This study employs Identity Regulation Theory (IRT) to investigate how identity-related psychological tensions, such as identity incongruence and dissonance, influence the discontinuation intentions of social media users. Using a cross-sectional survey of 294 active users via Prolific Academic, structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyze the relationships among these tensions, platform fatigue, and discontinuation. Results show neither tension directly affects discontinuation, but both influence it through platform fatigue. This offers a new perspective on the psychological costs of social media, with fatigue serving as a key mediator in transforming identity tension into discontinuation intent. The paper adds to IRT research and helps firms understand why users leave social media.

The emergence of the urban sophisticate consumer has led to changing consumption patterns in the global retail landscape. While there has been a surge in academic literature examining various aspects of urban sophistication, empirical studies examining the attributes of the urban sophisticated consumer in the context of fashion apparel, fashion accessories, and grooming products still need to be included. This study investigates the concept of ‘urban sophisticate’ consumers in the context of marketing, branding, and retailing for the first time. It has proposed a conceptual framework for retailing to urban sophisticates through a qualitative inductive method based on the empirical analysis of the open essay-based responses collected from working men in the UK. The factors making this consumer segment lucrative for retailers include high spending power, focus on appearance, desire for quality, and the availability of unique products as per their preferences. Urban sophisticate consumers prefer modern, high-end fashion items and have shown displeasure towards unsustainable fast fashion. The study's findings will benefit grooming product companies, fashion apparel and accessories marketers, and retailers by providing insights into the behaviour of urban sophisticate consumers. Furthermore, this study could be a turning point to elicit marketers' experimentation in designing new products and expanding their product base to include additional product offerings that could interest urban sophisticates.