Exploring the Generational Gap in Facebook Usage among Japanese Online

2021: Volume 12, Issue 1 ‐ Table of Contents

 

Exploring the Generational Gap in Facebook Usage among Japanese Online (Dowload PDF )

Muneo Kaigo
University of Tsukuba


Abstract

In comparison to other nations where Facebook has maintained its position as the most dominantly used SNS among each respective online population, the slow proportionate growth in total users of Facebook in Japan during recent years can be considered an anomaly. To verify the degree of usage of Facebook, this study conducted an online survey in January and March 2021 and sampled a total of 1959 Japanese adults. The survey was administered online among monitoring respondents of a research firm using quota sampling of their representative of the Japanese population distribution of gender, age and region of domicile. The survey results demonstrated Facebook had a lower ratio of users in Japan when compared to other available platforms such as the popular messaging service in Japan named LINE or Twitter. LINE, Twitter and Instagram had a statistically significant negative correlation with age, suggesting that the younger the respondent age, the more likely to use SNSs. In contrast to this finding, Facebook was the only SNS found to have no correlation with age. By investigating the Facebook users among this sample among different age groups, the survey found Facebook was in fact a more preferable platform than Instagram among Japanese online over 40. For Japanese online over 60, Facebook was found to be the second most preferred platform, higher than Instagram and Twitter. This study further investigated the features of Facebook that might be holding off more prevalent usage of this platform among younger Japanese online. The study also discusses Japanese sociocultural traits of Facebook users that may explain the generational rift in usage of Facebook among Japanese online. The paper suggests that network effects, potential Japanese cultural variant explanations of SIDE to SNS usage, and cultural characteristics in relation to different generations affect usage of Facebook among Japanese online.

Facebook and Other SNS Usage in Japan

Overview

Social media usage in Japan has no longer been a novelty for over a decade, especially among smartphone users and younger Japanese. However, Facebook usage in recent years has experienced slow growth of its user base in Japan and can be considered proportionately declining when compared to the increasing usage of other emerging SNSs popular in Japan. To explore the dynamics involved in this phenomenon, this paper will present its study findings in an unorthodox sequence by first introducing survey results regarding Japanese Facebook and other SNS usage and subsequently synthesizing previous literature and constructs to explore the Japanese sociocultural elements that may be influencing the survey results.

Online Sample Survey and Results

To confirm some of the trends of social media usage in Japan, this paper initiates this study by conducting a survey to first demonstrate what can be observed about Facebook usage in Japan. The survey results will illustrate replicable findings about current Facebook usage in Japan for those unfamiliar with the Japanese Internet environment. The survey results will be supplemented by an exploration and explanation of the elements behind these findings for those unfamiliar with the Japanese sociocultural context.

This study administered an online survey through Nikkei Research Corporation, a subsidiary of the Nikkei or Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the world's largest financial newspaper based in Tokyo, Japan. Data collection was conducted among a population of over 160,000 online monitoring respondents of Nikkei Research Corporation. The survey collected data among an adult sample aged over 20, representative of the distribution of the Japanese population based on gender and region of domicile. Age was also sampled according to quota, except for respondents over 65 years old. Approximately a quarter of the current population of Japanese is over 65, therefore the number of those over aged 65 were limited to 14.8% of the total sample size to better reflect the online population, and otherwise, the sample was proportionate to the age distribution of the Japanese population according to national statistics of 2020. This survey collected data from January 21 – 26, 2021 and March 3 – March 8, 2021†. After data cleaning, the survey sample total was n=1959 (F=997, M=962).

