Foster Engagement: Reconstructing Rewatching Behavior

Despite the endless supply of new content at our fingertips, viewers continue to return to the comfort of the familiar. In the age of streaming, rewatching television shows has become an increasingly common behavior. However, academic research has often overlooked this phenomenon in favor of studying first-time viewing or binge-watching. With the increasing number of digital platforms and amount of content available, audiences can now easily engage in rewatching as both a personal and social activity. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the motivations behind rewatching and how these motivations relate to social engagement and repeated media consumption. Drawing on Uses & Gratifications theory and media habit theory, the central aim of this study is to investigate: To what extent do motivations for rewatching TV shows lead to social engagement, and how does this influence rewatching behavior? The research focuses on five key motivations of rewatching: nostalgia, recall, content and technical quality, parasocial relationships, and familiarity, as predictors of viewer engagement with TV show-related content on social media. Social engagement is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct, encompassing passive (e.g. reading content), reactive (e.g. liking content), and active (e.g. posting content) forms of online participation. A quantitative survey was conducted with 158 participants who had previously rewatched a TV show. Each participant answered questions related to their motivations for rewatching, social media engagement, and rewatching behavior. Factor analyses confirmed the reliability and construct validity of the variables, with social engagement emerging as a three-factor structure. Regression analyses were conducted in two stages. First, multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess how the motivational factors predicted the three types of social engagement. The results showed that recall and parasocial relationships were the only significant predictors, indicating the importance of cognitive and emotional investment in rewatching-related online participation. In contrast, nostalgia, content quality, and technical quality, as well as familiarity, did not significantly predict any form of engagement, challenging prior assumptions that emotionally comforting or aesthetically pleasing content naturally drives online interaction. The second part of the analysis revealed that all three types of social engagement significantly predicted habitual rewatching, supporting the idea that digital interaction reinforces routine viewing behaviors. However, only active engagement significantly predicted compulsive rewatching, pointing to a deeper emotional or behavioral attachment among users who actively contribute to media discourse. This study contributes to media research by refining our understanding of how individual motivations relate to social media behavior and repeated content consumption. It extends Uses and Gratifications theory by demonstrating that only specific motivations translate into distinct social behaviors, and that these behaviors have differential effects on types of rewatching. The findings offer practical insights for streaming platforms and content creators seeking to improve viewer engagement and retention.