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Article
Publication date: 11 March 2024

Hao Zhang, Mengjie Dong and Xueting Zhang

This study seeks to explore the impact of “fear of missing out” (FOMO) and “psychological enhancement” (PE) on addiction to social media applications, subsequently influencing…

Abstract

Purpose

This study seeks to explore the impact of “fear of missing out” (FOMO) and “psychological enhancement” (PE) on addiction to social media applications, subsequently influencing users' life satisfaction and continuous usage intention.

Design/methodology/approach

This research involved the administration of two sets of questionnaires during distinct periods: December 15 to December 30, 2022 and August 26 to September 2, 2023. The participants were college students from three universities in China, and the data collection utilized the “Questionnaire Star” platform. Only responses deemed valid and consistent were included in the subsequent statistical analysis. A total of 1,108 valid samples were used for the final analysis. Analyses including reliability, validity, path analysis, structural equation modeling, mediation effects and moderation effects were conducted using SPSS and AMOS software.

Findings

The study revealed that both FOMO and PE exerted positive influences on users' addiction to social media applications. Furthermore, this addiction was found to have a negative effect on users' life satisfaction while simultaneously contributing positively to their intention to continue using these platforms. The mediating effect of social media application addiction and the moderating impact of self-regulation were also substantiated through the analysis.

Research limitations/implications

Firstly, it is important to note that the research population of this study is limited to college students, which may limit its generalizability and representativeness. Although college students are a group known for their familiarity with and frequent use of smartphones and social media apps, the findings may not fully capture the behaviors of social media app users in other age groups. To enhance the understanding of social media app addiction across different age groups, future studies should consider expanding the research population and conducting multi-group difference analyses. Secondly, while focusing on specific users within a particular region can minimize unexplained variance in model estimation, it may also restrict the broader applicability of the study results. Therefore, future studies should consider testing the research model with diverse groups from different regions and cultural backgrounds. This approach will provide valuable insights into how social media app addiction may vary across various contexts, thereby enriching our understanding of this phenomenon.

Practical implications

Our findings reveal that in the “attention economy” environment shaped by addiction, social media app managers should leverage technology to swiftly and accurately target audiences, attract them to their platforms and cultivate long-term relationships. Encouraging users to develop new beneficial habits through app-specific functions and precise services will foster continuous usage and unlock revenue and marketing opportunities for app companies.

Social implications

Despite the extensive scholarly discourse on social media application addiction, there is a lack of a well-defined framework delineating how addictive user behaviors can be leveraged in the marketing strategies of social media application platforms. The present study seeks to address these gaps, contributing to a better understanding of the formation mechanisms and knowledge systems related to social media application addiction. By investigating the causes and consequences of such addiction, this research offers valuable insights and recommendations for the innovative development of these apps, given their widespread popularity. Concurrently, the study establishes a theoretical basis for the concept that users can mitigate the negative effects of social media addiction by exercising their own self-regulation.

Originality/value

As the functionalities and features of social media apps converge, their individual uniqueness starts to diminish, intensifying the competition among social media companies. This escalating rivalry places higher demands on these companies. This study aims to aid social media app companies in comprehending and analyzing the diverse psychological needs of users. By enriching their platform features and services, leading users towards addiction and gaining an edge in the “Attention Economy” competition. Understanding and catering to users' needs will be instrumental in thriving within this dynamic and evolving attention economy landscape.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-5855

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 February 2024

Doris Ochterbeck, Colleen M. Berryessa and Sarah Forberger

Neuroscientific research on addictions has prompted a paradigm shift from a moral to a medical understanding – with substantial implications for legal professionals’ interactions…

Abstract

Purpose

Neuroscientific research on addictions has prompted a paradigm shift from a moral to a medical understanding – with substantial implications for legal professionals’ interactions with and decision-making surrounding individuals with addiction. This study complements prior work on US defense attorney’s understandings of addiction by investigating two further perspectives: the potential “next generation” of legal professionals in the USA (criminal justice undergraduates) and legal professionals from another system (Germany). This paper aims to assess their views on the brain disease model of addiction, dominance and relevance of this model, the responsibility of affected persons and preferred sources of information.

