Recently, a particular type of self-tracking, which can be named as the ‘online task-oriented check-in’(OTOC), has grown in popularity on Chinese social network. Participants generally set a personal goal, and record the progress online on the daily or weekly basis. Mostly, activities documented are mundane, encompassing learning, physical exercise, everyday habits(such as early wake up or early bed time) and so on. The continuity of the check-in has been taken as a sign of being organized and persistent.
To understand factors influencing the continuity, the study modified and extended the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). It introduced the concept of perceived social presence. And social influence is not taken as a simple or unified concept(Palau-Saumell et al. 2019), but is segmented into two parts: external influence and interpersonal influence(Bhattacherjee, 2000). External influence refers to mass media reports, expert opinions, and other nonpersonal information considered by adopters in making a continuance decision. The current media-saturated social context requires further attention to understand the extent that media exerts in influencing actions. Interpersonal influence refers to word-of-mouth influence by friends, colleagues, superiors, and other prior adopters known to the potential adopters. Moreover, the continuance intention of OTOC is further differentiated into the intention to continue original OTOC and the intention to extend and diversify the current OTOC. Based on a questionnaire data from 397 Chinese respondents (aged from 15 to 58), and further analyzed using SEM. The results indicate that performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, internal influence, external influence, habit, and effort expectancy play different roles in predicting participants’ intention to continue the original check-in and extend one’s check-in portfolio. The results also suggest that perceived social presence is a significant factor in determining participants’ performance expectancy and hedonic motivation.