Social Media Induced Technostress and its Impact on Internet Addiction: A Distraction-conflict Theory Perspective

Abstract

Using social media is the most common activity on the Internet, and much research has examined the phenomenon. While the current literature focuses on the positives of using social media, there is a comparative lack of research on its negative effects, especially in the context of the workplace. Research has identified one critical negative impact of contemporary technology as technostress, which refers to stress induced by information and communication technologies. In this paper, we apply distraction-conflict theory (DCT) to the literature on social media, technostress, and addiction to theorize that one can view social media in the workplace as a distraction conflict, which, in turn, can induce technostress and, subsequently, Internet addiction. To test this theoretical model, we conducted a survey on 1731 participants recruited from Mechanical Turk. The survey examined the similarities and differences between two popular social media platforms: Facebook and YouTube. Overall, the results provide support for positive associations between the distraction felt from social media and social media-induced technostress and between social media-induced technostress and Internet addiction. While Facebook and YouTube have similarities, we found notable differences as well. This study contributes to the IS field by using DCT as a novel and valuable lens through which researchers and practitioners can think about the negative effects of using social media at work. The paper also offers insight into implications for research, practice, and future research areas.