Design/methodology/approach

Views of 74 US criminal justice undergraduate students and 74 German legal professionals were assessed using Likert scales and open-ended questions in an online survey.

Findings

Neuroscientific research findings on addictions and views that addiction is a brain disease were rated as significantly more relevant by American students to their potential future work than by German legal professionals. However, a majority of both samples agreed that addiction is a brain disease and that those affected are responsible for their condition and actions. Sources of information most frequently used by both groups were publications in legal academic journals.

Practical implications

In the USA, information for legal professionals needs to be expanded and integrated into the education of its “next generation,” while in Germany it needs to be developed and promoted. Legal academic journals appear to play a primary role in the transfer of research on addiction into legal practice.

Originality/value

This study complements prior work on US defense attorney’s understandings of addiction by investigating two further perspectives.

Details

Journal of Criminal Psychology, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2009-3829

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 February 2024

Il Bong Mun

This study longitudinally investigated the predictors and mediators of adolescent smartphone addiction by examining the impact of parental smartphone addiction at T1 on adolescent…

Abstract

Purpose

This study longitudinally investigated the predictors and mediators of adolescent smartphone addiction by examining the impact of parental smartphone addiction at T1 on adolescent smartphone addiction at T3, as well as the separate and sequential role of adolescent self-esteem and depression at T2 as mediating factors.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used a hierarchical regression and the PROCESS macro (Model 6) to investigate research model by collecting 3,904 parent-adolescent pairs. Panel data were collected from three waves of the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey (KCYPS).

Findings

First, the result showed that parental smartphone addiction at T1 significantly and positively predicted adolescent smartphone addiction at T3. Second, the serial mediation analysis revealed that the impact of parental smartphone addiction at T1 on adolescent smartphone addiction at T3 was mediated by adolescent self-esteem and depression at T2 independently and serially.

Originality/value

The findings enhance our comprehension of the impact of parental smartphone addiction, adolescent self-esteem and depression, on adolescent smartphone addiction.

Details

Internet Research, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 October 2012

Helena Hansen and Samuel K. Roberts

Purpose – To compare the histories of two opioid medications that are pharmacologically similar but subject to contrasting regulations in their use in treatment of opiate…

Abstract

Purpose – To compare the histories of two opioid medications that are pharmacologically similar but subject to contrasting regulations in their use in treatment of opiate dependence in the United States – methadone and buprenorphine – in order to analyze the role of racial imagery and racial politics in the legalization and clinical promotion of their use.

Methodology/approach – Historical methods of archival analysis of published articles and unpublished governmental records were used in researching methadone. Ethnographic methods of participant observation and semistructured interviews were used in researching buprenorphine.

Findings – Contrasting uses of racial imagery played a major role in shaping the current regulatory differences between the two treatments. The association of methadone with black and Latino heroin users has contributed to its increased federal regulation, while the association of buprenorphine with white, middle class prescription opioid users enabled its use in deregulated private physicians’ offices.

Originality/value of paper – Advocates of biomedicalization of behaviors and conditions thought of as social or moral, such as addiction, argue that biomedicalization reduces the stigma of the condition and imply that, in turn, it also reduces the racial inequalities associated with the condition. This study of the biomedicalization of treatment for opioid dependence indicates that the very process of biomedicalization depended on heightened racial imagery associated with each treatment and ultimately intensified, rather than reduced, the stigma of addiction for black and Latino low-income patients.

Details

Critical Perspectives on Addiction
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-930-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 October 2012

Luther Elliott, Geoffrey Ream and Elizabeth McGinsky

Purpose – To examine video gamers’ attitudes about and perspectives on the controversial topic of video game “addiction.”Approach – Ethnographic interviews and participant…

Abstract

Purpose – To examine video gamers’ attitudes about and perspectives on the controversial topic of video game “addiction.”

