Behavioral Motives and Media Preferences of College Students: An Empirical Study on Social Media Hashtag Functionality Author Information

Background and Actuality: Social media has become an integral part of college students' daily lives, not only serving as a tool for entertainment and communication but also shaping information-seeking behaviors, identity construction, and media preferences.Within this context, the hashtag function has emerged as a crucial mechanism for organizing digital content, enhancing engagement, and amplifying online discourse.Despite its widespread use, limited research has addressed the psychological motives driving college students' adoption of hashtags and their resulting media preferences.Methods and Data: This study employed a mixed-methods design combining quantitative surveys (n = 512 college students in Shanghai) with AI-assisted interaction analysis of hashtag use across WeChat, Weibo, and QQ.The survey measured behavioral motivations including information-seeking, social interaction, entertainment, and selfexpression, while the AI model examined frequency, context, and engagement patterns of hashtag adoption.Results: Findings indicate that WeChat, Weibo, and QQ remain the dominant social platforms among college students.Hashtags are widely perceived as effective for information retrieval, community building, and communication tasks.Behavioral motives strongly predicted platform choice and hashtag use: students driven by informationseeking and social interaction engaged more consistently with hashtags, while entertainment-driven use was more platform-specific. Conclusions:The results highlight the centrality of hashtags in shaping media bias and preference formation among youth.By linking psychological motives to functional use of hashtags, the study expands understanding of social media psychology and offers implications for educators, policymakers, and digital platform designers seeking to foster meaningful and responsible online engagement.