Abstract
This study responds to a current phenomenon where individuals experience distress and exhaustion caused by cyberbullying and social overload while using social networking sites (SNSs). Social cognitive theory suggests that this phenomenon is caused by the interactive influences of environmental, personal, and behavioral factors, which are key unique drivers of SNS discontinuous usage intentions. This study focuses on how cyberbullying and social overload (environmental) induce distress and SNS exhaustion (personal), thereby affecting an individual’s intention to voluntarily abandon the use of SNSs (behavioral). The purpose model is tested through a sample of 314 SNS users. Empirical results indicate that cyberbullying and social overload exert a considerable impact on distress and SNS exhaustion, both of which further increase users’ intention to discontinue their usage of SNSs. This article concludes with several theoretical and practical contributions, limitations, and future research directions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl (Ed.), Action Control (cognition). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69746-3_2.
Alam, M. M., & Wagner, C. (2013). “Facebook Distress”: A Model to Investigate Discontinuation of Social Networking Site Use. PACIS 2013 proceedings. Retrieved from http://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2013/179. Accessed 15 September 2016
Ali, A., Khan, A. N., & Moin, M. F. (2012). Probably the biggest tragedy in the industrial dispute Asia: A story of union carbide, Bhopal, India, interdisciplinary. Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 4(2), 763–765.
Ali, A., Wang, H., & Khan, A. (2019a). Mechanism to enhance team creative performance through social media: A transactive memory system approach. Computers in Human Behavior, 91(August 2018), 115–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.09.033.
Ali, A., Wang, H., Khan, A. N., Pitafi, A. H., & Amin, M. W. (2019b). Exploring the knowledge-focused role of interdependent members on team creative performance. Asian Business & Management, 18(0123456789), 98–121. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41291-018-00050-2.
Allison, K. R., & Bussey, K. (2017). Individual and collective moral influences on intervention in cyberbullying. Computers in Human Behavior, 74, 7–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.019.
Anderson, J. C., & Gerbing, D. W. (1988). Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two-step approach. Psychological Bulletin, 103(3), 411–423.
Ayyagari, R., Grover, V., & Purvis, R. (2011). Technostress: Technological antecedents and implications. MIS Quarterly, 35(4), 831.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Beaudry, A., Molson, J., & Pinsonneault, A. (2005). Understanding user responses to information technology: A coping model of user adaptation. MIS Quarterly, 29(3), 493.
Cannarella, J., & Spechler, J. A. (2014). Epidemiological modeling of online social network dynamics. ArXiv Preprint ArXiv:1401.4208.
Carmines, E. G., & McIver, J. P. (1981). Analyzing models with unobserved variables: Analysis of Covariance structures. (G. W. Bohrnstedt & E. F. Borgatta, Eds.) (Social mea). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Cénat, J. M., Hébert, M., Blais, M., Lavoie, F., Guerrier, M., & Derivois, D. (2014). Cyberbullying, psychological distress and self-esteem among youth in Quebec schools. Journal of Affective Disorders, 169, 7–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2014.07.019.
Cenfetelli, R. T., & Schwarz, A. (2011). Identifying and testing the inhibitors of technology usage intentions. Information Systems Research, 22(4), 808–823.
Chang, F.-C., Chiu, C.-H., Miao, N.-F., Chen, P.-H., Lee, C.-M., Huang, T.-F., & Pan, Y.-C. (2015). Online gaming and risks predict cyberbullying perpetration and victimization in adolescents. International Journal of Public Health, 60(2), 257–266.
Chin, W. W. (1998). Commentary: Issues and opinion on structural equation modeling. MIS Quarterly, 22. https://doi.org/10.2307/249674.
Compeau, D., Higgins, C. A., & Huff, S. (1999). Social cognitive theory and individual reactions to computing technology: A longitudinal study. MIS Quarterly, 23(2), 145.
Cropanzano, R., Rupp, D. E., & Byrne, Z. S. (2003). The relationship of emotional exhaustion to work attitudes, job performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors. The Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(1), 160–169.
Cross, D., Lester, L., & Barnes, A. (2015). A longitudinal study of the social and emotional predictors and consequences of cyber and traditional bullying victimisation. International Journal of Public Health, 60(2), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-015-0655-1.
