A study of the influencing factors of mobile social media fatigue behavior based on the grounded theory

Purpose This paper aims to discuss major influencing factors causing users' mobile social media fatigue and divides them into three hierarchies, including causal factors, intermediary factors and outcome factors. The study also sorts out connections between different levels of factors, thus providing effective guidance for the sustained development of social media. Design/methodology/approach Based on the grounded theory and by collecting data through in-depth interviews, the authors use open coding, axial coding and selective coding to analyze major influencing factors of users' mobile social media fatigue, build a model using the software NVivo 11, organize and analyze mobile social media fatigue behavior and identify the relationships by combining the interpretive structural model and explore connections among the factors. Findings The influencing factors of mobile social media fatigue behavior conform with the stressors-strains-outcomes (SSO) theoretical framework, where stressors (S) include the five factors of fear of missing out, perceived overload, compulsive use, time cost and privacy concerns; strains (S) include the five factors of a low sense of achievement, emotional anxiety, reduced interest, social concerns and emotional exhaustion; outcomes (O) include the six factors of neglect behavior, diving behavior, avoidance behavior, tolerance behavior, withdrawal behavior and substitution behavior. Social implications In this study, text data are collected in a diversity of forms combined, allowing respondents to answer questions without being limited by the questions in the questionnaire, which helped us to identify new variables of social media fatigue. As a result, we were able to dig out the fundamental causes of social media fatigue and potential connections between the factors. Relevant scholars, users and businesses may analyze, manage and forecast users' social media fatigue behavior by analyzing the type of social media stress and users' state, providing guidance for the proposal of corresponding management strategies. Originality/value Most relevant studies focus on the sustained use of social media, and there is a scarcity of studies on social media fatigue in China. There is very limited research that conducts model analysis of social media fatigue through the integration of stressors, strains and outcomes.