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1 – 10 of 395
Article
Publication date: 8 October 2019

Adela Chen and Nicholas Roberts

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether four motives – conformity, enhancement, social and coping – mediate relationships between four personality types …

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether four motives – conformity, enhancement, social and coping – mediate relationships between four personality types – agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism and openness to experience – and social networking site (SNS) addiction. Impulse control is included as a moderator.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a survey to collect data at two points in time from 304 SNS users. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

Findings

Empirical results show that conformity, enhancement and coping motives act as mediators between various personality types and SNS addiction. Furthermore, impulse control weakens the effects of two motives – enhancement and social – on SNS addiction.

Research limitations/implications

The research model included only four motives. Future research could investigate other motivational mechanisms and moderators. The research method surveyed university students in the USA; thus, results may not generalize to a different user population. The method also included only one SNS, Facebook.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the literature by showing that motives of SNS use connect personality to SNS addiction. This study also shows that self-reflective factors like impulse control can reduce the positive effects of motives on SNS addiction.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 33 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 August 2019

Xinghua Wang

The purpose of this paper is to develop a mobile social networking service (SNS) addiction scale to measure respondents’ addiction levels.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a mobile social networking service (SNS) addiction scale to measure respondents’ addiction levels.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on the existing literature on the components model of addiction by Griffiths (2005) and mobile SNS addiction, an initial scale in a five-point Likert-format was developed. It was refined through the pilot study with 100 participants and the main study with 423 participants utilizing factor analysis and Rasch analysis.

Findings

Mobile SNS addiction as a behavioral addiction, demonstrated six addiction symptoms: modification, salience, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and relapse, which were interrelated with each other. The mobile SNS addiction scale developed in this study was found to be psychometrically robust and unidimensional.

Practical implications

The mobile SNS addiction scale consists of nine items, thus making it easier and more convenient to be applied to academic research and clinical practice.

Originality/value

The combined use of factor analysis and the Rasch model could largely reduce potential negative effects associated with limitations of classical test theory and improve the chance of developing a psychometrically robust instrument. The mobile SNS addiction scale covers a range of types of SNSs, thus being more generic. The items in the scale are unidimensionally loaded on the latent construct of mobile SNS addiction and demonstrate measurement invariance across respondents of different demographics.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 43 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 February 2020

Mingchuan Gong, Mengli Xu, Adeel Luqman, Lingling Yu and Ayesha Masood

The phenomenon of mobile social networking site (SNS) addiction has become increasingly severe nowadays and brings adverse outcomes to users’ daily life and work efficiency…

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Abstract

Purpose

The phenomenon of mobile social networking site (SNS) addiction has become increasingly severe nowadays and brings adverse outcomes to users’ daily life and work efficiency. However, there are relatively few research probes into the formation process of mobile SNS addiction behavior, and how demographic factors (e.g. gender and age) influence users’ addiction behavior. Adopting the stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) framework, this study examines the effects of three types of technological functions (enjoyment, sociability and information value) on flow in relation to mobile SNS addiction. The authors further proposed gender and age as moderators, which play important roles in influencing the formation of mobile SNS addiction behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

This study examines the formation of mobile SNS addiction with a particular focus on the WeChat app. The authors use a field survey study conducted in China with 351 subjects of WeChat app users to examine thestudy model.

Findings

The results demonstrate that addictive behavior is determined by users’ flow states of using mobile SNS. The flow states, in turn, are influenced by three types of technological functions (enjoyment, sociability and information value). In addition, gender and age act as vital moderators in the model.

