A Media Affordance Perspective on Digital Hoarding Behavioural Motivational Mechanisms Among Female Youth Users: A Case Study of Rednote

As social media's penetration into users' lives continues to deepen, individuals have increasingly engaged in digital hoarding behaviours when confronted with vast amounts of information. However, this phenomenon remains underexplored in current communication research. This study therefore focuses on female youth users of the Rednote, adopting a theoretical framework of media affordance and integrating four affordance dimensions —production, social interaction, mobility, and imagination. Through in-depth interviews, walkthrough methods, netnography, and thematic analysis of textual data, the thesis investigates motivations of digital hoarding among female youth users. The findings reveal that four affordances —production, social interaction, mobility, and imagination —are actualised through the interaction between the platform and young female users, fostering digital hoarding via diverse pathways. This paper provides insights for understanding digital hoarding behavior from a media affordance perspective and offers implications for platform design and user behavior management.

People are constantly acquiring and constantly forgetting. The evolution of digital existence has transformed individuals into "intermediary media". Individuals acquire, store, and forward knowledge and information through social media platforms, yet often remain stuck at the superficial level of "acquisition" rather than deep 'absorption' due to the mindset of "hoarding first, viewing later." This article integrates domestic and international theories of media affordance and imagined affordance, moving beyond previous platform-agnostic research to focus on digital hoarding behavior among young female users on Rednote. At the level of production affordance, Rednote's content production frequency and characteristics cause user information overload, fostering digital hoarding. Users then engage in digital hoarding through various pathways enabled by social interaction, mobility, and imagination affordances. The study provides valuable insights into understanding digital hoarding behavior from a media affordance perspective and offers implications for platform design and user behavior management.