The influence of diverse usage motives on the amount of social media use: the moderating effects of age and gender

Abstract

Social media usage seem to invade individual's daily life, however recent studies initiate the idea that, individuals use social media for different motives. This study intends to study diverse social media usage motives and the amount of social media used across age and gender groups. Data were collected from 384 participants in Turkey, and structural equation modelling is employed for hypotheses testing. The results suggest that the impact of coping and social motive on social media usage are significant, which indicate that individuals lean to social media either to deal with negative feelings or to feel a sense of connectedness. It is also revealed that, the influence of diverse motives on social media use is the same across genders. On the other hand, the moderating effect of age is significant. Specifically, it is demonstrated that the relationship between enhancement motive and social media use is more potent for younger users. Copyright © 2026 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.