An Examination of Functional Difficulties From Internet Use: Media Habit and Displacement Theory Explanations

Abstract

Seminal studies concerning the Internet brought legitimacy to public concerns about its dissocializing effects. Although the negative social and professional outcomes of the Internet are still attributed to the time users spend online, scholars have more recently turned their attention to media habits in explaining these effects. This investigation tests the displacement and media habit perspectives on the consequences of Internet use. Study 1 uses cross-sectional data to test the displacement and Internet habit positions. The data support media habit theory explanations but find little support for displacement theory. Study 2 replicates the results of Study 1 with longitudinal data from incoming college freshmen. Study 3 holds time constant and examines the causal direction between functional difficulties and habit strength.

Adolescent technology engagement: It is more complicated than a lack of self‐control

“…Bandura's socio‐cognitive model of self‐regulation has also been used to explore and understand patterns of addictive or problematic internet use (Tokunaga, , ). This work has also identified deficient self‐regulation skills as a primary predictor of problematic internet use (Blachnio, Przepiorka, & Diaz‐Morales, ; LaRose, Lin, & Eastin, ; LaRose, Ki ; van Deursen, Bolle, Hegner, & Kommers, ).…”

“…Going online has become a habit, and for most people it is part of their daily routine. Rooted in behaviorism (operant conditioning in particular), habitual media‐use is when individuals become conditioned or trained to going online based on the anticipation of a reward (Tokunaga, , ). Habitual media‐use develops quickly and easily because the reward is built in.…”

“…Health researchers have also used gamification to increase fidelity to fitness programs or to catalyze adoption of healthier behaviors (Morford et al, ). Unfortunately, these conditioning tools also serve to increase the amount of time we spend online overall, which contributes to an unhealthy reliance on technology and digital devices (Tokunaga, ).…”

“…Dual systems can either be working in unison or in competition with each other (Bargh & Chartrand, ; Evans, ), but in the context of internet addiction (Turel & Qahri‐Saremi, ), research to date assumes that they are working against each other. From a dual‐systems approach, then, an individual spends too much time online because their conscious reflective system is in competition with their automatic reflexive system (Bayer et al, ; Soror et al, ; Tokunaga, ), and the automatic impulse to go online overrides the reasoned decision not to (Bayer et al, ). This imbalance, where an individual cannot resist the (automatic, learned) drive to use their device or to go online, is often attributed to weak or deficient self‐regulation skills (Osatuyi & Turel, ; Soror et al, ; Tokunaga, ).…”

“…Recent research has linked the overuse of technology (e.g., internet addiction) to individual differences in self‐regulation skills, such as attention regulation and inhibitory control (e.g., the ability to control/inhibit attention and behavioral responses; Tokunaga, ). Other emerging evidence suggests that getting “likes” on social networking sites and “winning tokens” in games taps into the reward‐focused, goal‐oriented nature of being human, which shapes our behavior and trains us to stay focused on our technology (Morford, Witts, Killingsworth, & Alavosius, ).…”