Purpose

The purpose of this paper was to explore the uses and gratifications sought by the primary target market (pre-adolescent and adolescent groups) of a new social media site, TikTok. The paper also sought to identify how much of a role the motivations of self-expression, social recognition and fame-seeking (important considerations within adolescent psychology development) played in the use of this particular social networking sites (SNS).

Design/methodology/approach

Following meticulous sampling procedures, ensuring national representation and stringent ethical practices, self-completion questionnaires were sent to pupils at 60 schools in the five key administrative regions of Denmark. The data was examined using analysis of variation tests, followed by a two-step cluster analysis using the log-likelihood method.

Findings

The findings indicated that passive consumptive behaviours were prevalent among both pre-adolescent and adolescent groups and that the gratification of entertainment/affect was the primary driver behind all behaviours: passive consumptive, participatory and contributory. Pre-adolescent groups were more active and heavier users of TikTok than were adolescents. In line with adolescent psychology theories, the authors found that contributory behaviours were motivated by a wish to expand one’s social networks, by fame-seeking, self-expression and identity-creation needs.

Social implications

Pre-adolescent consumers are heavier users and interact more with the TikTok SNS than adolescent consumers, including in relation to seeking out new social networks. This is potentially of great concern as children are less likely to understand the hidden dangers of online predatorial and privacy issues.

Originality/value

The authors extend their understanding of the contributory functions of SNS. Motivations of fame-seeking, self-expression and social recognition are key to understanding the uses and gratifications of TikTok consumers, especially during the adolescent years; contrary to scholarly assertions that these motives are often unconscious, the sample of this study assertively and explicitly confirmed these needs. A further novel insight of this study was that both the gratifications of relationship building and relationship maintenance were sought out via the contributory, rather than the participatory function of TikTok.

中文翻译：

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青少年和青春期TikTok消费者追求的用途和满足感

目的

本文的目的是探讨新社交媒体网站TikTok的主要目标市场（青少年和青少年群体）的用途和满足条件。该论文还试图确定自我表达，社交认可和成名动机（青少年心理学发展中的重要考虑因素）的动机在使用此特定社交网站（SNS）中起了多大作用。

设计/方法/方法

按照细致的抽样程序，确保国家代表和严格的道德规范，向丹麦五个主要行政区域的60所学校的学生发送了自我完成调查表。使用变异测试分析检查数据，然后使用对数似然法进行两步聚类分析。

发现

研究结果表明，消极的消费行为在青春期前和青少年群体中都很普遍，娱乐/情感的满足是所有行为的主要驱动力：消极的消费，参与和贡献。与青春期相比，青春期前的人群更活跃，并且使用TikTok的人群更多。与青少年心理学理论相一致，作者发现，贡献性行为是出于希望扩大自己的社交网络，寻求名利，自我表达和创造身份的需求所驱动的。

社会影响

青春期之前的消费者比青春期的消费者更重，并且与TikTok SNS互动更多，包括在寻找新的社交网络方面。由于儿童不太可能了解在线掠夺性和隐私问题的潜在危险，因此这可能引起极大的关注。

创意/价值

作者扩展了他们对SNS的贡献功能的理解。寻求名望，自我表达和获得社会认可的动机对于理解TikTok消费者的使用和满足感至关重要，尤其是在青少年时期。与学术上认为这些动机通常是无意识的断言相反，本研究的样本断言明确地证实了这些需求。这项研究的另一个新颖见解是，通过TikTok的贡献而不是TikTok的参与功能来寻求建立关系和维持关系的满足。