Fatigue in the Virtual World: The Impact of Intrinsic Motivation and External Pressures on Young Vietnamese Users’ Intentions to Switch Social Media Platforms

This study investigates the psychological factors influencing users’ intention to switch social media platforms in the context of an increasingly overloaded digital environment. By integrating the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) with the Stressor–Strain–Outcome (SSO) model, the research examines how intrinsic motivations and extrinsic pressures jointly shape social media fatigue and the intention to switch digital platforms. Using data from young, urban social media users in Vietnam, a collectivist and rapidly digitalizing context, this study employed the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to examine the influence of factors such as self-efficacy, self-presentation, and various types of extrinsic pressures (information overload, communication overload, and system features overload) on the level of fatigue, as well as the relationship between fatigue and switching intention. The results show that overload factors and self-presentation increase fatigue, whereas self-efficacy mitigates it. Notably, social media fatigue serves as a key mediator in intention to switch behavior. The findings extend the SSO and SDT frameworks by demonstrating how motivational and environmental pressures interact to explain user disengagement, while offering practical implications for the design of user-centric, autonomy-enhancing, and mentally sustainable social media platforms.