Understanding Arab social TV viewers’ perceptions of virtual reality acceptance

Abstract Social TV has become a part of contemporary functioning and viewing patterns. It enhances the television watching experiences of audiences and introduces new trends that can communicate different viewers. This study examines the social TV experiences of Jordanian young audiences regarding using virtual reality (VR) acceptance to understand their real-time experiences. A cross-sectional study design with randomly selected 354 individuals from Jordan was analysed utilizing the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to also examine the strength of every factor regarding VR used for social TV. Results showed four factors were directly linked to watching social TV (experiences, real-time, digital content, face-to-face communication). Therefore, the study also concluded that the prominent role of VR in enhancing social TV experiences regarding factors, e.g., entertainment, communication, and information sharing, its impact is a complex phenomenon, however.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
Social TV is a blend of social media and TV activity. It is about online users who share their TV experiences with others including friends and relatives through social media platforms, e.g., Facebook and Twitter. Online users meant to tell each other about their interactivity and experiences using different devices, e.g., tables and smartphones. This research examines the social TV experiences of Jordanian young users in relation to using new technology called virtual reality. This technology is a computer-generated environment with scenes and objects that appear to be real and immensely feeling their surroundings. Our study showed that respondents' experiences, real time, digital content, and face-to-face communication were linked to their watching social TV, and virtual reality has enhanced their social TV experiences.

Introduction
Television arguably is still one of the most important mediums regarding information and entertainment (Khan & Paracha, 2019;Winter et al., 2018). Research has also witnessed a significant role of television in serving different gratifications (Habes, 2019). For example, studies have affirmed a strong relationship between television watching and psychological well-being (Gui & Stanca, 2009), e.g., television viewing is attributed to a collective activity in which family members are gathered, and enjoyed watching their favourite programmes together (see, e.g., Cha, 2016). Habes et al. (2021) consider television viewing as a fundamental part of early child development and the learning process. They cited an example of the Indian television industry, which gives a critical consideration to the child development aspect through the combination of information and entertainment known as "infotainment". Government not only obligates the television industry to keep the relevant concern under consideration but also makes policies that ensure maximum education and learning from the televised content. However, today television watching contains both individual and collective meaning (Jihyun Kim et al., 2020). For example, technological booming have not only introduced digital media usage as a direct source of communication, information, education, and entertainment, but they have also transformed traditional television watching Habes, Elareshi, Almansoori et al., 2022;Houfey & Elserogy, 2013). These transformational trends in traditional watching are considered a threatening challenge for the conventional television broadcast stations and their functioning patterns (Zhang, 2015).
Social TV has become a part of contemporary functioning, broadcast, and viewing patterns (Auverset & Billings, 2016;Jihyun Kim et al., 2021;Selva, 2015). Notably, the term social TV is not new nor it contains any threatening effects of the traditional watching system or audience well-being. Instead, it aims to enhance the television watching experiences of audiences and to introduce new trends that can communicate different viewers with each other (Harboe, 2010). In this context, some indicated that empirical evidence of social TV watching having positive impacts on students' academic performance in Jordan. Social TV and virtual reality are other important parts of advanced television watching experiences today. Commercialization and digitalization are two dynamic factors that incorporated VR-based devices in domestic environments mainly for information, communication, and leisure purposes (Saeghe et al., 2020). Yet many studies consider VR as replacing social life activities. For example, people who frequently visit hospitals now consider telemedicine as a convenient source of resuming their treatment. However, on the other hand, VR also hampers their visits to hospitals, reducing their daily life activities in general (D. D. Shao & Lee, 2020). Thus, this study examined the social TV experiences of Jordanian young audiences through VR, which can further enhance and affect their real-life experiences. It focused especially on three different dimensions: real-time experiences, indoor activities, and face-to-face communication to deeply analyse the outcomes of a collaboration between social TV and virtual reality.