Dwivedi, Y. K., Kelly, G., Janssen, M., Rana, N. P., Slade, E. L., & Clement, M. (2018). Social media: The good, the bad, and the ugly. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(3), 419–423. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-018-9848-5.
Gaudioso, F., Turel, O., & Galimberti, C. (2017). The mediating roles of strain facets and coping strategies in translating techno-stressors into adverse job outcomes. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 189–196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.041.
Gehl, R. W. (2012). Real (software) abstractions on the rise of Facebook and the fall of MySpace. Social Text 111 (Vol. 1).
Gonzalez-Cabrera, J., Calvete, E., Leon-Mejia, A., Perez-Sancho, C., & Peinado, J. M. (2017). Relationship between cyberbullying roles, cortisol secretion and psychological stress. Computers in Human Behavior, 70, 153–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.054.
Hair, F., Anderson, R., Tatham, R., & Black, W. (2008). Multivariate data analysis with readings. London: Prentice-Hall.
Han, B. (2016). Social media burnout: Definition, measurement instrument, and why we care. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 1–9.
Harman, H. (1976). Chicago Illinois the university of. In Modern factor analysis (3rd ed., p. 1976). Chicago Press.
Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2010). Bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide. Archives of Suicide Research, 14(3), 206–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2010.494133.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55.
Idemudia, E. C., Raisinghani, M. S., & Samuel-Ojo, O. (2018). The contributing factors of continuance usage of social media: An empirical analysis. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(6), 1267–1280. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-016-9721-3.
Islam, T., Attiq, S., Hameed, Z., Khokhar, M. N., & Sheikh, Z. (2019). The impact of self-congruity (symbolic and functional) on the brand hate. British Food Journal, 121(1), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-03-2018-0206.
Kapoor, K. K., Tamilmani, K., Rana, N. P., Patil, P., Dwivedi, Y. K., & Nerur, S. (2018). Advances in social media research: Past, present and future. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(3), 531–558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-017-9810-y.
Kessler, R. C., Barker, P. R., Colpe, L. J., Epstein, J. F., Gfroerer, J. C., Hiripi, E., … (eds), H. M. (2003). Screening for serious mental illness in the general population. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60(2), 184. doi: https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.60.2.184.
Khan, A. N., & Ali, A. (2018). Factors affecting Retailer’s Adopti on of Mobile payment systems: A SEM-neural network modeling approach. Wireless Personal Communications, 5, 2529–2551. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-018-5945-5.
Khan, A. N., Moin, M. F., & Ahsan, A. (2013). Mission possible: Rebuilding trust at workplace. International Journal of Managment, IT and Engineering, 3(1).
Khan, I. U., Hameed, Z., Yu, Y., Islam, T., Sheikh, Z., & Khan, S. U. (2017). Predicting the acceptance of MOOCs in a developing country: Application of task-technology fit model, social motivation, and self-determination theory. Telematics and Informatics., 35, 964–978. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.TELE.2017.09.009.
Khan, A. N., Ali, A., Khan, N. A., & Jehan, N. (2019a). A study of relationship between transformational leadership and task performance : The role of social media and affective organisational commitment. International Journal of Business Information Systems.
Khan, N. A., Khan, A. N., & Gul, S. (2019b). Relationship between perception of organizational politics and organizational citizenship behavior: Testing a moderated mediation model. Asian Business and Management, 18(0123456789), 122–141. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41291-018-00057-9.
Kizgin, H., Jamal, A., Dey, B. L., & Rana, N. P. (2018). The impact of social media on consumers’ acculturation and purchase intentions. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(3), 503–514. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-017-9817-4.
Kowalski, R. M., Limber, S., & Agatston, P. W. (2012). Cyberbullying : Bullying in the digital age. Wiley-Blackwell.
Krasnova, H., Spiekermann, S., Koroleva, K., & Hildebrand, T. (2010). Online social networks: Why we disclose. Journal of Information Technology, 25(2), 109–125.
Kumar, U., Reganti, A. N., Maheshwari, T., Chakroborty, T., Gambäck, B., & Das, A. (2018). Inducing personalities and values from language use in social network communities. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(6), 1219–1240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-017-9793-8.