The results of the survey indicated that the messaging service, LINE was the SNS with the most daily users, having 1326 of the respondents (67.69%) as users. LINE is an instant messaging service that has regional popularity in Asian nations such as Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. Its common features are comparable to the more globally dominant WhatsApp messaging service. Among the respondents, LINE users had an average of 70 LINE contacts and had joined an average of 9 groups. The numbers from this survey suggest how LINE users employ this service as their main online communication tool for text messaging. For comparison, this survey found there were 143 users of the Facebook Messenger in this sample, accounting for 7.3% of the total respondents. This relative smaller number of Facebook Messenger users demonstrates the dominance of LINE in Japan as a messaging service platform. Until a recent security breach that was revealed in March 2021, the platform was becoming a dominant platform for communication among users in the central and local government (Michinaga et al., 2021). Unfortunately, after this incident governmental enthusiasm towards LINE adoption has slowed down in 2021, and many organizations have banned LINE or put on hold plans to use LINE for official purposes.

The second most frequently used social media in Japan among this survey sample was Twitter. The survey results indicated that 819 of the respondents (41.81%) of this sample used Twitter habitually. These results may be higher than other nations where Facebook is the more dominant SNS platform. The explanation for the surprisingly high popularity of Twitter in Japan lies in its anonymity and function in Japanese society.

Japan has often been considered as a group oriented society, with vertical relationships in most organizations and groups having higher priority than individuality (Jun & Muto, 1995). A protruding nail will be hammered, is a translation of a commonly known Japanese saying that illustrates the strong group orientation of Japanese society and culture where harmony of the group or organization is considered to be more important than individuality. To accomplish this level of group harmony, Japan has created many social norms and protocols each that must be followed to maintain an orderly society.

Among these social norms, Japanese language has several levels of politeness, and each level of politeness must be used accordingly. For example, there is a polite form to say something towards to your colleague, but a totally different set of polite words existing that are to be used when you need to convey the same message to someone senior or superior. There is also another set of words in polite form to be used for superiors to convey something to younger or junior people. Improper usage of these different levels of politeness is considered a lack of respect, a deficiency of proper manners, culture and education and results in humiliation for all. Smaller children and non‐Japanese are exempt from this rule, however, those exempted are subject to an out–group status until they able to follow these rules. As following this protocol is normal and natural for conducting everyday social life, anonymous Twitter users have a chance to temporarily abandon maintaining such politeness and group harmony and express themselves freely with a cloaked identity.

Flaming in Twitter in Japan is commonplace and can possibly be considered as the platform that has users branching from the infamous Go‐Channel (5Channel) bulletin board formerly known as Ni‐Channel (2Channel) (Kaigo & Watanabe, 2007) where incivility is also rampant. Japanese Twitter users can release themselves from the their daily obligations and play a totally different Internet persona or online character (Barbour et al., 2017) to have a cathartic experience by expressing themselves through consummatory communication. Twitter users with common interests can find each other and become nakama or allies by teaming up and retweet common perspectives on issues, especially if there are conflicting opinions. Twitter users from this survey sample followed on average 1460 Twitter accounts and had on average 845 followers. Twitter users that identify each other's real identity can connect with each other through a separately secure and private Twitter accounts and communicate with each other in a more secure environment similar to a private messaging connection.

Facebook came in third as a social media platform, with 547 respondents (27.92%) as users of this platform from this survey sample. Facebook users from this survey sample had an average of 154 Facebook friends. One must note that Instagram came in a close fourth with 520 respondents (26.54%) as users. Regarding Instagram, users from this sample followed an average of 778 accounts and had an average of 924 followers.

Focusing more on the 547 respondents that were Facebook users from this survey sample, 260 respondents used Facebook, but not on a daily basis. 151 Facebook users were in groups with close friends, 130 were in groups with acquaintances and 64 were in groups with co‐workers. 148 respondents were users of Facebook in groups focusing on common interests or hobbies. 221 respondents were Facebook users in no groups at all, which means that 326 respondents or 16.64% from the total sample of this survey were in at least one Facebook group. One can infer from the survey results that among the Japanese online, roughly one quarter are on Facebook but less than 15% of Japanese online use Facebook daily.

