Rolling or Scrolling? The Effect of Content Type on Habitual Use of Facebook

Abstract

The paper investigates how content type (i.e., hedonic and utilitarian content) is related to satisfaction, habitual use, use intensity and discontinued use intentions in the context of social media services. The research model was empirically tested using a survey study (n = 142) that was conducted among Facebook users. The results show that hedonic content is a strong predictor of habitual use of and satisfaction with Facebook. In turn, utilitarian content has a positive effect on satisfaction; however, it does not significantly affect habitual use. Additionally, habit affects use intensity more than satisfaction but has no significant effect on discontinued use intention. These results suggest that emphasizing hedonic content might be more effective in creating habitual use of a system. However, the balance between hedonic and utilitarian content should be arranged so that it is optimum for user satisfaction and does not cause excessive use of the system.