Laniado, D., Volkovich, Y., Scellato, S., Mascolo, C., & Kaltenbrunner, A. (2018). The impact of geographic distance on online social interactions. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(6), 1203–1218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-017-9784-9.
Liao, R., Balasinorwala, S., & Raghav Rao, H. (2017). Computer assisted frauds: An examination of offender and offense characteristics in relation to arrests. Information Systems Frontiers, 19(3), 443–455. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-017-9752-4.
Lim, M. S., & Choi, S. B. (2015). Stress caused by social media network applications and user responses. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-015-2891-z
Lo, J. (2015). The information technology workforce: A review and assessment of voluntary turnover research. Information Systems Frontiers, 17(2), 387–411. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-013-9408-y.
Luqman, A., Cao, X., Ali, A., Masood, A., & Yu, L. (2017). Empirical investigation of Facebook discontinues usage intentions based on SOR paradigm. Computers in Human Behavior, 70, 544–555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2017.01.020.
Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., & Weitzel, T. (2012). When social networking turns to social overload: Explaining the stress, emotional exhaustion, and quitting behavior from social network sites’ users. Ecis, 2012, 1–12.
Maier, C., Laumer, S., Eckhardt, A., & Weitzel, T. (2014). Giving too much social support: Social overload on social networking sites. European Journal of Information Systems, 24(5), 447–464.
Maier, C., Laumer, S., Weinert, C., & Weitzel, T. (2015). The effects of technostress and switching stress on discontinued use of social networking services: A study of Facebook use. Information Systems Journal, 25(3), 275–308.
Manca, M., Boratto, L., & Carta, S. (2015). Behavioral data mining to produce novel and serendipitous friend recommendations in a social bookmarking system. Information Systems Frontiers, 20, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-015-9600-3.
McCarthy, D., & Saegert, S. (1978). Residential density, social overload, and social withdrawal. Human Ecology, 6(3), 253–272. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00889026.
Mishna, F., Khoury-Kassabri, M., Gadalla, T., & Daciuk, J. (2012). Risk factors for involvement in cyber bullying: Victims, bullies and bully–victims. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(1), 63–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.08.032.
Moin, M. F., Ali, A., & Khan, A. N. (2012). An analysis of Mission statement of Pakistani commercial ( scheduled ) banks using a nine points scale approach of Fred R . David. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Buiness, 4(2), 102–121.
Moore, J. E. (2000). One road to turnover: An examination of work exhaustion in technology professionals. MIS Quarterly, 24(1), 141. https://doi.org/10.2307/3250982.
Nguyen, T. T., Maxwell Harper, F., Terveen, L., & Konstan, J. A. (2018). User personality and user satisfaction with recommender systems. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(6), 1173–1189.
Olweus, D. (1999). The nature of school bullying : a cross-national perspective. (Richard Catalano, Josine Junger-Tas, Yohji Morita, Philip Slee, & P. K. Smith, Eds.) (Slee). Lndon: Routledge.
Orford, J. (1985). Excessive appetites : A psychological view of addictions. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Palladino, B. E., Nocentini, A., & Menesini, E. (2015). Psychometric properties of the Florence CyberBullying-CyberVictimization scales. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 18(2), 112–119. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2014.0366.
Pavlou, P. A., & El Sawy, O. A. (2006). From IT leveraging competence to competitive advantage in turbulent environments: The case of new product development. Information Systems Research, 17(3), 198–227. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.1060.0094.
Pines, A. (1993). Burnout: An existential perspective. (W. B. Schaufeli, C. Maslach, & T. Marek, Eds.) (Profession). Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.
Pitafi, A. H., Kanwal, S., Ali, A., Khan, A. N., & Waqas Ameen, M. (2018). Moderating roles of IT competency and work cooperation on employee work performance in an ESM environment. Technology in Society (Vol. 55). Elsevier Ltd.
Podsakoff, N. P., LePine, J. A., & LePine, M. A. (2007). Differential challenge stressor-hindrance stressor relationships with job attitudes, turnover intentions, turnover, and withdrawal behavior: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(2), 438–454.