Social TV, real-time and watching experiences
Social TV has greatly revolutionized the fundamental transition in how people interact, attain information, educate themselves, and communicate with others, especially in real time (Habes et al., 2021;Jihyun Kim et al., 2021). This can be one of the advantages of digital technologies that have allowed us to communicate and interact and get experience through real-time presence (as shown in Figure 1). Despite, the Internet technology-especially in the case of social TV-is also based on virtual communication, this communication, as a result, is very much relying on/using real-time experiences. Technologies through software programmes such as Motorola social TV and Boxee allow the audiences to watch programmes and also recommend these programmes to others (Habes, Elareshi, Youssef et al., 2022). For example, students in New Zealand prefer to watch different social TV channels due to greater internet and service accessibility. Due to this larger usage, social TV also helps them to share and discuss their experiences with others. As a result, they not only enjoy watching television, also having real-time experiences (Gedera, 2014). According to Odunaiya et al. (2020), as social TV is a great combination of conventional television and social media, it provides greater opportunities to connect with others. Many now prefer to share their social TV experiences on other different social networking platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc.), which further enable them to experience watching even on multiple-screen as well (Jihyun Jihyun Kim & Kelly Merrill, 2022;Nielsen, 2019). As a distinguished multi-screening and multi-tasking platform, social TV enhances audiences' real-time watching experiences as shared screens are just like shared online events (Guo, 2019).

H1
: Social TV has impact on watching experiences.

H2
: Social TV has impact on real-time watching.

Social TV, digital content, and face-to-face communication
The development of new technologies such as mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, and etc. television watching becomes just a single click away (Jihyun Kim et al., 2020). Earlier television was a greater invention for many decades and years to come, but its viewing content is timed and scheduled. Today, with the advanced technologies, however, our required viewing content is digitalized. For example, producers can upload/share their content on multiple platforms, making viewers either sign in or just join the relevant programmes to view such content. Such technologies have transformed our daily life as portable digital devices serve several purposes (Guo, 2019). These portable devices are converging the social media and interpersonal communication patterns. For example, social TV users utilize these devices for communicating (face-to-face or virtually) with their friends, family, and relatives. This is because, perhaps entertainment and communication are the prominent purposes behind social TV usage (Wohn & Na, 2011). Wohn and Na (2011) further cited an example of content shared on Twitter regarding social TV communication and interaction, using content analysis of Twitter posts. They indicated that users actively searched for the accounts and posts where people had shared their experiences about social TV. Most users shared reviews about different entertainment programmes which were viewed, liked, and retweeted by others. As noted by Auverset and Billings (Auverset & Billings, 2016), one of the most effective conversations about social TV experiences was undertaken on Twitter and other social networking platforms. For example, in one case, the Twitter-based conversation about a famous series "The Walking Dead", an American post-apocalyptic horror television series based on the comic book series by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. The episodes have received immediate attention led to longer threads of comments (Auverset & Billings, 2016).

H3
: Social TV has impact on digital content.

H4
: Social TV has impact on face-to-face communication.

Watching experiences, perceived usefulness, and motivation
According to Venkatesh (2000), research has greatly witnessed the role of perceived usefulness in motivating continuous adoption and technology usage in general. From domestic level technology acceptance to industrial technology incorporation, perceived usefulness is the primary determinant of technology acceptance and adoption process (users' experience). In this regard, Hamid et al. (2016) cited an example of an e-governance system in Malaysia, where publicly acknowledge the use of digital technology in most governmental matters. They found that the digitalised system is a pathway to efficient working and useful results. In our context, social TV usage is accompanied by a similar quality (perceived usefulness) as useful outcomes regarding communication, education, and knowledge sharing, which are an integral part of social TV. Preferring social TV is fruitful as communication between users enhances and leading them to enjoy and socialise while watching television (Jahangir & Begum, 2008). Furthermore, J. S. Lin et al. (2016) examined the impact of social TV watching on audiences' behaviour and indicated that users' experiences with watching social TV are described as satisfied with the customisation facilities available on this platform. For example, respondents were able to watch their favourite programmes without any barriers such as time restrictions. Therefore, this led them perhaps to watch more social TV and motivated others to do so. In fact, recommendations from friends and relatives would play a key role in motivating followers to watch recommended programmes in real time or afterwards.

