Social Interaction and Co-Viewing With YouTube: Blending Mass Communication Reception and Social Connection

This study examined whether motives and individual differences (social activity, interpersonal interaction, locus of control, sensation-seeking, innovativeness and YouTube affinity) predicted viewing videos on YouTube and sharing videos with others. Consistent with uses and gratifications assumptions, motives and individual differences differentially predicted viewing and sharing behaviors. Participants viewed videos for information seeking, and viewed and shared videos for entertainment, co-viewing and social interaction. Results suggest that while people watch videos on YouTube for some of the same reasons identified in studies of television viewing, there is a distinctly social aspect to YouTube use that reflects its social networking characteristics.