Approach – Ethnographic interviews and participant observation with a group of 52 regular video gamers, most also reporting considerable experience with substance use and/or dependence.

Findings – Gamers tended to endorse one of two explanations for video game addiction, either arguing that games operate on the same reward centers in the brain as drugs or that gamers who do become addicted are weak, unintelligent, or actively pursue an addictive state. Several rejected the category of addiction as applied to video gaming due to the lack of withdrawal symptomatology or the confusion of pleasure-seeking with pathology. None offered sociostructural explanations for the phenomenon, despite the relative oversampling of poor and minority participants with low degrees of education.

Research implications – Future research should attend to ideologies of causality and agency among populations affected by behavioral “addictions.”

Practical implications – The perspectives of video gamers themselves are critical to research and advocacy that departs from a position of slightly greater sensitivity, both to the formal dimensions of those games held to be most habit-forming and to the ideological dimensions of video gamers’ thinking about what constitutes “addiction.”

Details

Critical Perspectives on Addiction
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-930-1

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 December 2023

Sabrina Hegner, Janina Magdalena Schaumann, Barbara Francioni and Ilaria Curina

The aim of this paper is to respond to the call for exploring and empirically testing both antecedents and outcomes of brand addiction and compulsive buying behaviour. The focus…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to respond to the call for exploring and empirically testing both antecedents and outcomes of brand addiction and compulsive buying behaviour. The focus of the study is on the food habits of young female consumers.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the hypotheses, a survey design gathering cross-sectional primary data from 325 female Italian consumers and a structural equation modelling have been adopted.

Findings

Findings show that brand addiction is positively influenced by consumer resilience, leading to increased life happiness and self-esteem, while compulsive buying behaviour is negatively influenced by consumer resilience and positively influenced by impulsivity. Compulsive buying is also associated with brand addiction and emotional overeating. Emotional overeating is additionally influenced by impulsivity and the control variables of enjoyment of food and loneliness. Moreover, loneliness has a negative impact on life happiness and self-esteem.

Originality/value

The study applies the proposed theory by Mrad and Cui (2020) on the relationship between brand addiction and compulsive buying to food consumption. Furthermore, it expands on this research by investigating consumer characteristics as determinants and behavioural outcomes.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 126 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 September 2005

Ole-Jørgen Skog

It is argued that addicts, as people in general, are forward-looking and that they try to make the best of what they have got. However, this does not imply that they are fully…

Abstract

It is argued that addicts, as people in general, are forward-looking and that they try to make the best of what they have got. However, this does not imply that they are fully rational. Cognitive defects, instabilities in preferences, and irrationalities in the form of wishful thinking and dynamical inconsistency play an important role in addictive behaviours. These “imperfections” in people's rationality may not have very large consequences in the case of ordinary goods, but their effect can be dramatic in relation to addictive goods. In the first part of the paper, the rational addiction theory and the empirical evidence that have been presented in support of the theory is reviewed. Regarding the conventional tests of the theory by econometric methods, it is argued that the tests are misguided, both theoretically and methodologically. Furthermore, it is claimed that the definition of addiction implicit in the rational addiction theory is unrealistic, and that the theory makes unrealistic assumptions about human nature. Some empirical evidence for these claims is reviewed. It is concluded that although the theory has its virtues, it faces serious problems and must be rejected in its original form. Secondly, the socio-cultural embeddedness of addictive behaviours, and the social roots of individual preferences, are discussed. These issues are more or less ignored in rational addiction theory. It is argued that we cannot expect to obtain a proper understanding of many addictive phenomena, unless they are seen in their proper socio-cultural context.

