The interplay of intrinsic need satisfaction and Facebook specific motives in explaining addictive behavior on Facebook

•We conducted an online survey with 581 SNS users.•We developed a scale measuring SNS addiction.•SNS specific motives mediate the effect of intrinsic needs on SNS addiction.•People try to compensate thwarted intrinsic needs with gratifications from SNS use.•Gratifications sought from SNS use can cause addictive SNS usage patterns. The present paper aims at exploring the new phenomenon of social network site (SNS) addiction and at identifying predictors of problematic SNS use. For this purpose, a scale measuring addictive behavior specifically with regard to SNS use was developed. The effects of intrinsic need satisfaction in the offline context and of SNS-specific motives on SNS addiction were tested in an online-survey among 581 SNS users in Germany. It was hypothesized that motives mediate the influence of thwarted intrinsic need satisfaction on addictive behavior on SNSs. More precisely, we assumed that a lack of autonomy leads to a higher motivation to use SNSs for self-presentation and escapism, a lack of competence predicts the motive to use SNSs for acquiring information and self-presentation, and a lack of relatedness fosters users’ motives to use SNSs for self-presentation and meeting new people. These motives, in turn, were predicted to be associated with higher levels of SNS addiction. All proposed mediation models were supported by the data. The results emphasize the importance of incorporating both offline need satisfaction and gratifications sought through the use of SNS to provide a comprehensive perspective on addictive behavior on SNSs.