Automation or autonomy? The relatedness of online vigilance, self-control and intrinsic need satisfaction to compulsive Internet use

Abstract

The immense level of media saturation Internet users encounter daily in the online sphere raises concerns about an erosion of self-control abilities and increased impulse-driven behaviour in the digital age. The concept of online vigilance features both an automated as well as a volitional side and prompts questions regarding its potential direct relation to problematic Internet use. Impulsivity, an integral component of self-control, has been recently shown to predict pathological online user behaviour. The potential for intrinsic need satisfaction is a driver behind media use that may just as well entail overuse. The aim of this study was to investigate the presumed relatedness of online vigilance, self-control and intrinsic need satisfaction in the online sphere to compulsive Internet use. It was also hypothesised that Internet self-control failure would function as a mediator in the relation between online vigilance and compulsive Internet use, and that trait self-control would moderate the associations between these variables. Based on an online survey (N = 232), various moderation and mediation analyses were conducted with Hayes’ PROCESS macro for R. The results revealed significant positive correlations between online vigilance, Internet self-control failure and compulsive Internet use. Trait self-control, however, did not moderate these associations. Intrinsic need satisfaction in the online sphere predicted both general Internet use to an extent and compulsive Internet use, but in the latter case depended on gender as a suppressor variable. The results raise further research questions regarding the (inter-)relationship between online vigilance and self-control and have implications concerning the possibility of effectively self-regulating online user behaviour.