Internet Gratifications and Internet Addiction: On the Uses and Abuses of New Media

By Indeok Song, Robert LaRose, Matthew S. Eastin, Carolyn A. Lin. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 2004

494 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Internet addiction has been identified as a pathological behavior, but its symptoms may be found in normal populations, placing it within the scope of conventional theories of media attendance. The present study drew upon fresh conceptualizations of gratifications specific to the Internet to uncover seven gratification factors: Virtual Community, Information Seeking, Aesthetic Experience, Monetary Compensation, Diversion, Personal Status, and Relationship Maintenance. With no parallel in prior research, Virtual Community might be termed a "new" gratification. Virtual Community, Monetary Compensation, Diversion, and Personal Status gratifications accounted for 28% of the variance in Internet Addiction Tendency. The relationship between Internet addiction and gratifications was discussed in terms of the formation of media habits and the distinction between content and process gratifications.

Subfields: Literature and Literary Theory, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c7c2e39e28b5e6a96345d320fa7b5b26e454fc74

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Citations in the corpus

Modeling habitual and addictive smartphone behavior: The role of smartphone usage types, emotional intelligence, social stress, self-regulation, age, and gender (2015, background): “Furthermore, pleasurable experiences might directly result in losing behavioral control (Song et al., 2004).”
The digital divide shifts to differences in usage (2014, unknown): “…personal development (Choi et al., 2004; Parker and Plank, 2000), transaction , leisure-related activities, such as entertainment and passing time (Papacharissi and Rubin, 2000), and items based on constructs of more interpersonally oriented needs (Papacharissi and Rubin, 2000; Song et al., 2004).”
The Relationship Between Online Game Addiction and Aggression, Self-Control and Narcissistic Personality Traits (2008, background): “In this social setting, excellent players receive ‘‘the recognition and attention of others’’ and gain power and status [21,26].”
A Social Cognitive Theory of Internet Uses and Gratifications: Toward a New Model of Media Attendance (2004, background): “…USES 361 measures reflecting the full range of these incentive categories were subjected to exploratory factor analysis, a "new" virtual communi!y dimension was uncovered that drew heavily on the status incentives lacking in conventional uses and gratifications research (Song et al., 2004).”
Problematic smartphone use: A conceptual overview and systematic review of relations with anxiety and depression psychopathology. (2017, background): “Based on a typology of internet uses and applications (Song et al., 2004), smartphone uses can be similarly categorized as follows: productivity enhancement (e.g., calendar and email), information seeking (e.g., web browsing news stories), social information and interaction (e.g., social media),…”
Non-social features of smartphone use are most related to depression, anxiety and problematic smartphone use (2017, background): “Technology feature use has distinguished between process and social use (Song et al., 2004), and this categorization has subsequently been applied to smartphone usage (van Deursen et al., 2015).”
Exploring user experiences as predictors of MMORPG addiction (2009, background): “Some studies also support the notion that a virtual community is a critical factor in causing Internet addiction (Li & Chung, 2006; Song, Larose, Eastin, & Lin, 2004).”
The Relationship Between Unwillingness-to-Communicate and Students' Facebook Use (2008, background): “This factor depicted a use of Facebook to maintain relationships with existing acquaintances (Song et al., 2004).”
Social Networking Sites and Addiction: Ten Lessons Learned (2017, unknown): “In addition to the gratification received through photo sharing, these websites also allow to explore new identities [68], which may be considered to contribute to gratification, as supported by previous research [69].”
Depression among Users of Social Networking Sites (SNSs): The Role of SNS Addiction and Increased Usage (2017, unknown): “Additional research [24] similarly found virtual-communityrelated gratifications associated with Internet addiction.”
Why Do We Indulge? Exploring Motivations for Binge Watching (2018, background): “In addition, researchers found a variety of motivations for extreme Internet usage.”