Recognizing and mitigating the negative effects of information technology use: A systematic review of persuasive characteristics in information systems

Abstract

Although information systems and technology have brought many benefits into people’s everyday lives, not to mention society as a whole, they are also accompanied by negative consequences. For example, technostress, anxiety, and even different kinds of addictions are among the side effects of information technology use. Clearly, such negative consequences cannot be fully avoided, but at least some of them may be mitigated via good system design. In this study, we addressed the dark side of information technology use in everyday life and in a leisure context, reviewing contributions from the basket of eight information systems journals published between 2004 and early 2018. In our analysis, we utilized the Persuasive Systems Design model in order to recognize and analyze information system characteristics that may mitigate the negative consequences of information technology use.