This study also analyzed the how age related to the usage of different SNSs. The frequency of usage of each SNS is illustrated in Table 1. From this sample, this study found that age and SNS usage was negatively correlated with statistical significance, except Facebook. Using rank correlation, Line, Twitter and Instagram were correlated negatively with age (Table 2), but Facebook had no correlation with age, initially suggesting no association with age and usage of Facebook.

To further examine this result, Figure 1 illustrates the number of SNS users in each age group (20–29, 30–39, 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, over 70) in this survey sample. LINE users have the largest number of users in all age groups in this survey sample. As a general trend, the number of SNS users of each platform demonstrate a declining trend with the increase of age, except Facebook.

Through Figure 1, this study discovered how Facebook users in the age groups of 40 through 49 and also 50 through 59 remarkably have more users than Instagram among the survey sample. In the age group of 60–69, the number of Facebook users surpass Twitter as well as the second most preferred SNS. However, when one looks at the age groups of 20–29 and 30–39, one can observe that Instagram and Twitter clearly have more users among this survey sample. As younger Japanese online tend to be on SNS platforms more, Facebook usage seems to be declining. However, with closer investigation, usage of Facebook is still constant among Japanese online that are middle‐aged and above.

Table 1. Frequency of Usage of SNS
   LINE  Twitter  Facebook  Instagram
 Never  663  1,140  1,412  1,439
 Few times during the Week  353  203  260  201
 Daily  341  228  155  133
 2–5 times daily  330  213  92  112
 6–10 times daily  166  89  25  39
 11–20 times daily  83  48  7  19
 21–50 times daily  31  23  4  11
 over 51 times daily  22  15  4  5

Figure 1. Age groups and SNS (LINE, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) users
Table 2. Spearman’s Rho (Rank Correlation) Age by SNS Usage
 Spearman's rho        LINE            Twitter     Facebook    Instagram  
 Age  –0,2180***  –0.3483***  –0.0179  –0.2446***
***p<.001

The survey results in this study demonstrate the current trends of Facebook usage in Japan and may be considered anomalous in comparison to other nations where Facebook is dominant. This study will explore some of the elements that may explain why some Japanese users are avoiding Facebook and some continue. To analyze this unique SNS environment in relation to Facebook, this study will first discuss the possible sociocultural elements that may account for this comparatively low growth of Facebook usage in current Japan, especially among younger Japanese online. As mentioned earlier in regard to Twitter, anonymity is an important element for many Japanese to use online platforms for recreational, consummatory purposes. Therefore, this study will also compare these elements in relation to other SNS platforms but maintain a focus on Facebook. This study posits that the custom and tendency for Facebook users to use real names that are connected to real identities may have in fact, created a unique, niche SNS platform among a specific population of the Japanese that are online, especially those over 40 years old. The following section will focus on how the different age groups of Japanese are adapting to the features of the Facebook platform to communicate with each other.

The Japanese Facebook Environment

Another side to SIDE

Facebook is currently not a topic avidly studied among Japanese media scholars due its proportionately slow growth of its user base. Other SNS platforms such as Instagram with their emerging number of younger users are gaining more attention among Japanese media scholars. However, as Facebook covers a niche age group better than some other SNSs, research on Facebook in Japan has continued during recent years, but has focused more on marketing trends, such as engagement (Takeuchi, 2020), communication effects (Kishitani, 2016), brand loyalty (Takeuchi, 2019), empathy (Takeuchi, 2016) or as an information tool (Watanabe, 2019).

As illustrated through the survey sample results earlier, discussing the reasons behind the slow growth rate of Facebook usage in Japan, especially among younger Japanese online despite the higher position in other nations should be examined as a topic of interest. This study will explore several different elements that combined, contribute to the generation rift of Facebook through a comparative perspective with other SNS in Japan.