Originality/value

First, the authors empirically examine the formation of SNS addiction on the mobile device by adopting the S–O–R framework, which may enrich the addiction literature. Second, the authors reveal the moderating roles of age and gender in affecting the formation process of addiction behavior further. The findings of this research deepen our understanding of users’ addiction behavior. Third, the findings also offer rich insights to prevent mobile SNS addiction.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 49 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 April 2018

Karim Al-Yafi, Mazen El-Masri and Ray Tsai

Social network sites (SNSs) have been common applications attracting a large number of users in Qatar. Current literature remains inconclusive about the relationship between SNS

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Abstract

Purpose

Social network sites (SNSs) have been common applications attracting a large number of users in Qatar. Current literature remains inconclusive about the relationship between SNS usage and users’ academic performance. While one stream confirms that SNS usage may lead to addiction and seriously affect individuals’ academic performance, other studies refer to SNS as learning enablers. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it investigates the SNS usage profiles among the young generation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) represented by Qatar; second, it examines the relationship between the identified SNS usage profiles and their respective users’ academic performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The study follows a quantitative survey-based method that was adapted from Chen’s internet Addiction Scale to fit the context of social networks. Data were collected from students of two universities in Qatar, one private and another public. Respondents’ grade point average was also collected and compared across the different usage profiles to understand how SNS usage behavior affects academic performance.

Findings

Results reveal that there is no linear relationship between SNS usage and academic performance. Therefore, this study further investigates SNS usage profiles and identifies three groups: passive (low usage), engaged (normal usage) and addicted (high usage). It was found that engaged users demonstrate significantly higher academic performance than their passive and addicted peers. Moreover, there is no significant difference in the academic performance between passive and addicted users.

Research limitations/implications

This study is cross-sectional and based on self-reported data collected from university students in Qatar. Further research venues could employ a more general sample covering a longer period, differentiating between messaging tools (e.g. WhatsApp) and other pure SNS (e.g. Twitter), and to cover other aspects than just academic performance.

Originality/value

This study complements research efforts on the influence of technology on individuals and on the society in the GCC area. It concludes that engaged SNS users achieve better academic performance than the addicted or passive users. Contradicting the strong linear relationship between SNS and performance, as claimed by previous studies, is the main originality of this paper.

Details

Journal of Enterprise Information Management, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0398

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 August 2018

A.K.M. Najmul Islam, Matti Mäntymäki and Izak Benbasat

Self-promotion on social networking sites (SNSs) is a controversial issue as it has been attributed to various positive and negative consequences. To better understand the reasons…

1600

Abstract

Purpose

Self-promotion on social networking sites (SNSs) is a controversial issue as it has been attributed to various positive and negative consequences. To better understand the reasons for the mixed consequences and the nature of self-promotion on SNSs, the purpose of this paper is to theorize and empirically investigate the duality of SNS self-promotion and its underlying socio-psychological mechanisms.

Design/methodology/approach

By drawing on the motivational affordance lens and self-determination theory, this study develops a theoretical account of the duality of self-promotion on SNSs. The author places subjective vitality and SNS addiction as the positive and negative consequences of self-promotion. The model was tested using partial least squares technique with data collected from 289 Finnish Facebook users using a survey.

Findings

The results show that self-promotion contributes to both subjective vitality and to SNS addiction. Importantly, exhibitionism attenuates the effect of self-promotion on subjective vitality and amplifies the effect of self-promotion on SNS addiction. The feature-level analysis shows that status updates, adding photos, commenting in others’ posts and profile completeness are the main determinants of self-promotion. Status updates, adding photos and check-ins, in turn, have high exhibitionistic appeal.

Originality/value

To date, the empirical attempts to investigate the duality of SNS use have been rare. In particular, prior research is largely silent in explaining what tilt the outcomes of self-promotion either toward positive or negative direction. The paper fills this theoretical and empirical gap and thus contributes to literature on dualities of SNS use.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. 32 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 May 2020

Isaac Vaghefi, Hamed Qahri-Saremi and Ofir Turel

Extant research has shown the prevalence of social networking site (SNS) addiction and provided evidence for its negative consequences. Given such consequences, it is conceivable…

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Abstract

Purpose

Extant research has shown the prevalence of social networking site (SNS) addiction and provided evidence for its negative consequences. Given such consequences, it is conceivable that some users decide to discontinue their SNS use in response to SNS addiction. This paper examines key mechanisms that translate SNS addiction into discontinuance decisions.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical model is proposed based on the cognitive-affective model of behavior. It is empirically tested with data from 499 SNS users.

