Failure to decrease the addictive usage of information technologies: A theoretical model and empirical examination of smartphone game users

Highlights

• Intention to decrease smartphone game playing affects thought suppression.

• Thought suppression affects intrusive thought and impulsive playing.

• Ubiquity moderates the influence of intrusive thought.

• Impulsive playing affects perceived difficulty and deficient self-efficacy.

• Perceived difficulty and deficient self-efficacy affect decreased playing.

Abstract

This paper aims to reveal why smartphone game addicts cannot decrease their addictive behaviors. Social cognitive theory serves as a framework for interpreting the failure of decreased behavior with a three-stage process. Following this perspective, key drivers in each process are proposed to explain the underlying reasons. A longitudinal survey with 381 valid responses was conducted. Results indicate that addicts with intention to decrease playing games may attempt to suppress their playing thought. Then, intrusive thought of playing games and impulsive playing emerge in the first stage. The ubiquity feature of smartphone strengthens the positive influence of intrusive thought on impulsive playing. In the second self-judgment stage, addicts perceive a higher level of difficulty to decrease, which further leads to deficient self-efficacy. These maladaptive judgments reduce the reaction of decreased behavior. This study is one of the first ones to reveal key factors causing decrease failure in the context of smartphone game addiction. Implications are offered.

Introduction

Smartphone games have become increasingly popular among game players, with thousands of games being designed (Ding et al., 2014, Lin et al., 2011). As the penetration of smartphone games becomes prominent, addictive behaviors emerge as a serious problem (Lee, Cheung, & Chan, 2015). For instance, smartphone game Candy Crush, the number of its active users has already achieved 93 million. These players usually play Candy Crush over 10 times every day (Kwon, So, Han, & Oh, 2016). In recent years, the danger of smartphone game addiction has already aroused great concerns. Users addicted to smartphone games will suffer from disorders of physiology and psychology and a number of serious conflicts (Cheung, & Chan, 2014; Lee, Cheung, & Chan, 2016). Hence, it is practically significant to prevent the development of addiction and help addicts recover. However, users often fail to recover from information technology (IT) addiction (Turel & Serenko, 2010). Recovery to normal usage is often difficult for them. Understanding the reasons of failed recovery can help to develop an effective treatment. Whereas, the underlying reasons why addicts fail to decrease IT usage voluntarily are largely unknown in the extant literature. The existing information systems (IS) research merely focuses on the formation of addictive behaviors.

To address the above concern, this study adopts social cognitive theory (SCT) to delineate decrease failure in playing smartphone games. According to SCT, when addicts attempt to overcome addiction, they may engage in three stages of self-regulation: self-observation, self-judgment, and self-reaction. Following this perspective, this study identifies and explains key drivers in each process to explicate why this regulation may fail. This study enriches the theoretical understanding of smartphone game addiction, which is an emerging research area that attracts growing attention among scholars (Cheung, Lee, & Lee, 2013). The findings of this study will offer insights in articulating the stickiness of ITs and why addicts are hooked on smartphone games, which can provide a foundation for developing better intervening methods.