users become more interested in entertaining Instagram Stories than static photos (Lorenz, 2019).
The social sharing motive manifested that participants used Instagram Stories to express and share information, to record what happens in daily life, to see what others share and receive others’ responses, and to feel a sense of belonging. As visual communication facilitates self-expression (Waddell, 2016), users may use Instagram Stories to share their feelings; hence, Instagram Stories may be used as an outlet of users’ emotional release. Besides, Instagram Stories users, by expressing themselves or sharing information they think is interesting, can receive responses (e.g., replies or direct messages) from others and in turn gain social support, which may make them feel they belong to the community and enhance their self-affirmation. Also, instead of considering the colors, the organizations, and the original aesthetics of Instagram, users nowadays tend to think less when sharing Instagram Stories (Lorenz, 2019), which may be one of the factors that facilitate the sharing behaviors on Instagram Stories.
Another motive, interaction, indicates that participants used Instagram Stories to interact with others (i.e., user-to-user/direct interaction) for social connection and relationship maintenance, or with the content (i.e., user-to-content/indirect interaction) when they rate, save, share the content or leave comments (Shao, 2009). Instagram Stories allows its users to reply to others’ Stories and provide a variety of interactive features, such as question stickers, to facilitate social interaction. For instance, similar to question stickers, Instagram Stories has been swept by “Ask me my top 3” recently.
Through “Ask me my top 3,” users can post their answers to their followers’ questions in a template with the ranking of top three answers. Plus, Instagram Stories is
indicated to have improved users’ communication with family and friends (Facebook, 2018). Also, the results showed that participants interacted with Instagram Stories content to receive benefits such as giveaways. This notion is in line with the
“remuneration” motivation identified by Muntinga et al. (2011), suggesting that
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brand-related online activities may be driven by economic incentives (e.g., money or rewards).
The novelty motive emerged as participants used Instagram Stories for its transiency: it disappears after 24 hours unless saved, followed by the perceived new and privacy gratifications. With the ephemeral nature and superiority in instant image-sharing and editing compartment (e.g., filters, drawings, emojis) (Ting, Ming, de Run,
& Choo, 2015; Wagner, 2018), users not only tend to present more authentically due to such fleeting feature (Facebook, 2018), but also acquire both intimacy and
immediacy of social presence, and perceived loneliness can thus decrease (Pittman &
Reich, 2016). Plus, new features constantly introduced by Instagram Stories enable users to express themselves freely in diverse creative ways (Instagram, 2019). Despite the traditional features of highlighting gratifications, the new and interactive features constantly introduced by Instagram Stories also facilitate social interaction.
The final motivation factor found in this research is surveillance, which is defined as keeping up with or get knowledge about others (i.e., family and friends).
Similar to Sheldon and Bryant’s (2016) findings, surveillance is one of the influential motivations for Instagram usage. Besides, it was found that 61% of U.S.
Instagrammers check Instagram Stories to see what their friends are doing now (Facebook, 2018). Likewise, the results indicated that participants used Instagram Stories to learn what others are doing. However, in this study, participants were found to use Instagram Stories to keep in touch and get updates on close ties, such as family and friends. While the surveillance motivation identified by Sheldon and Bryant (2016) is more likely to fulfill users’ gratifications of voyeurism and gossip, and be potentially related to envy that might lead to depression (Tandoc, Ferrucci, & Duffy, 2015), this study labels the surveillance motivation for Instagram Stories use as the information gained about others that can help maintain interpersonal relationships and fulfill the need to belong, and thus ameliorate loneliness (Alhabash & Ma, 2017).