As discussed in relation to Twitter, anonymity is an important element for Japanese to use social networks for recreational, consummatory uses, unless among a totally closed private and secure account environment. For instrumental communication and private usage among close family and friends, LINE is the commonly adopted messaging platform, although other SNS platforms also have messaging functions available with a variation of privacy depending on preference settings. The reference to groups and anonymity elements discussed in this study may resonate similar to the studies and results of social identity model of deindividuation effects (Klein et al., 2007; Postmes & Spears, 1998; Reicher et al., 1995; Spears & Lea, 1994). However, this study is suggesting a different variant from the findings of traditional SIDE research, as anonymity in Japan online is not considered negatively, or as a trigger for antinormative behavior through deindividuating factors. For instance, SIDE studies have suggested how anonymous users are not able to gain social support from friends or colleagues or face outside incivility but are able to commit less to social norms. This paper posits that conforming to Japanese social norms online has a countering influence on using the non–anonymous Facebook platform, where if the online spaces become an extension of daily social life, the recreational aspect of Facebook becomes difficult to implement for many younger Japanese that are online. In short, using accounts connected to real identities publicly online is not popular among younger Japanese online as they prefer considerably higher levels of anonymity.

First, as one can experiment and discover, if one attempts to use Facebook anonymously and/or use a fake identity, one will have trouble creating one's network if the account owner identity remains totally anonymous. As one needs to initially create an account and connect with other users, there is a need to distinguish or determine whether to befriend the account into one's network. This situation with an anonymous Facebook account identity can only be used to follow users, communities or groups that do not make any further identification of users that request a connection. Therefore, Facebook puts many Japanese online users in a unique but uncomfortable situation, as the account needs to be tied to the real identity and identification. The situation is uncomfortable for the same reason of the contrasting popularity of Twitter in Japan, where one can make multiple accounts and use the different accounts to the preference of the account holder. Facebook does not easily allow the user to do this and creates awkward situations for Japanese online.

For instance, one can make a Facebook account and be active for a while, however, the user may receive a friend request from their superior at work. If the user has been using Facebook to express themselves freely with private thoughts only among close friends, the user is put in a dilemma due to the necessity to maintain Japanese social interaction of several layers of politeness. Refusing the friend request, or ignoring this request become a sign of disrespect towards the superior and may put the employee in a difficult position. Blocking or limiting access to the whole history of posts by the user also potentially creates awkward situations, especially if other workers verbally comment about newer posts in front of the superior at work. On the other hand, accepting the friend request may require the user to drastically change the user's history of posts in the SNS platform, as any disclosure of private thoughts or orientation in the comments may be considered inappropriate or impolite, or outright disrespectful.

Another instance of this inconvenient relationship regarding friend requests may be if a schoolteacher is requested to become friends with a parent of a student, etc. These are just some of the examples of this Japanese social context and dynamic, however, similar constraints in a Japanese social context exists in many other ways, and in result, altering Facebook usage habits by posting nothing at all becomes the only way to avoid future, socially awkward situations. Not being able to use Facebook freely deprives users from the cathartic online experience of temporarily abandoning the complex maintenance of Japanese social harmony. This vicious cycle results in many initial Japanese users to abandon using Facebook to avoid current or future social awkwardness or alter their communication behavior to adapt to the Facebook online environment that preferably ties usernames with their identities.

Younger Japanese Facebook Users: Ishikitakai‐kei, “Poemers”, and “Miuchi”

As the survey of this study has confirmed, Facebook is comparatively popular among users in the age groups of 40 and above. This characteristic of Facebook has created a unique environment for younger Japanese Facebook users that remain to be active in the platform. Unfortunately, some of the younger Japanese Facebook users that have remained, may have driven away other younger Japanese online from Facebook.

