Losing control: The effects of social media fatigue, privacy concerns and psychological reactance on social media advertising

Year 2022, , 123 - 149, 30.12.2022

Nathalie Nıcola

https://doi.org/10.26650/CONNECTIST2022-226305

Abstract

The past decade has seen rising concerns about data privacy on social media platforms (SMP). Recent research (Huo, Liu & Min, 2021; Dodoo & Wen, 2020; Youn & Kim, 2019b), has suggested a growing interest in social media fatigue (SMF), whose novelty makes it challenging to understand the underlying issues faced by users of SMP. The present study analyses the impact of SMF on social media advertising (SMA) to discover reasons for reactance and advertising avoidance. This qualitative study consisted of twelve in-depth interviews with young adults aged between 23 and 31 years. The results indicate high levels of SMF, which mainly stemmed from information overload and being overwhelmed. This caused users to feel negatively after using SMP. Ad avoidance is caused by significant privacy concerns when encountering personalized ads, such as suspicion as to how data is used, the feeling of being watched and listened to, as well as annoyance at the irrelevance and repetitiveness of SMA. Furthermore, participants indicated a lack of control over their privacy online and that they felt bombarded by too many ads.

Keywords

Social media fatigue, social media advertising, advertising avoidance, social media advertising reactance, privacy

Kontrolü kaybetmek: Sosyal medya yorgunluğunun, gizlilik endişelerinin ve psikolojik tepkinin sosyal medya reklamcılığına etkileri

Abstract

Son on yılda sosyal medya platformlarındaki (SMP) veri gizliliği konusunda endişelerin arttığı görülmektedir. Son araştırmalar (Huo, Liu & Min, 2021; Dodoo & Wen, 2020; Youn & Kim, 2019b) sosyal medya platformlarını kullananların karşılaştığı temel problemleri anlamayı zorlaştıran sosyal medya yorgunluğuna (SMY) artan bir ilginin olduğunu göstermiştir. Bu çalışma, tepki ve reklamdan kaçınma nedenlerini ortaya koymak adına SMY’nin sosyal medya reklamcılığı (SMR) üzerindeki etkisini analiz etmektedir. Bu çalışmada, nitel araştırma yöntemi kullanilarak, yaşları 23-31 yaşları arasında değişen genç yetişkinlerle on iki derinlemesine görüşme yapılmıştır. Sonuçlar, sosyal medyada maruz kalınan aşırı bilgi yüklemesinden ve bunalmaktan kaynaklanan yüksek SMY düzeylerini kanıtlamaktadır. Reklamdan kaçınmanın
temel nedeni, kişiselleştirilmiş reklamlarla karşılaşıldığında verilerin nasıl kullanıldığına dair kuşku, başkaları tarafından izleniyor ve dinleniyormuş hissi ve SMR’nın alakasızlığı ve üst üste tekrarlanmasından duyulan rahatsızlık gibi önemli gizlilik kaygılarından kaynaklanmaktadır. Ayrıca, katılımcılar çevrimiçi gizlilikleri üzerinde kontrol sahibi olmadıklarını ve çok fazla reklam bombardımanına tutulduklarını
hissettiklerini belirtmişlerdir.

Keywords

Sosyal medya yorgunluğu, sosyal medya reklamcılığı, reklamdan kaçınma, sosyal medya reklam tepkisi, gizlilik

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