Quality is Not Enough: the ‘social Override’ Effect and the Primacy of Hedonic Motivation in Gen Z’s EdTech Adoption

What drives Generation Z (Gen Z) university students in Vietnam to adopt and keep using Mobile English Learning Apps: content quality or something else? This study proposes a Social Override effect, that is, a pattern in which peer validation and hedonic engagement, rather than content quality, appear to drive actual use even when information quality is adequate. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, this study analysed survey data from 150 Vietnamese university students alongside 10 semi-structured interviews. Information Quality did not significantly predict actual use (β = 0.147, p = 0.103); Hedonic Motivation did (β = 0.401, p < 0.001). This pattern is consistent with a hygiene-factor interpretation of content quality: its absence may generate dissatisfaction, but its presence does not, on its own, increase usage. The interviews help explain why. In this setting, peer recommendation and group-based app use create a buffer that lets students overlook technical limitations and advertising friction. Among these Gen Z students, trust was expressed through interface aesthetics and social visibility more than through content accuracy. Whether the same pattern holds beyond Vietnamese university students is a question this single study cannot settle.