Real-time, motivation and perceived usefulness
Research indicated that viewers watch TV programmes from multiple devices (4.8 different devices), especially during Covid-19 (Hardesty, 2020). These viewers watch television and keep on sharing their experiences on social media. This experience-sharing behaviour is evidence of the social media integration in our daily life through entertainment and information sharing behaviour (Lanlan et al., 2019;Youssef, 2020). As social TV provides us with both real-time communication and television watching experiences, today's audiences are more motivated and encouraged by others to rely on social TV. It becomes important for them to have an efficient way to manage different platforms on their smart TVs, apps, and other platforms. Such interaction, where the users can become active consumers and also show experience-sharing behaviour ( Elserogy, 2013). As noted by Selva (2015), the concept of social TV promoted the idea of "We the Audience". This is important as it is accompanied as it has highlighted the importance of smart TVs, e.g., in elections, live sports events, etc.
Social TV, therefore, can convince viewers to a mutual agreement leading to perceive social TV as a useful platform, e.g., users can connect to their followers before, during and after the programme. In fact, early studies on social TV found that over 08% of primetime Twitter users constantly tweet about their watching TV programmes, with 72% of them tweeting in real time while watching (Nagy & Midha, 2014). Studies indicate that more than 75% of social TV users sharing their experiences on Twitter indicate the extent to which it provides real-time communication and opinion sharing experiences. The more people share their experiences (before, during, after viewing), the more they become dependent on such platform to satisfy their needs (Odunaiya et al., 2020), which makes social TV becomes more important to them (W. W. Shao & Ross, 2015).

Digital content, motivation, and perceived usefulness
As social TV is mainly accompanied by the digitalization of traditional television, meaning the content is more available and accessible through smart devices and free of geographic and cultural barriers (Jihyun Jihyun Kim & Kelly Merrill, 2022). To some extent, its content can be easily shared on social media as the result of users' activities (Stollfuß, 2018). For example, two famous reality shows "The Voice" and "X-Factor" are purely based on social TV and are widely discussed on Twitter. Not only do fans post/share the digitalised content but also the judges and contestants actively participate in sharing their experiences. As a result, the audience feels motivated to actively participate in online debates, comments about the shows, share short clips with URLs that further help others to directly access and watch the content conveniently. Pynta et al. (2014) note that social TV accelerates the multi-screen behaviour that motivates interaction and communication between the audiences. Accordingly, the perception of digitalised content greater usefulness would lead users to pay more attention to social TV content and watch them (Nam et al., 2019).

Face-to-face communication, motivations, and perceived usefulness
As mentioned earlier, the rapid booming in technological arenas also led to the rise of social TV, the motive was to merge entertainment, communication, and information on a single platform (Stollfuß, 2018). In this content, face-to-face communication is a major motivation factor that could accelerate social TV watching, as the audience expects to share their experiences with others' online/offline communication. While online communication is understood by users' comments, chat, etc., with each other, the offline/face-to-face communication is found when users meet with each other to even talk about content and programmes shared before. For example, social TV provides a platform for face-to-face, computer-mediated interpersonal communication facility to create an impression of watching television with the family or a group of friends (Bründl et al., 2017). However, this concept has always been existed yet progressed over time. Initially, it was television watching on a similar room with friends/family, and now the environment is virtualised and improved through the active selection of content. However, still, the motive is similar for all to watch together, enjoy, interact, and share experiences (Stollfuß, 2018). According to Auverset and Billings (Auverset & Billings, 2016), facilitating mediated communication between television audiences is largely known as the concept of second-screen. During television watching, the audience is also dedicating to sharing their opinion through other smart devices. For Kim (2019) social TV accelerates cross-cultural media consumption as it enables accessing other cultures, watching their content, sharing experiences, and influencing others to watch and experience it as well.

Perceived usefulness and virtual reality through interactivity
The development of interactive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) has greatly influenced our perception of technology use. As a result, VR focuses much on sustaining interactivity between the users and the content. It is also notable that adopting and preferring VR is not a simplistic and one-way process. It involves evaluation, compatibility, and judgment. In other words, VR adoption takes place when individuals find its usefulness enough to meet their needs (Roussou, 2001). For example, many distance learning institutions worldwide prefer using VR to conduct online classes and provide their students with a real-time, online interaction just like a formal learning environment. Institutions find VR accompanied by interactivity-based technology, serving the purposes of real-time student-teacher interaction. Users are encouraged to adopt it to feel similarly formal classroom learning environment (Lan, 2020). Huang et al. (2021) indicated that interactivity is the main factor that motivates users to adopt VR and attain its usefulness. As users consider social TV a complete package of information, interactivity, and entertainment, they would consider VR as a primary platform for TV watching and interacting with others.
H9: Interactivity moderates the relationship between perceived usefulness and virtual reality.

