Excessive Use Of Mobile Social Networking Applications:Negative Consequences On Individuals

The wide acceptance of social networking services and mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets has resulted in the rapid increase in the use of social networking mobile applications. Although these applications contribute to the enjoyment and convenience of users, their addictive nature also results in several negative outcomes. For instance, the ubiquity that has made these mobile technologies imperative in the daily lives of people has lead to increases in technostress. Excessive use of these IT applications has given rise to a range of problems which have negative consequences on the user. Studies on such problematic IT use are still at their early stage, and the related definitions and diagnoses criteria remain inconsistent. Although the prevalent use of mobile social media has attracted much attention from researchers and practitioners, the development of problematic IT use is still largely unexplored. There is generally a lack of empirically validated overarching theoretical frameworks for the study of problematic IT use. Previous studies, for example, have identified gender and several personality characteristics as predictors of addictive behaviors, but results are inconsistent and not fully supported empirically.This study explores problematic IT use by identifying its negative consequences. A cognitive behavioral theoretical lens was used to the overall theoretical underpinning of our research model. Social cognitive theory was used to explain the negative consequences of problematic IT use on the social, personal, and professional lives of users, and the personal-environment model was applied to address the relationships between technology-related conflicts and technostrain. The moderating influences of gender and personal characteristics (viz, self-esteem, extraversion, neuroticism) were investigated into our research model, drawing from the relevant extant gender and personal traits literature.An online survey was conducted among mobile social media users in China to test the research model. The research obtained490responses from general mobile social networking applications (SNS apps) users, including users of well known SNS apps such as WeChat, Weibo, and QQ. Covariance-based SEM technique was applied to estimate the research model through the two-step procedure establishing the estimates for both the measurement model and the structural model.It was found that the excessive usage of SNS apps enhanced the cognitive preoccupation of users, and promoted three major types of conflicts, namely, technology-social, technology-personal, and technology-work. The level of cognitive preoccupation was also associated with these three major types of conflicts. The results supported our hypotheses regarding the relationships and the roles of these conflicts on technostress. It was also found that gender, self-esteem, extraversion, and neuroticism moderated the negative consequences of excessive IT use. This research provides important theoretical and practical implications. Most studies on problematic IT use have only addressed addiction or problematic use as integrated pathological concepts that include several symptoms. The focus is on clarifying these concepts and to develop measurement model for diagnostic purposes. This research on the other hand takes a nomological approach and is one of the first to examine problematic SNS apps use by investigating its negative consequences. This research integrates different theoretical perspectives to provide a new empirically validated model that can guide future studies. The results provide insight to parents, employees, teachers, and users about the potential adverse outcomes of the excessive use of SNS apps.