Science Behind Social Media Discontinuance: An Integrated Model of Stress and Coping Theory

Abstract

Social networking services (SNS) have multiple benefits. The ease of communication through SNS has led to an increase in their popularity and number of users. As a network continues to grow, users are overwhelmed by the need to pay more attention to the overwhelming volume of social demands to stay connected with friends and family. As a result, many choose to withdraw from social media temporarily or permanently. Based on stress coping theory, this paper proposes a research model to test the relationships between information overload, social overload, and communication overload with disturbance handling, self-preservation, exhaustion, and fatigue, on SNS discontinuation intention. The proposed model was tested in a field study in Malaysia, and data were collected from 159 respondents for all SNS users. The results of this study indicate that social overload has the strongest effect on coping strategy, while the theory of exhaustion and fatigue has a strong effect on discontinuation intention. This study advances the theoretical understanding of SNS discontinuation intention based on coping strategy and strain theory. It also provides suggestions for coping with overload.