EXPLAINING THE ACCEPTANCE OF FACEBOOK BY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WITH THE USES & GRATIFICATIONS THEORY.

Social networking websites are today part of the university students' lifestyle. This situation is challenging educators to adapt their teaching style by considering various social learning activities, such as: active participation, information and content sharing, collaboration, and debate. In order to exploit the educational potential of social media technologies is important to understand the reasons why students are using it and the relative importance of these reasons. The motives of social networking websites use have been studied from different theoretical perspectives by using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. However, there are relatively few quantitative studies that explore the reasons behind the Facebook use by university students. The Uses & Gratifications Theory (U&GT) explains the use of the social media technology by the fulfillment of the various needs of an active user. The aim of this research is to explore the influence of these motives on the Facebook acceptance with the uses and gratification theory. In this respect, three categories of gratifications have been included: extending the social relations, information-collaboration, and maintaining the social relations. A conceptual model has been tested and validated on a sample of Romanian university students by using the SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) methodology. The testing results revealed a good fit of the model with the data and confirm the hypothesis that each category of gratification is enhancing the intention to continue using this social networking website. This work provides new opportunities for both researchers and practitioners to take an interdisciplinary perspective when exploring the technology acceptance of the social media in learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]