Motivation and virtual reality through interactivity
VR creates psychological and sensory impacts for the users as similar to real-time experiences. The availability of VR in a wider range of technological arenas and motivation to gain advanced experiences could be a vital factor behind VR adoption (Zaiets, 2021). Once again the example of virtual learning environment helps us to understand the motivation as a primary reason behind VR adoption. The increase of virtual learning in different fields such as education is an evolution of computer-based training and computer-assisted instruction (Pantelidis, 2010). According to (Chen et al., 2019), virtual reality is a combination of technological enhances such as 3D near-eye displays, intelligent interaction technology, and intelligent display technology that provide users an immersive feel of a virtual world, with a real-time interactive environment. These virtual environment-based interactive services also increased the human-computer harmony and realtime experiences. For example, when users hold a basketball in a virtual environment, they can feel its weight, and even throwing the ball towards the basket is also felt (Yu, 2011).
H10: Interactivity moderates the relationship between motivation and virtual reality.

Sample and procedure
Data collection was conducted from UAE University (a well-known university in UAE) that has over 13,000 students in campus with respondents from whom representative samples may be selected, using an online survey. The study used the following criteria to conduct the online survey: 1: narrowing down our targeted population (e.g., those students who are having social media accounts, having used/experienced a social TV); 2: structuring the survey based on the study's aims; 3: using the university emailing list to send the survey; and 4: sending two reminders to students to encourage them to participate. A random selection of 354 respondents answered our call to participate in this research over the period of May to August 2022 (Table 1). A cross-sectional study design is used with closed-ended questionnaires for the data collection purposes, measured on a five-point Likert scale. Data were manipulated, coded, and analysed data using the SmartPLS. Ethically, this research adopted the ethical guidelines proposed by Creswell (2014), which include the use of informed consent, respondents' information protection, and voluntary participation, as well as no physical, psychological, legal, or financial harm resulted from this research.

Convergent validity analysis
To examine the internal consistency of constructs, we conducted a convergent validity analysis of our research model. First, we examined the construct reliability and found that all the Cronbach's alpha (CA) values are ranging from .701 to .832 and all the composite reliability (CR) values are ranging from .708 to .895. Thus, all the CA and CR values are exceeding the threshold value of 0.07, indicating that the model is successfully established. Moreover, all the Factor Loading (FL) values are also greater than the threshold value of 0.05 (Table 2) and the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values are ranging from .726 to .808, indicating that the convergent validity is strongly established.

Discriminant validity
A two-criterion validity (Fornell and Larcker, and Heterotrait-Monotrait ratio scales) was important to determine the discriminant validity of the research model (Table 3). Thus, the research also involves discriminant validity assessment. All the squared (R 2 ) values of AVE were greater than the correlation values, indicating that the discriminant validity criterion was partially fulfilled. Likewise, the correlation matrix of the research items that were calculated using the Heterotrait-Monotrait formula found that with the HTMT value at 0.71, the discriminant validity criterion is completely fulfilled.

The goodness of fit
Smart PLS conveniently performs fit measures analysis such as RMS Theta, Chi-square, and exact-r criteria. The SRMR shows the discrepancies between observed correlations and inferred correlations. If the SRMR value is less than 0.85, it indicates an appropriate t-measure. Similarly, the Normed Fit Index (NFI) value is less than is suitable when the obtained value is greater than 0.90. The geodesic distance or d_G value shows a discrepancy between empirical covariance using the composite factor model as suggested by Hair et al. (2017). Moreover, SRMR helps to determine the degree of the outer model correlation and is according to the residual models. Table 4 indicates that the model of good fit observing the RMS Theta value is higher serving the Smart PLS model validation.

Coefficients of determination R 2
After examining the internal consistency of the research model, the predictive power of the research model was run through the coefficients of determination R 2 . Table 5 shows that all the R 2 values are ranging from 0.598 to 1.025, indicating that the predictive potential of our model is moderately strong.

