Addiction to social network site use: An information technology identity perspective

As the popularity of social network sites (SNSs) has grown substantially over the past years, several negative effects of using SNSs have been experienced by users and reported by Information Systems (IS) researchers. Addiction to SNSs is one of such negative experiences, which has widely been considered from a psychopathology perspective. While increasingly there is more studies in IS on this phenomenon, it is still unclear what characterises addiction to SNSs and what may influence it. This in-progress study adopts an information technology (IT) identity perspective and applies Dual Systems Theory as well as Protection Motivation Theory to provide an initial understanding of what impacts SNS addiction and how to combat it from an IT/SNS identity perspective. To achieve these objectives, we reviewed the literature and proposed a preliminary framework of addiction to SNSs use. We then offer discuss research implications and propose ideas for future studies.