Gratifications Associated with Snapchat Usage among Young People: Uses and Gratifications Analysis

摘要

Social media has become an everyday media diet for media users, especially young generations. Previous studies have focused on the use of Facebook and Twitter, but there is a dearth of research on newer social media such as Snapchat despite its fast growth and adoption in recent years. This study applies the uses and gratifications approach to Snapchat in order to identify what activities younger users are likely to do while using Snapchat, to investigate what kinds of gratifications are associated with Snapchat usage among young people, as well as to test whether there are gender differences in gratifications of Snapchat usage. An online survey completed by 1,749 respondents identified five different gratifications, namely, convenience, attention seeking, escape, information seeking and socialization. Some of the study's prominent findings are: young people usually use Snapchat to chat with friends, share photos and videos, make a story and apply a filter; there are gender differences in the gratifications of escape, socialization and convenience. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research.