Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Telematics and Informatics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tele Clicks intended: An integrated model for nuanced social feedback system uses on Facebook Chun Shao ⁎ , K. Hazel Kwon Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Nuanced feedback system Technology Acceptance Model Uses and Gratification FacebookReactions Motivations ABSTRACT Social button-based feedback systems have evolved from soliciting a binary response to allowing for more nuanced expressions. This study examines motivational mechanisms underlying the use of Facebook Reactions, which is a successful example of nuanced social feedback systems. By integrating the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Uses and Gratification Theory (U&G) into a single framework, the study introduces a structural model that expands the notion of ‘perceived usefulness’ as a multifaceted concept reflective of different utilities of nuanced feed- back systems. A survey was conducted in a large U.S. public university (N = 422), finding that social cognitive factors, as operationalized in TAM, affect perceived usefulness for different utilities. However, social cognitive factors had only indirect effects on increasing the use in- tention, mediated by hedonic and expressive usefulness. Despite occurring in an instant, clicking a social button is a mindful behavior. Successful implementation of a nuanced social feedback system may rely on the extent to which users perceive the usefulness of the system for enhancing enjoyment and expressing their feelings. 1. Introduction A success of social media sites relies on the extent to which users interact with contents within the platform. Accordingly, various tools and features embedded in social sites intend to facilitate user engagements. Social button-based feedback systems, often referred to as social recommendation or social endorsement systems (Kim, 2014), are one of the easy-to-use interactive tools. Although it is a simple response tool, clicking “like”, “love”, or “thumbs up/down” serves an important means for interpersonal relational man- agement and scanning public opinions and sentiments collectively. Studies have confirmed that this seemingly simple user behavior is driven by various social psychological antecedents (e.g., Chin et al., 2015; Gan, 2017; Hayes et al., 2016; Kim, 2014; Sumner et al., 2018). Social button-based feedback systems have recently been evolving from a binary response system to a nuanced system that offers multiple “buttons” for granular emotional expressions. One of the widely known examples of such nuanced feedback systems is Facebook’s Reactions. Launched in Spring 2016, Reactions is an extended version of “liking” yet integrates the emoji culture to offer more dynamic ways to respond to a content (Stinson, 2016; Varanasi et al., 2018). Whereas the majority of previous studies have focused on the effects of social media engagements on users’ attitudinal and behavioral changes (Duan et al., 2008; Messing et al., 2012; Xu, 2013), some studies have delved into motivational factors underlying the use of social feedback systems in different cultural and platform contexts (Chin et al., 2015; Kim, 2014; Lee et al., 2016; Gan, 2017; Sumner et al., 2018). That said, efforts to investigate why users embrace social engagement features, including social button-based feedback systems, have been relatively https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.12.003 Received 9 May 2018; Received in revised form 21 November 2018; Accepted 12 December 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: cshao9@asu.edu (C. Shao).