Younger Japanese Facebook users sometimes create an online character, that is referred to as ishikitakai‐kei or roughly translated, a highly conscious person. For some societies and cultures, being a highly conscious person as the construct ishikitakai‐kei suggests may at first, seem to have a positive meaning. A highly conscious person may seem as actually trying to do something in this world and are explaining how they made their efforts. However, the Japanese label ishikitakai‐kei is for people that communicate a fake and often vain façade. The term ishikitakai‐kei is a currently used as a slang term often addressed towards young Japanese who are overly self–directed but lack substance in their actions.

In the mid‐2000s, ishikitakai‐kei was initially used with the literal meaning highly conscious, and was used to refer to graduating college students. New recruits that were ishikitakai‐kei in job hunting situations meant the college student was a highly capable, knowledgeable, experienced, and talented person, so the construct originally did not have a negative image. However, with the sudden decrease in job openings for students due to the global financial downturn that occurred in 2008 and the arrival of SNSs such as Twitter and Facebook in Japan, students who wished to stand out from their rivals started using these platforms to become visible online. Students began posting on social networking sites, mentioning that they had gone to various prestigious lectures and were active in prestigious or highly respectable organizations. Unfortunately, many students were found to be lying and after being debunked, received criticism for their deceptive attitude online and were labelled ishikitakai‐kei. The slang term quickly altered its definition to label these empty students that were making full use of social networking sites but have not actually achieved anything.

In Japan, openly talking about making effort or talking about volunteering or their achievements is frowned upon, because secretly working hard towards a good result is considered virtuous in Japan.Ishikitakai‐kei people are considered potential liars that only talk about participating in various activities and making efforts to develop themselves, but do not have any results because they may have not actually participated and are in essence, reverse of being virtuous. As ishikitakai‐kei only talk and do not achieve anything, this also creates friction between people who actually work hard or are diligent with their studies or activities.

As active younger Facebook users that are ishikitakai‐kei people continue to talk overly positive and are always spinning their image and constantly promote themselves on the Internet by staging their careers and connections, these posts flood the newsfeed of younger Japanese Facebook users and in result, younger Japanese online distanced themselves from the Facebook platform. The migration of younger users to other platforms created a vicious cycle.

Another type of younger Japanese online may have contributed to this vicious cycle, and they are commonly known as a poemers. The poemers are similar to the ishikitakai‐kei in the way the user is creating an online character. The term poemers is Japanese slang that is used to describe someone trying to act as they are virtuous by posting about how stand above others morally and philosophically and say how better they are in comparison to their cohorts and try to demonstrate this by their posts. For other younger Japanese online, they are only embarrassing or unbearable to watch due to the shameless posts. The poemers will post online using poem‐like language because they want to stand out from the crowd, but the content is delusional or is stretching oneself by aiming too high and by using poem like language which other users view as embarrassing. As with the ishikitakai‐kei people, the poemers also make a semblance to look conscious but have not substance or achievements or have little ability in anything. Newsfeeds from the poemers also repel younger Japanese online away from Facebook.

Other than the ishikitakai‐kei people and the poemers among the Facebook user networks, the innate Facebook feature endorsing use of actual identities usually leave the remaining younger Facebook users in Japan with just a handful of familiar contacts with different degrees of closeness. People in the very close–knit cliques are considered miuchi which is a term that usually means one's family or relative but is used colloquially to refer to close friends or close colleagues. Younger Japanese that continue to use Facebook that see other users only communicate with their very close‐knit miuchi through comments and likes of posts of miuchi habitually, develops into in‐groups and out–groups. This close–knit clique type groups create a divide between the in‐group miuchi and out–group and as harmony is important in Japan, those who are not miuchi leave these cliques alone to themselves. The remaining users that wish to use SNSs continue to migrate to Instagram.