Hypotheses testing
Further, the relationships between study variables as proposed in the research model were examined (Table 6). For this purpose, the path analysis by using the SmartPLS as noted by   Pavlov et al. (2021), SEM is an important technique to model the multivariate data that were conducted. Notably, the path analysis helps to examine the theoretical relationship between the research variables (Grapentine, 2000). Six of our hypotheses were validated, with four of them were rejected. The analysis revealed that there was a strong significant relationship between social TV, real-time (t = 13.597, p ≥ 0.000), experiences (t = 11.934, p ≥ 0.000), digital content (t = 18.506, p ≥ 0.000), and face-to-face communication (t = 14.111, p ≥ 0.000). Similarly, the relationship between experiences and motivation was also accepted (t = 9.076, p ≥ 0.004). A strong, positive relationship between real-time and motivation was found (t = 9.711, p ≥ 0.000). Also, the relationships between virtual reality, perceived usefulness (t = 4.872, p ≥ 0.000), and motivation (t = 11.073, p ≥ 0.009) were also affirmed.
Finally, based on the above findings, regression analysis is used to determine the impact of perceived usefulness and motivation on virtual reality acceptance. We assumed that perceived usefulness and motivation will have a positive impact on virtual reality acceptance. To verify this assumption, we run linear regression test through the PLS-SEM equation: Virtual reality = β 0 + β 1 PU + β 2 MTN + ε According to the findings, while interactivity appeared to have impact on the relationship between perceived usefulness and virtual reality acceptance (β = 0.383, p = 0.000), interactivity has no influence on the relationship between motivation and virtual reality acceptance (β = 0.272, p = 0.234). These findings supported (H9) but rejected (H10). This is an indication that perceived  usefulness with interactivity as a moderating variable has impact on virtual reality acceptance, not with motivation.

Discussion
According to Cesar and Geerts (Cesar & Geerts, 2011), the concept of social TV is a collaboration of entertainment, sharing, communication, and information all at once with the help of television viewing. Social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook and other specific digital chatroom boxes such as Umi, Skype TV, and Kinect are prominent examples of social TV. Over time, social TV will be expanded through adding virtual reality, which further enhanced social TV as the real-time digital space where watching and sharing became common just like non-virtual television watching environment (Habes, Elareshi, Youssef et al., 2022). For this aspect, this study attempted to examine the role of digital technology e.g., virtual reality in enhancing social TV experiences and contributed to the literature on media technology, communication, and information sharing (Gamito et al., 2010). Our investigation was guided by ten hypotheses as follows.
Overall, on the relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables, we found that there were significant relationships between social TV and experiences, real time, digital content, and face-to-face communication. Such relationships indicated that, for example, the more users use social TV in their lives, the more they get understand its functions by not only enjoying watching TV, they can share their real-time experience with others as Odunaiya et al. (2020) state. It seemed that watching social TV in real time has impact on users' perceptions of such new digital technology by the ability of users/viewers to share different content that used to be only viewed in scheduled time in normal TV. In addition, viewing social TV allows users to utilize different devices-while watching-for communication and interaction with friends, family, and relatives. These results were consistent with the existing literature (Houfey & Elserogy, 2013;Jahangir & Begum, 2008;Odunaiya et al., 2020;Wohn & Na, 2011).
These studies individually considered these four factors as a dynamic and fundamental part of social TV watching experiences. For example, Harboe (2010) indicated that apart from the traditional concept of "just watching" the television, now we are the most active audience with a wider choice of content and sharing it with others. To explain the previous components of social TV, from the historical Harboe (2010), cited an example of Prestel, that was a videotext system (a type of initial social TV where the traditional television was computers and connected for the communication purposes). Prestel was first time launched in 1979 from the British Post Office in collaboration with British Telecommunication. The system gained much popularity, and it remained as an integral part of Post Office proceedings till 1994. Despite later, the system was converted to desktop computers as the email was resumed sending and receiving, the concept of social TV stayed alive in communication patterns used by the computer systems (Harboe, 2010). This means that merging information and communication with entertainment has been long rooted, yet the actual concept took some time to develop (Cesar & Geerts, 2011), which is also validated in the current research.
Furthermore, the concept of perceived usefulness also showed a stronger validity, and the finding was consistent with the prior research (Lanlan et al., 2019). They also found perceived usefulness as one of the primary determinants of behavioural intention. According to M. H. Fagan et al. (2008), perceived usefulness provides stronger support to better understand the acceptance behaviour. In our study, while perceived usefulness is named as "Intrinsic motivation", which strongly affects behaviour intention to use virtual reality for social TV, it is not clear why motivation has no impact on virtual reality. Yet, the findings supported the TAM model (Davis, 1989), confirming the impact of perceived usefulness towards virtual reality acceptance. Unluckily, motivation factor demonstrated no relationship with/impact on virtual reality. These results were also compatible with the studies conducted previously to examine the factors influencing virtual reality adoption (Alam et al., 2021;M. M. Fagan et al., 2012;Kaminska et al., 2017;Zaiets, 2021). Alam et al. (2021) indicated that when users find technology as beneficial to gratify their needs, they intend to adopt/acceptance it. For example, social TV through virtual reality can be used for gaming, medical purposes, and education for more meaningful and realistic experiences (Abd Majid & Mohd Shamsudin, 2019).
Thus, despite some of the hypotheses were rejected, we found a significant role of virtual reality in improving social TV-watching experiences (Odunaiya et al., 2020). According to Williams et al. (2009), TV still plays a central social role in households. The presence of different and even improved webbased social TV services such as Netflix, Amazon, Xbox Live, WIO, TankTOP TV, and other services heralds for even stronger and improved services for the users (Dehghani et al., 2021).

