The gratifications of pager use: Sociability, information-seeking, entertainment, utility, and fashion and status

Abstract

To examine gratifications sought from pager use, a series of confirmatory factor analysis models were fitted to 27 gratification items in a proportionate stratified random sample survey of 883 college students. The results show that sociability was the strongest intrinsic motive, especially for females, in predicting the use of pagers followed by instrumental factors such as information-seeking, entertainment, and fashion and status. However, utility was found not a significant predictor of any paging behavior. Moreover, late adopters and those who seldom received messages were found more likely to feel that the purpose in having a pager was to make a fashion or status statement.