Exploring the Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivations in Blogging: Results of a Survey of Hong Kong University Students.

Blogging stickiness and motivations have become a frequently studied topic in blogging research for several years, yet little research pays attention to the difference between the initial motivation and current motivations. This study proposes to investigate and understand bloggers behaviors through specifying the intrinsic and extrinsic components of their motivations. Two major questions were raised and explored in this study: 1. What are the reasons that promote students to initiate blogs; 2. How the blogging motivations and behavior patterns interact in blog maintaining. Based on a survey of 186 bloggers, among City University of Hong Kong, it is found that three major motivations (practicing a new type of diary, curiosity and thoughts on following the crowd) are the most important motivations in initiating blogging. In maintaining a blog, the hypothesis that social connection motivation is positively related to interaction-oriented behavior, while emotion-pouring motivation is positively related to self-restriction behavior in expression is supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]