Figure 2. Illustration of a smirking Ishikitakaikei (Translation of blobs entrepreneurship overseas connections busy) https://www.irasutoya.com/2015/05/blog-post_722.html

Network Effects and Japanese Facebook Users aged over 40

As the younger ishikitakai‐kei people and the poemers remain in Facebook, many younger Japanese online that wish to connect through SNSs continue to migrate to Instagram. The tendency for younger Japanese to migrate and use Instagram grows due to the network effect, because the number of users determine the value of being in a specific network. As more younger Japanese online migrate to Instagram, their friends are only found on Instagram, so more users decide to migrate as well. By viewing Figure 1, one can observe that Japanese online in their 20s and 30s have a preference of Instagram over Facebook. As Instagram accounts need not use actual names, and as posts feature photographs more than text, the social identity is more of a visual public relations online entity that emphasizes one's fabulous lifestyle through beautiful or eye–catching photos. Instagram accounts are not always tied to real identities, so account behavior is even less tied to the needs and bindings of Japanese social norms. This type of platform that allows for weak ties online becomes more attractive for younger users that do not wish to replicate everyday social relationships online and only want to use SNSs for consummatory uses. Younger people can have a stealth Instagram account hidden from their superiors at work, and schoolteachers can use Instagram hidden from the parents of their students.

In contrast, the migration to Instagram is not so evident among Japanese online over 40 years old and above. Japanese online users in their 60s and above have a preference of using Facebook from observation of the survey sample, as Facebook is their second most preferred SNS after LINE (Figure 1). Two possible reasons for the Facebook users of over 40 years old not to migrate to Instagram and for continuing to use Facebook may also be ascribed to the (1) network effect and (2) a digital divide especially among Japanese online over 60 years old.

The network effect can be observed with Facebook as well for the Japanese over 40. In contrast to Japanese in their 20s and 30s who have grown up with the Internet and SNSs, many users in their 40s and above have used SNSs, namely Facebook to reconnect with people from their past through Facebook and continue using it for instrumental uses. Facebook is a useful communication tool for managing friends and acquaintances, so for the Japanese online over 40 reunited with alumni and old friends, Facebook becomes their gateway to their current and past friends. As younger Japanese online have moved to Instagram because of the network effect among younger users, Japanese online above 40 years of age remain on Facebook also because of the network effect. In both cases, their network of friends and acquaintances are in the respective platforms.

Another element regarding older Japanese online is a possible digital divide in the process of migrating to Instagram. Adopting a new platform requires learning how to use the interface. Instagram is a platform that is relatively better suited for smartphones and tablets, whereas Facebook can be comfortably used solely by a computer that has no camera and no video recording functions. Presbyopia can hinder or obstruct comfortable usage of Instagram on a smartphone or even a tablet, and precise operation of touch screens may be difficult even with assistive technology (Caprani et al., 2012). These features of Instagram and its interface may be a reason for slow adoption of Instagram among older Japanese that tend to remain on Facebook.

As Facebook accounts are often tied to real identities, Facebook users can limit their network and connections to their miuchi or inside group. Miuchi is the same element that repelled younger Japanese online from Facebook, however this element may be more comforting to Japanese online over 40. In Japan, Twitter is a popular SNS platform, however Twitter can quickly turn into a barren battleground in Japan if you decide to openly voice your opinion with your account. The feed will quickly be flooded with rude comments and retweets that ridicule the opinion. Many taboos regarding conversation topics exist in Japan regarding conversational topics, such as politics, educational background, income, religion along with sexuality. Voicing one's opinion about politics in this potentially hostile environment is not hospitable for Japanese online over 40 who are not adept enough to use multiple account. In such case, this group of people can use Facebook to discuss and/or voice their opinions among their miuchi and receive civilized responses or likes or be politely ignored. Voicing political dissent on Facebook with miuchi is less intense than voicing one's opinion on Twitter openly. If the handpicked Facebook network is friendly enough, voiced opinions about politics and other risky topics can potentially receive some resonance or empathy through friendly comments and likes, whereas Twitter can quickly turn into a battlefield of incivility. Japanese in their 60s and above who have experienced the 1970s in their youth belonged in a Japanese society when civil activities were still highly active. In contrast to the ishikitakai‐kei of younger Japanese, the many Japanese over 60 actually went to the streets and demonstrated against what they thought was wrong or corrupt about Japanese politics and society. The Japanese online over 40 who are connected to those who are over 60 can accept this mirror of real Japanese society online, as Japanese over 40 can comfortably adjust and conform to using the Japanese social norms and communicative protocol with less stress than younger Japanese. Less resistance to social norms to their cohorts and elders leads to less reluctance of emulating real—life Japanese social communicative norms, such as following the different levels of politeness when communicating.

