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During the digital media era with an explosion of messages, the prevalence of what is known as “message fatigue” has grown. However, there is a lack of understanding toward message fatigue in using instant messengers. Based on the stressor-strain-outcome framework, this study provides a theoretical model to explore possible predictors and consequences of instant messaging fatigue.

The hypothesized model includes communication overload, social overload, instant messaging fatigue, technology and behavioral intention to use instant messaging. Three hundred and eleven responses are collected using an online survey. The authors conduct structural equation modeling to evaluate the hypothesized model and test the hypotheses.

This study reveals that (1) communication overload and social overload are positively associated with instant messaging fatigue and technostress; (2) higher levels of instant messaging fatigue and technostress are also related to a higher level of intention to discontinue usage; (3) technostress significantly mediates the relationship between instant messaging fatigue and intention to discontinue usage of instant messaging.

This study is limited to collect data from one university in the United States with a cross-sectional design. Future research should include other countries, different age groups and longitudinal methods to examine instant messaging fatigue.

This study extends existing findings on fatigue in using mobile communication by applying the stressor-strain-outcome framework to IM fatigue and improves the understanding of the potential negative aspects of instant messaging.

Instant messaging and e‐mail are popular communication methods on college campuses. However, students' perceptions of the two technologies vary greatly. This study seeks to investigate the differences between instant messaging and e‐mail.

A survey was given to 545 college students.

Instant messaging is perceived as offering many advantages over e‐mail including conveying emotions, building relationships and ease of use (EU). Users are more likely to use symbols with their instant messages to help communicate. College students find both technologies to be easy to use, but show a preference for the EU of instant messaging. However, despite its perceived functional benefits, instant messaging is only the favored form of communication for personal and social relationships.

This paper builds on existing research by discussing information richness, EU, the use of emotions, multimedia, playfulness, flow, cognitive fit theory, bounded rationality, perceived commitment, and user satisfaction in the course of the study.

With the growth of digital education, students increasingly interact in a variety of ways. The potential effects of these interactions on their learning process are not fully understood and the outcomes may depend on the tool used. This study explores the communication patterns and learning effectiveness developed by students using two basic synchronous and asynchronous communication tools in e-learning environments, specifically business simulation games.

The authors conduct a quasi-experiment research with 478 online business students, 267 of whom used online discussion forums and 211 interacted via an instant messaging app. The application of learning analytics and text mining on natural language processing allows us to explore the student communication patterns with each of tools and their effectiveness in terms of learning.

The results confirm the complementarity of the communication tools, asynchronous tools being especially the suitable for task-related communication and synchronous ones for speeding up and facilitating student social interactions.

The main value of this research lies in the use of data analytics and text mining to access and analyse the content of student interactions to assess the learning process in greater depth, comparing synchronous and asynchronous learning modes, considering that little is known about the impact of online synchronous interaction or instant messaging, and even less about the different features, content and performance that emerge when these two learner interaction modalities are compared.

The purpose of this study is to examine the dark side of instant messaging from the technological and societal perspectives.

With the help of literature review and different theories, a model has been developed conceptually. Later the model has been validated using statistical method. The authors have used 304 responses from the survey method, and this sample has been used to statistically validate the conceptual model.

This paper has been able to explicitly investigate and identify how different instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, WeChat in the form of electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) are contributing toward increase of mob lynching cases. The paper also highlights the important to have effective and enforceable regulation to regulate instant messaging services to the citizens.

The findings cannot be generalized as the data is collected from India only. Moreover, the study is cross-sectional in nature. To get the comprehensive results, a longitudinal study needs to be conducted. This study considered seven constructs with one moderator. Having more predictors with other boundary conditions might have increased the explanative power of the model.

Instant messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, WeChat and so on are disseminating quick unverified information to the common people. This information sometimes is disseminated in inappropriate and exaggerated forms. This makes the instant messaging (WhatsApp) users' sentiment readily heated in some cases. They take such an action as mob lynching. This study determines the predictors of mob lynching along with the moderator impact of instant messaging in the society.

