Gender plays different roles? Examining the dark side of ubiquitous connectivity enabled by personal IT ensembles usage
Information Technology & People
ISSN: 0959-3845
Article publication date: 10 January 2022
Issue publication date: 13 January 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore the negative consequences of ubiquitous connectivity enabled by personal IT ensembles (PITEs) usage; and second, to investigate the gender differences in the adverse effects of ubiquitous connectivity.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employs a socio-technical approach to identify the technical and interpersonal dimensions of PITE-enabled ubiquitous connectivity and develops a theoretical model to investigate their stress-inducing effects based on the framework of technostress. Furthermore, the moderating role of gender is examined based on the social role theory. The authors test the model on a sample of 439 Chinese netizens.
Findings
Ubiquitous technical and interpersonal connectivity induce four stressors: information overload, communication overload, life invasion and privacy invasion. These stressors further lead to psychological exhaustion and reluctance to try new ITs. The ubiquitous technical connectivity exerts stronger effects on stressors for female users than male users, and interpersonal connectivity exerts a stronger effect for male users than female users.
Originality/value
This study primarily contributes to the small amount of research on PITE-enabled ubiquitous connectivity by considering ubiquitous connectivity from a socio-technical perspective and examining the stress-related effects and outcomes of both technical and interpersonal dimensions of ubiquitous connectivity. This study also provides valuable insights into the gender differences in the stress-inducing effects of the two dimensions of ubiquitous connectivity.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This paper is supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71771097, 71810107003), a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of the Ministry of Education (17YJA630140), a grant from the National Social Science Fund of China (18ZDA109), and a graduate educational reform project of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (202114).
Citation
Hu, Y., Zhao, L., Gupta, S. and He, X. (2023), "Gender plays different roles? Examining the dark side of ubiquitous connectivity enabled by personal IT ensembles usage", Information Technology & People, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 165-195. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-07-2020-0520
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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