TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘What lies behind the filter?’ Uncovering the motivations for using augmented reality (AR) face filters on social media and their effect on well-being
AU - Javornik, Ana
AU - Marder, Ben
AU - Barhorst, Jennifer Brannon
AU - McLean, Graeme
AU - Rogers, Yvonne
AU - Marshall, Paul
AU - Warlop, Luk
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the guest editors for their professional editorial guidance, as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback. Moreover, the authors wish to thank the School of Management, University of Bristol, for financially supporting this research. Also, the authors are grateful to the owners of the following Instagram accounts who very kindly agreed to share their images for the purpose of this research: @neznaneza, @jull.ova, @charlenealmeida, @face.effects and @Madam☹︎Lenna. Finally, we are very thankful to all who took part in our interviews and in our survey.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - Augmented reality (AR) filters are a popular social media feature affording users a variety of visual effects. Despite their widespread use, no research to date has examined either ‘why’ people use them (i.e., motivations) or ‘how’ their usage makes people feel (i.e., well-being effects). Through the uses and gratifications theory supported by a sequential mixed-method approach (interviews N = 10 and survey N = 536), we provide three overarching contributions. First, based on prior literature and a qualitative study, we identify nine motivations that can potentially drive AR face filter usage on Instagram. Our survey indicates that seven of those motivations (e.g., creative content curation, social interactions) are significant drivers of usage behaviours, while two (true self-presentation and silliness) did not have a significant impact. Second, we provide nuanced insights into the multi-faceted nature of the self-presentation motives underpinning AR face filter use (ideal, true and transformed self-presentation). Lastly, we show filter usage can have both positive and negative well-being effects depending on the underlying motivation. The results offer important implications for policymakers, site designers and social media managers.
AB - Augmented reality (AR) filters are a popular social media feature affording users a variety of visual effects. Despite their widespread use, no research to date has examined either ‘why’ people use them (i.e., motivations) or ‘how’ their usage makes people feel (i.e., well-being effects). Through the uses and gratifications theory supported by a sequential mixed-method approach (interviews N = 10 and survey N = 536), we provide three overarching contributions. First, based on prior literature and a qualitative study, we identify nine motivations that can potentially drive AR face filter usage on Instagram. Our survey indicates that seven of those motivations (e.g., creative content curation, social interactions) are significant drivers of usage behaviours, while two (true self-presentation and silliness) did not have a significant impact. Second, we provide nuanced insights into the multi-faceted nature of the self-presentation motives underpinning AR face filter use (ideal, true and transformed self-presentation). Lastly, we show filter usage can have both positive and negative well-being effects depending on the underlying motivation. The results offer important implications for policymakers, site designers and social media managers.
KW - augmented reality
KW - face filter
KW - self-presentation
KW - social media
KW - uses and gratifications
KW - well-being
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121103203&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.chb.2021.107126
DO - 10.1016/j.chb.2021.107126
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85121103203
SN - 0747-5632
VL - 128
JO - Computers in Human Behavior
JF - Computers in Human Behavior
M1 - 107126
ER -