Problematic Attachment to Social Media: The Psychological States vs Usage Styles

Majid Altuwairiqi, Emily Arden-Close, Nan Jiang, Georgina Powell, Raian Ali

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Many people worldwide rely on social media to satisfy their social needs for relatedness, learning and enhancing self-esteem. However, over-reliance on social media often results in problematic attachment, which risks personal, social and financial wellbeing. From a design perspective, we argue that social media can be improved with tools to manage such problematic attachment and help users reform their interaction style, social expectations and online identity to restore a healthy reliance. Designing such behaviour change tools can be challenging due to the characteristics of people with problematic behaviours, e.g. denial, relapse and cognitive dissonance. This paper explores the role of social media in such attachment and reveals associated psychological states. Our method provides an ecologically valid exploration through employing diary studies as a data collection method, aiming to introduce countermeasures for problematic attachment in future social media design.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings
Subtitle of host publicationRCIS 2019 - IEEE 13th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science: Towards a Design Science for Information Systems
EditorsManuel Kolp, Jean Vanderdonckt, Monique Snoeck, Yves Wautelet
PublisherIEEE Computer Society
ISBN (Electronic)9781728148441
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2019
Externally publishedYes
Event13th IEEE International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science, RCIS 2019 - Brussels, Belgium
Duration: 29 May 201931 May 2019

Publication series

NameProceedings - International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science
Volume2019-May
ISSN (Print)2151-1349
ISSN (Electronic)2151-1357

Conference

Conference13th IEEE International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science, RCIS 2019
Country/TerritoryBelgium
CityBrussels
Period29/05/1931/05/19

Keywords

  • digital wellbeing
  • online behaviour
  • social media design

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Problematic Attachment to Social Media: The Psychological States vs Usage Styles'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this