Why do people view photographs on instagram?

Abstract

Drawing from the uses and gratifications framework, the aim of the present study is to examine the needs driving users to view photographs on Instagram, a popular photo-sharing social networking service. Data (N = 115) were collected from an online survey. A principal component factor analysis indicated that there were four cluster of needs. Specifically, we found that users were driven by diversion needs, surveillance needs, personal relationship needs, and voyeuristic needs. Further data analysis revealed and found that age, number of followers and number of followings on Instagram are related to the gratifications users seek on Instagram. Specifically, we found that older respondents were more likely to seek gratifications to meet personal relationship and surveillance needs. We also found that users with more followers viewed photos to seek for diversion and voyeurism needs. Implications of our work are also discussed.