MAM & U&G in Taiwan: Differences in the uses and gratifications of Facebook as a function of motivational reactivity

•Taiwanese Facebook users about their motivations and intensity to use Facebook.•Participants differed in their Facebook motivations as a function of MAM.•Entertainment was the strongest predictor of the intensity to use Facebook.•Relationship between motivations and Facebook intensity varied by MAM.

A cross-sectional survey of Taiwanese Facebook users (N = 3172) explored the relationship among motivational reactivity, the motivations, and intensity to use Facebook. Our findings showed differences in motivations to use Facebook as a function of motivational reactivity. Additionally, results showed that individual differences in motivational reactivity led to different patterns of relationship between motivations and intensity to use Facebook. Regression models for inactives, risk avoiders, and coactives showed that the motivation to use Facebook for entertainment was strongest in predicting intensity to use Facebook, while the model for risk takers showed that self-expression was strongest motivation to predict Facebook use intensity. Findings are discussed within the framework of uses and gratifications and other psychologically based media use and choice theories.