“THEINFLUENCEOFPSYCHOLOGICALMOTIVATIONSANDAI RECOMMENDATIONQUALITYONBINGEWATCHINGBEHAVIORAND EMOTIONALBURNOUTAMONGGENERATIONZOTTUSERS”

Abstract

The rapid growth of digital streaming platforms has significantly changed the way people consume entertainment content, especially among younger generations. With the increasing availability of AI-driven recommendations and on-demand access, binge-watching has become a dominant behavior among OTT (Over-The-Top) platform users. The main objective of this study is to investigates the psychological and technological factors influencing binge-watching behavior and its subsequent impact on emotional burnout among Generation Z OTT platform users in Bangladesh. Grounded in the Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT), the research model integrates traditional user-driven motives entertainment, escapism, and social influence alongside a modern system-driven factor, AI recommendation quality, to explore their direct and indirect effects on binge-watching and emotional outcomes. Using a quantitative research design, data were collected from 302 valid respondents through structured online and offline surveys. SmartPLS 4.0 was employed to analyze the measurement and structural models, testing reliability, validity, and path coefficients. The results show that entertainment, social influence, and AI recommendation quality have a significant positive influence on binge-watching behavior. However, escapism does not show a significant relationship with binge-watching. Most importantly, binge-watching behavior has a strong and direct impact on emotional burnout, indicating that excessive content consumption may lead to negative psychological outcomes. The study contributes both theoretically and practically by bridging user-centered media theories with algorithmic influence, and by identifying binge-watching as a central behavioral mechanism linked to digital mental health concerns. Practical implications include the need for ethical AI design, media literacy education, and interventions promoting mindful media consumption among young OTT users. While the study offers significant insights, it acknowledges, limitations related to sample size, geographic scope, cross-sectional design, and the use of self-reported online surveys. For future research, it is recommended to expand the sample across more diverse regions, employ longitudinal or mixed-method approaches, and explore other relevant psychological or behavioral variables. Data could also be collected through in-person interviews or paper-based surveys for broader insight.