Patterns of motives for social network site use among sixth grade pupils in Taiwan

This study examined the profiles, gender, digital opportunities, and patterns of motives for using social networking sites (SNSs) among 401 sixth-grade pupils in Taiwan. A survey based on Aladwani's GoToFB scale and a self-constructed questionnaire were employed to gather information on pupils’ SNS use motives and their usage frequency of Internet-accessible electronic devices. The results show that their primary motive of using SNSs was connecting with others. Significant differences were found in connecting, sharing, organizing, and monitoring between genders, and in connecting, sharing, relaxing, branding, monitoring, and expressing between pupils with different digital opportunities due to regional digital development. In addition, a two-stage cluster analysis yielded four distinct subgroups: highly motivated, less motivated, relaxed-oriented, and socially-oriented. They were varied not only in their motives of SNS use, but also in the usage frequency of Internet-accessible electronic devices.