IT Addiction: Role of SNS Addiction as an enabler for Procrastination and Technological Frictions

Abstract

Numerous studies have been done on the field of SNS addiction as it is a phenomenon that has been growing significantly in today’s digital society. However, some limitations to the already published studies exist, namely the lack of literature linking this form of addiction to procrastination. This research aims to analyze the impact that Social Networking Site’s use and addiction can have on an individual’s adoption of procrastination behaviors and how the three main life environments of the user - work, family, and personal health – can be influenced by these concepts. Additionally, using stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, it is also examined how information overload can moderate the relationship between the frictions felt in an individual’s life environments (T-FWP) and how viable could be the adoption of a corrective measure such as the reduction of use. The data gathered to sustain this study consists of 314 responses to a survey and the findings showed that SNS addiction is a driver for the adoption of procrastination and that both behaviors create technological frictions in users’ lives, although procrastination did not significantly influence the family life domain. Regarding the T-FWP frictions, only the stress felt in the work domain did not significantly influence the decision to correct use and, opposite to what was expected, the state of information overload actually decreased the intention to reduce SNS use when it is felt within the user’s family life domain.