Empirical investigation of Facebook discontinues usage intentions based on SOR paradigm

The use of social media can have positive effects on users, but it may also bring about negative perceptions in varying degrees of enormity. This study investigates the negative consequences of high Facebook usage for different purposes. It focuses on how the social, cognitive, and hedonic uses of Facebook induce stress and exhaustion, thereby influencing an individual’s intention to voluntary quit from using Facebook. The stimulus–organism–response paradigm is used in this study to examine the antecedents of intentions to discontinue the use of Facebook. The distinctive stimuli, organisms, and response in the proposed research model are empirically investigated through a sample of 360 Facebook users. Findings indicate that psychological and behavioral consequences compel users to discontinue or reduce the use of Facebook due to exhaustion and technostress caused by social networking sites (SNS). The excessive social, hedonic, and cognitive uses of Facebook are also sources of technostress, and the subsequent SNS exhaustion results in the decision to quit Facebook. This study draws theoretical implications for future SNS research as well as practical implications for organizations and SNS providers and users.