Rainie, L., Smith, A., & Duggan, M. (2013). Coming and going on Facebook. February (Vol. 5).
Ravindran, T., Kuan, A. C. Y., & Lian, D. G. H. L. (2014). Antecedents and effects of social network fatigue. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, (11), 65. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.
Reed, K. P., Cooper, R. L., Nugent, W. R., & Russell, K. (2016). Cyberbullying: A literature review of its relationship to adolescent depression and current intervention strategies. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 26(1), 37–45.
Richey, M., Gonibeed, A., & Ravishankar, M. N. (2018). The perils and promises of self-disclosure on social media. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(3), 425–437.
Sampasa-Kanyinga, H., & Hamilton, H. A. (2015). Social networking sites and mental health problems in adolescents: The mediating role of cyberbullying victimization. European Psychiatry, 30(8), 1021–1027. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eurpsy.2015.09.011.
Schneider, S. K., O’Donnell, L., Stueve, A., & Coulter, R. W. S. (2012). Cyberbullying, school bullying, and psychological distress: A regional census of high school students. American Journal of Public Health, 102(1), 171–177.
Schoenebeck, S. Y. (2014). Giving up twitter for lent: How and why we take breaks from social media. In Human factors in computing systems (pp. 773–782).
Shea, V. J., Dow, K. E., Chong, A. Y.-L., & Ngai, E. W. T. (2019). An examination of the long-term business value of investments in information technology. Information Systems Frontiers, 21(1), 213–227. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-017-9735-5.
Sheikh, Z., Islam, T., Rana, S., Hameed, Z., & Saeed, U. (2017). Acceptance of social commerce framework in Saudi Arabia. Telematics and Informatics, 34(8), 1693–1708. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.TELE.2017.08.003.
Slonje, R., Smith, P. K., & Frisen, A. (2013). The nature of cyberbullying, and strategies for prevention. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), 26–32.
Stephenson, P., & Smith, D. (1989). Bullying in the junior school. (Tattum D. P. & Lane D. A., Eds.), Bullying in School. Stoke-on-Trent England: Trentham Books.
Tang, J., Zhang, P., & Wu, P. F. (2015). Categorizing consumer behavioral responses and artifact design features: The case of online advertising. Information Systems Frontiers, 17(3), 513–532.
Tokunaga, R. S. (2010). Following you home from school: A critical review and synthesis of research on cyberbullying victimization. Computers in Human Behavior, 26, 277–287.
Turel, O. (2015). Quitting the use of a habituated hedonic information system: A theoretical model and empirical examination of Facebook users. European Journal of Information Systems, 24(4), 431–446. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2014.19.
Turel, O. (2016). Untangling the complex role of guilt in rational decisions to discontinue the use of a hedonic information system. European Journal of Information Systems, 25(5), 432–447.
Wang, J., Li, Y., & Rao, H. R. (2017). Coping responses in phishing detection: An investigation of antecedents and consequences. Information Systems Research, 28(2), 378–396.
Xiongfei, C., Khan, A. N., Zaigham, G. H. K., & Khan, N. A. (2018). The stimulators of social media fatigue among students: Role of moral disengagement. Journal of Educational Computing Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0735633118781907.
Ybarra, M. L., Mitchell, K. J., Wolak, J., & Finkelhor, D. (2006). Examining characteristics and associated distress related to internet harassment: Findings from the second youth internet safety survey. Pediatrics, 118(4), e1169–e1177. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2006-0815.
Yubero, S., Navarro, R., Elche, M., Larrañaga, E., & Ovejero, A. (2017). Cyberbullying victimization in higher education: An exploratory analysis of its association with social and emotional factors among Spanish students. Computers in Human Behavior, 75, 439–449.
Zhang, S., Zhao, L., Lu, Y., & Yang, J. (2016). Do you get tired of socializing? An empirical explanation of discontinuous usage behaviour in social network services. Information and Management, 53(7), 904–914. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2016.03.006.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71871083) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cao, X., Khan, A.N., Ali, A. et al. Consequences of Cyberbullying and Social Overload while Using SNSs: A Study of Users’ Discontinuous Usage Behavior in SNSs. Inf Syst Front 22, 1343–1356 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-019-09936-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-019-09936-8