Conclusion
This study examines the social TV experiences of Jordanian young audiences regarding using virtual reality (VR) acceptance to understand their experiences with such new technology. As perceived by respondents, social TV has potential advantages of enhancing technology acceptance through virtual reality technology. It was clear that different factors have affected social TV watching among our respondents and these were linked to users' experiences of watching social TV, their real time, the ability to use digital content to share their views and comments, and communication with others. Interestingly, factors such as experiences, real time, and digital content have no effect on users' perceived social TV as usefulness. We have not clear answer on such a result. Perceived usefulness was only significantly linked to interactivity and virtual reality, while motivation was indirectly effected interactivity and virtual reality.
However, watching social TV is not free from challenges in the Arab world including the issue of digital connection, communication, and interaction between viewers. Therefore, as virtual reality becomes an incorporated tool in education, entertainment, tourism, business, etc., its usage with social TV is even more optimistic, ensuring even more technological advancements in the near future.

Implications
Unlike the existing studies regarding virtual reality and social TV, this study offers several implications for the adoption of virtual reality technique in relation to social TV. For example, the findings indicated that the use of social TV is not limited to the provision of users' experience, real time, digital content, and face-to-face communication through virtual reality (Houfey & Elserogy, 2013;Odunaiya et al., 2020;Wohn & Na, 2011). It includes other challenges as well such as perceived usefulness and motivations to use/adopt virtual reality, and the required knowledge and experience in using such technique in watching social TV. Thus, the study findings offer valuable recommendations for TV producers, marketing strategies, decision-makers in the Arab world, especially in Jordan, as paying more attention to the perceptions of users' of both social TV and virtual reality. This can be done through the provision of supportive equipment and technologies from the service providers. Moreover, it seems that most respondents were aware of both social TV concept and virtual reality technology, which has generated a new set of challenges such as how social TV producers continue to offer affordable new technology for their viewers (e.g., virtual reality) to watch and interact with them.

Limitations and future research
Although our findings offer implications into viewer responses to using VR acceptance, this study has some limitations. Notably, the study population was limited young adults that narrow down its scope and generalisability. The latter also questions the generalisability of results in other regions. The study involved only some of the selected variables, which is another major limitation. However, we made every possible effort to examine the relevant technological phenomenon in the best possible manner and recommend more studies regarding using virtual reality in relation to social TV to further conduct an in-depth analysis of technological improvements. Finally, the increase in time users spend online activities and social media including watching and sharing TV content could have impact on users' real social communication and interaction which must be addressed in future research.