There are only a few studies those have explored the dark side of instant messaging. The proposed theoretical model is a unique model, which shows the predictors of mob lynching along with the negative consequences of the instant messaging (WhatsApp) in the society. From this perspective, this study can be considered as a unique study.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the use of instant messaging for communications.Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes studies carried out regarding the service, staffing, and economic and technological aspects of instant messagingFindings – Instant messaging was found to be a useful tool in helping to find relevant information to enquiries.Originality/value – The paper shows how developments in software and internet connections have made instant messaging a useful tool.

Web services refer to a specific set of technologies used to implement a Service Oriented Architecture. Thanks to maturing Web‐services standards, and to new mobile devices and application solutions, progress is being made in presenting similar Web‐services offerings in both mobile and fixed networks. To bring that architecture and the solutions it will support to the world of mobility is indeed a significant issue in m‐business applications, because mobile Web services present various advantages: Reduction of the overall cost of development (by reusing existing system components), faster time to market introduction of products (provided by applications’ rapid development and deployment) and remarkable possibilities to emerge new applications with increased functionalities. In addition, the new and forthcoming mobile networks, with native IP connection and high speed transmission capability, allow the development of a variety of modern multimedia services. Multimedia Messaging Services (capable to mix the media types in order to enable more intuitive messaging operation), and Instant Messaging and Presence Services (dedicated for presence, instant messaging, and distribution and sharing of multimedia content in groups of users), provide suitable underlying capabilities to support location‐based and context‐sensitive multimedia services. In this paper we will present the current approaches regarding architectural, functional and security features that allow enterprises to enjoy the benefits of traditional Web services in the mobile multimedia domain.

The use of instant messaging (IM) technology for providing online reference services is increasing by leaps and bounds. This article compares a digital reference service, Morris Messenger, with traditional, face‐to‐face reference, using quantitative and qualitative data from experience with this service at Morris Library, Southern Illinois University. The article addresses differences arising from the medium itself, differences in the categories of reference questions received, using several different categorization schemes, and differences in factors affecting willingness to return, to determine strengths and weaknesses of this medium. Since many libraries are considering implementing such a service, it also describes what it is like for staff to provide reference service this way and suggests ways of addressing some of the challenges of this new medium.

The primary goal of this longitudinal study was to examine whether technology use predicts substance use and/or whether substance use predicts technology use during adolescence.

The sample included 1,031 10th and 11th grade students from the Mid-Atlantic United States. The students completed surveys in school in the spring of 2007 and 2008.

Gender differences in technology use were observed with girls texting, e-mailing/instant messaging, and working on the computer more than boys, and boys playing video games more than girls. Technology use also predicted later substance use for boys and girls. Importantly, technology use was observed to have both negative and positive effects on youth. Substance use also predicted later technology use for girls.

The sample only included adolescents from the Mid-Atlantic United States. In addition, the measures were based on self-reports. Nevertheless, results from this study highlight the importance of considering both negative and positive effects of technology on adolescents. Of note, social types of technology (texting and e-mailing) predicted more substance use for both boys and girls. As such, substance use prevention programs should target these types of technology.

Findings from this study underscore the importance of examining both directions of influence between technology use and adolescent adjustment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of mobile messaging for the purposes of information sharing and social networking based on the types of social ties involved. The authors identify two psychological traits in the model: perceived time shortages (TSs) and anxiety trait. These traits can influence individuals’ mobile-messaging usage by facilitating users’ connections to different social ties in modern urban life.

The authors distributed questionnaires at random on the streets of certain densely populated areas in Hong Kong to young urbanites, who are the dominant users of technological social media. The authors collected 492 valid responses, which the authors analysed via multivariate regression analysis.

Mobile messages are more effectively used to share information within strongly tied groups rather than weakly tied groups. However, there is little difference between weakly and strongly connected groups in terms of the perceived effectiveness of mobile messages used for social networking. Anxious people are more inclined to send mobile messages to individuals with whom they have weak ties, and people who perceived TSs send more mobile messages to individuals with whom they have strong ties.

The rapid nature of information and communication technology has enabled new “richer” forms of mobile media. For instance, WhatsApp allows people to attach images and other multimedia files to their messages, and WeChat provides a location-sharing service that enables users to meet new people based on their friendship preferences. Future studies should examine this trend.

This study contributes to the literature by elaborating the mobile-messaging behaviour of urban citizens who are anxious and perceive TSs within strongly and weakly connected social groups.