Discussion

Regardless of age group, Japanese online with connections to people who live outside of Japan tend to continue usage of Facebook, as this becomes the platform for easiest direct communication with friends living outside of Japan other than email. In other nations where Facebook has maintained its position as the most dominantly used SNS, users will probably continue to use this platform and function as the main SNS platform excluding a few nations globally. However the situation in Japan is a little bit more complicated as this study has suggested.

This study has illustrated that the slow proportionate growth in total users of Facebook in Japan. One can suggest this to be a result of younger users migrating to Instagram, however, through further investigation of Facebook users in different age groups among this sample, Facebook was in fact a more preferable platform than Instagram among Japanese online over 40. For Japanese online over 60, Facebook was the second most preferred platform. This study further investigated the traits of Japanese Facebook users that might be holding off more prevalent usage of this platform among younger Japanese online. Users and traits such as Ishikitakai‐kei, Poemers, and miuchi which in combination, might possibly create an uncomfortable SNS environment younger Japanese online. The survey results of this study suggest that younger Japanese may have migrated to Instagram to avoid communication and exposure from these groups of Facebook users.

Twitter has been localized to Japanese uses, however Facebook has yet to find balance, especially among younger Japanese online. As anonymity provided through the Twitter platform and environment can be seen to be more liberating for younger Japanese online, this is one Japanese variant of the related variables of SIDE research. In contrast, the potential risk of incivility repels Japanese online over 40 to remain in Facebook for peaceful deliberation of topics that may be considered somewhat risky to mention in public and are in more unison with the traditional findings of SIDE research.

Younger Japanese online have moved to Instagram because of the network effect among younger users, as users decide to use which platform depending on which platform their friends use. Japanese online above 40 years of age remain on Facebook also because of the network effect, and for the same reason, as their network of friends and acquaintances are in Facebook. In both cases, their network of friends and acquaintances are in the respective platforms that they are in.

SNS fatigue has been researched in other nations (Nawaz et al., 2018) and is an expression that is commonly used in conversations in Japan. Information overload is often cited as one of the primary elements of dissatisfaction and discontinuance SNSs, however, this study suggests that the situation in Japan is far more complex. For future research, as this study is only limited to Japan, other nations can possibly investigate whether similar elements contribute to the discontinuance of specific SNSs. Other elements may contribute to the same result, therefore an inventory of SNS activities and results may provide better insight into what keeps SNS users to continue using certain platforms. A combination of the elements suggested in this study can be hypothesized to lead to discontinuance of Facebook among younger Japanese online, but requires further investigation for generalization.



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Acknowledgements

This study was partially supported through a joint research project with the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry of Japan. The author would also like to express his sincere gratitude for Yuka Omoya in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Tsukuba for assisting in data cleaning and preparation for data analysis for this study.


Bio

Muneo Kaigo

Professor of Communication and Media in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Teaching in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Comparative Culture at the University of Tsukuba. Currently 1) the Chair for the Doctoral Program of International and Advanced Japanese Studies in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2) Director for the Institute for Comparative Research in Human and Social Sciences, and 3) Director for the University of Tsukuba Europe Office (offices in Bonn, Germany and Bordeaux, France). The Asian Media Information and Communication Centre, country representative for Japan.

†The reason for the separate data collection period is due to the original data collection objective to investigate the climate of opinion regarding non‐traditional security issues.


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