Findings

Results show that cognitive dissonance (as primary cognitive response) and guilt (as primary affective response) mediate the relation between SNS addiction and decision to discontinue SNS use, whereas self-accountability and perceived self-efficacy play positive and negative moderating roles. Additional analysis reveals that the effect of guilt on decision to discontinue SNS use follows a nonlinear pattern.

Research limitations/implications

Additional cognitive and affective responses, beyond cognitive dissonance and guilt, as well as additional contextual factors may influence the relation between SNS addiction and decision to discontinue SNS use. In addition, the relation between decisions and actual discontinuance should be examined by future research.

Originality/value

This study highlights important key antecedents of the decision to discontinue SNS use, namely cognitive dissonance, guilt, self-accountability, and perceived self-efficacy, and the mechanisms underlying their influence. It also explains the nonlinear effect of guilt on the decision to discontinue SNS use.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 30 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 February 2013

Inwon Kang, Matthew M. Shin and Chanuk Park

The purpose of this paper is to reinterpret addiction to social network services (SNSs), not from the traditional clinical perspective as a disorder, but from a management…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reinterpret addiction to social network services (SNSs), not from the traditional clinical perspective as a disorder, but from a management perspective as consumer behaviour to examine its possibility as a manageable resource.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was conducted on heavy users of SNSs. Based on the data the authors performed an exploratory factor analysis to define SNS addiction and to construct its dimensions.

Findings

The authors termed SNS addiction as an “addictive consumption trait” (ACT) of SNS and its underlying dimensions are salience, euphoria, immersion, compulsion, and association.

Research limitations/implications

The authors used SNS user behaviour as the sample for their empirical analysis. However there is a variety of other internet services available and different internet services may show different consumer behaviour. Therefore, for future research, the authors suggest conducting a comparative study on the influence of addiction on different types of internet services.

Practical implications

With the newly constructed dimensions of ACT of SNS, firms could find out the causal relationships between the attributes of their SNSs on each dimension of ACT of SNS. Once firms understand the influences of each one of the attributes on ACT of SNS, they can re‐strategise their resource allocation for maximising consumers' ACT of SNS.

Originality/value

SNS addiction has been viewed as a clinical disorder for treatment. The paper considers SNS addiction from the marketing perspective, which is a novel approach in the study of addiction. Through this study the authors hope to trigger academic discussions about ACT of SNS as consumer behaviour and as a manageable resource.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 37 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2016

Shuiqing Yang, Yuan Liu and June Wei

Social capital has been identified as a valuable resource that can lead to various positive outcomes of social activities in both online and offline communities. The purpose of…

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Abstract

Purpose

Social capital has been identified as a valuable resource that can lead to various positive outcomes of social activities in both online and offline communities. The purpose of this paper is to argue that social capital can also be an important ingredient in the development of adverse outcomes, such as technology addiction.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on social capital theory and prior research related to perceived integration, a research model that reflects the effects of online and offline social capitals as well as perceived integration on mobile social networking service (SNS) addiction was developed and empirically examined based on data collected from 458 mobile SNS users in China.

Findings

The structural equation modeling analysis shows that online social interaction ties and online social supports positively affect mobile SNS addiction, whereas offline social supports and online social identification negatively affect mobile SNS addiction. In addition, perceived integration between online and offline channels by using mobile SNS positively influences online social interaction ties, offline social interaction ties, and mobile SNS addiction.

Practical implications

From the practical perspective, the results of the study offer interesting implications for managing mobile SNS addiction. The study found that online social interaction ties and online social support positively influence mobile SNS addiction, whereas offline social support negatively influence mobile SNS addiction.

Social implications

The mobile SNS users should invest more time to participate in offline social activities and maintain good social relationships with their family, colleagues, and friends in the real world.

Originality/value

The present study has both theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, unlike many previous studies tend to regard social capital as the predictor of positive outcomes of users’ social activities, the study contributes to the extant information systems literature by exploring the potential negative consequences of social capital on users’ social lives. The results of the study indicate that social capital is a significant predictor of mobile SNS addiction.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 26 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 December 2017

AR Mubarak and Steve Quinn

This study aims to explore the association between internet addiction and problem behaviours on social networking sites (SNS) using the general strain theory (Agnew, 1992).

