Imagined Audiences and Social Media Fatigue Among Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Impression Management

Both online and offline, audience characteristics have consistently influenced how individuals present themselves. In the context of social media, however, interface design and algorithmic personalization often blur the boundaries between audience groups, leading users to simultaneously interact with multiple audiences—a phenomenon known as context collapse. While this issue has attracted attention from both academia and industry, the psychological and behavioral effects of the imagined audience remain underexplored. Drawing on the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing, this study investigates which audience group users primarily consider when interacting on social media and examines the mediating role of impression management between imagined audiences and social media fatigue. Using a quantitative approach, the study employed quota sampling to collect 430 self-administered questionnaires from Chinese WeChat users. Data were analyzed using SmartPLS and SPSS 27 for structural equation modeling. Results indicate that Chinese youth most commonly perceive close friends as their primary audience when posting on WeChat Moments. Moreover, the imagined audience significantly associated with social media fatigue via impression management strategies. This study is among the first to introduce the concept of the imagined audience into the context of social media fatigue, offering a novel perspective on the complexity of user behavior in digital environments. The findings also refine the theoretical understanding of the relationships among imagined audience, impression management, and fatigue, highlighting the critical role of impression management as a psychological mechanism. Practically, the study offers implications for young users, families, policymakers, and platform developers.