Toward a Sustainable Social Media Ecology: How Contextual and Social Integration Harmonize User Experience with In-Feed Commercial Content

As digital citizens become increasingly discerning toward commercial infiltration in private social spaces, harmonizing commercial content and user experience on social platforms has become a critical challenge. This research investigates how the seamless contextual and social integration of in-feed commercial content reduces user psychological reactance. Through two empirical experiments (N = 416) taking WeChat (China’s dominant social media platform) as the research object, the study examines two fundamental dimensions of platform content integration: contextual integration (CI) and social integration (SI). Experiment 1 demonstrates that both CI and SI significantly mitigate users’ perceived intrusiveness. Further mediation analysis reveals distinct psychological pathways: flow experience partially mediates the effect of CI, whereas strong social presence fully mediates the impact of SI. To extend the boundary conditions of social integration, Experiment 2 reveals that users’ active social use of in-feed content significantly enhances social presence, thereby alleviating cognitive disruption. This marks a conceptual shift in understanding social media users, moving from passive users of commercial content to active agents who utilize such content to fulfill personal social objectives. Ultimately, the study provides vital implications for digital media ecology, showing that enhancing contextual integration ensures a seamless information experience, while fostering social integration satisfies users’ interpersonal needs within virtual communities.