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the association between internet addiction and problem behaviours on social networking sites (SNS) using the general strain theory (Agnew, 1992).

Design/methodology/approach

Using the purposive sampling method, a survey was conducted, which collected data from 414 college students studying in two public universities in South Australia. The Delphi method was used to develop the questionnaire used for the survey.

Findings

'Results of this research indicated a significant association between internet addiction and problem behaviours on SNS. Respondents who had engaged in problem behaviours on SNS had high internet addiction test scores (Young, 1998). On the basis of this finding, the present research argues that the general strains associated with the suffering of newly emerging challenges such as internet addiction might contribute to victimisation and deviant and problem behaviours on SNS in specific and possibly in cyberspace in general.

Research limitations/implications

Results of the present study need to be interpreted cautiously due to many limitations it has. This research is a cross-sectional study, which might not adequately explain the associations between internet addiction and problem behaviours on SNS. Longitudinal studies involving larger samples might have added significant value to this study. The present study uses purposive sampling technique, which has limited its generalizability, and its findings may not be generalised to large populations.

Originality/value

Limited information is available pertaining to the association between problem behaviours on SNS and internet addiction. The present study is a pioneering effort, which argues that rapid popularity of SNS is likely to increase internet addiction and the frustration of not getting proper treatment for their internet addiction might lead to deviant behaviours on SNS.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 March 2019

Wen-Shan Lin, Hong-Ren Chen, Tony Szu-Hsieh Lee and Joyce Yen Feng

The purpose of this paper is to tackle the problem of technology addiction by investigating the differences between the antecedences of addictive (problematic technology usage…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to tackle the problem of technology addiction by investigating the differences between the antecedences of addictive (problematic technology usage) and high-engagement behavior (non-problematic technology usage). The case of social networking site usage (SNS, e.g. Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) is taken as the case out of the reason of prevalent user population.

Design/methodology/approach

It is revealed that people tend to use SNS not only for building a relationship, but also for communicating. In other words, there are inner needs of adopting the SNS technology. However, no clear definitions can be followed for determining the problematic SNS usage, addictive behavior and the high-engagement behavior. Therefore, this study adopts the notion of uses and gratification theory (U&G theory) for investigating the SNS usage behavior. Also, the social anxiety is also first introduced to integrate into the research for an empirical study.

Findings

Results reveal that gratification sought and relationship maintenance are associated with the addictive behavior, whereas the relationship maintenance is significantly related to high-engagement behavior.

Research limitations/implications

First, the selected data represents a sample of SNW users in the Asian Pacific region and mainly from the group of young college users. Therefore, caution must be taken when generalizing the findings to other SNW users or groups. Second, the time aspect related to social media dependence may need to be considered in future studies. Third, the authors found marginal support for the influence of intentions of high engagement¸ and future studies may consider applying other theories that could better explain these types of behavior.

Practical implications

The results of this study provide strong evidence that inner anxiety perceived by users should not be neglected while tackling the problematic internet use due to SNW addiction because it can strengthen the force for depending on SNW for seeking social support. Apart from the value of perceived enjoyment as asserted in previous studies, this study opens up a new opportunity to tackle SNW dependence.

Social implications

The key implication of this research is that the impact of the mental health of users on SNW problematic should not be overlooked . The higher the level of anxiety perceived, the more likely is the SNW dependence. Therefore, the online behavior depending on psychological health should be addressed because it may be a critical point for assisting users to adopt SNW wisely.

Originality/value

This study confirms that social anxiety people experience in real (offline) life has impacts on online behavior of SNS usage (online). It suggests that the difference between users as the perceived level of social anxiety can trigger different levels of SNS usage. Second, U&G theory is proven valid in understanding SNS addiction. Third, relationship maintenance through the use of SNS reveals its dissimilar effects on SNS addiction and high engagement.

Details

Data Technologies and Applications, vol. 53 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9288

Keywords

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