Similar Affordances, Different Use Practices? An Investigation of Socio-Cultural Contexts in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

This study argues that the widely adopted affordance perspective is not sufficiently capturing subtle differences between social media platforms (SMPs) that result from varying socio-cultural context factors. To address this gap, this study attempts a systematic structure of the different discourses on SMP differences and at the same time aligning it better to the affordance perspective. An online survey asked participants (n=197) to evaluate their SMP use practices (or non-use) based on 15 different sub-constructs of use practices that influence the socio-cultural context of SMPs. Pairwise comparisons of the SMPs Facebook, Instagram and Twitter revealed significant differences in use practices. This study concludes that a systematic investigation of the socio-cultural influences on use practices can reveal important differences that the more abstract and design-oriented affordance perspective may otherwise overlook. For example, users (e.g., prospective customers) of Instagram are having the most salient expectation to be entertained.