Motivations of youth audiences to content creation and dissemination on social network sites

Abstract

Young people show very high and intensive levels of social networks use. However, users have different levels of involvement as regards their degree of interactivity in these platforms. Supported by uses and gratifications theory and applying a factor analysis, the motivations that explain their participation in several profiles of social networks and differences between those who do and those who do not comment are analysed. Based on a self-administered survey of 461 young university students, the main conclusions include the diversity of nuances in the combinations of reasons that explain participation in different types of profiles on social networks; particularly worth highlighting are the similarities between profiles of NGOs and those of celebrities. Also of note is the tendency of users who comment on commercial, political, social and leisure profiles to display motivations linked to searching for information, being useful, influencing others, interacting and showing adhesion, depending on the sphere.