Details

Substance Use: Individual Behaviour, Social Interactions, Markets and Politics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-361-7

Book part
Publication date: 9 October 2012

Nancy D. Campbell

Purpose – The chapter examines the historical pattern of interconnections between drug policy, research, and treatment in light of recent theoretical developments in the…

Abstract

Purpose – The chapter examines the historical pattern of interconnections between drug policy, research, and treatment in light of recent theoretical developments in the medicalization thesis advanced in the sociology of medicine.

Methodology/approach – The chapter uses interpretive methods to examine how the social construction of addiction as a “chronic, relapsing brain disorder” converges with or diverges from the conceptual framework offered by sociological theorists of medicalization and biomedicalization.

Findings – The approach adopted shows how the meanings of the bio/medicalization of addiction shifted and circulated within and beyond the institutions developed to respond to drug addiction as a hybrid social, medical, and biomedical condition during the 20th century.

Social implications – Bio/medical frameworks for addiction are the outcome of historical attempts to influence public attitudes and develop effective methods to treat and prevent this “disease” in ways that would positively affect the quality of life of people living with addictions.

Originality/value – This original contribution addresses both strengths and limitations of bio/medical models, assessing how their influence has changed over time.

Details

Critical Perspectives on Addiction
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-930-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 17 October 2011

Julie Netherland

Neuroscientific technologies have begun to change the ways in which we understand, respond to, and treat drug addiction. According to addiction researchers, neuroscience marks a…

Abstract

Neuroscientific technologies have begun to change the ways in which we understand, respond to, and treat drug addiction. According to addiction researchers, neuroscience marks a new era because of its potential to locate the causes of addiction within the brain and to treat addiction through altering neurochemistry. However, little is known about how addiction neuroscience and new neurochemical treatments shape individuals' experience of addiction and constitute new arrangements of knowledge and power that shape subjectivity and governance. This chapter addresses these domains by drawing on an analysis of scientific literature about addiction neuroscience and qualitative interviews with people being treated for addiction with buprenorphine, a pharmaceutical treatment for opioid dependence. The chapter charts four major themes in the addiction neuroscience literature (pleasure and the limbic system, rationality and the role of the prefrontal cortex, theories of plasticity, and the role of volition) and explores how each of these is incorporated, adapted, or rejected by individuals being treated for addiction with a pharmaceutical. This analysis demonstrates how neuroscientific ideas are mediated by the lived experiences of those being treated under a neuroscientific model. It also suggests that while neuroscientific interventions, like pharmaceuticals, shape the experience of those being treated for addiction, so too do many other forces, including social circumstances, moral frameworks, the drive for autonomy, and the quest to be “normal.”

Details

Sociological Reflections on the Neurosciences
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-881-6

Book part
Publication date: 9 October 2012

Mark Elam

Purpose – With reference to the long-term struggle to confirm cigarette smoking as a manifestation of nicotine addiction, this chapter explores the extent to which new…

Abstract

Purpose – With reference to the long-term struggle to confirm cigarette smoking as a manifestation of nicotine addiction, this chapter explores the extent to which new understandings of addictions as ‘appetitive disorders’ rather than ‘dependence disorders’ derive from treatment technology development as well as advances in basic scientific research.

Approach – Through historical analysis it is discussed how cigarette smoking only became widely accepted as a real drug problem in the 1980s after it had been shown to be amenable to treatment as such through the use of novel nicotine replacement therapies.

Findings – These replacement therapies succeeded in showing that the same drug that drew users into addiction could be redeployed to help draw up them out of it. Nicorette® could serve as at least the partial antidote to nico-wrong (cigarettes). However, as relapse to smoking has remained the most likely outcome of any smoking cessation attempt, so medicinal nicotine has also served to demonstrate that nicotine addiction is ultimately a problem of an uncontrollable appetite for cigarettes in excess of drug dependence.

Implications – Pharmaceutical incursion on cigarette smoking commencing in the late 1970s pointed to the need for a new mental disease model of drug-related problems while also providing valuable new tools and insights for ensuing brain research.

Details

Critical Perspectives on Addiction
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-930-1

Keywords

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