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Understanding Problematic Smartphone Use and Its Characteristics: A Perspective on Behavioral Addiction

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Transforming Healthcare Through Information Systems

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation ((LNISO,volume 17))

Abstract

The problematic use of smartphones has drawn increasing attention because of harmful and disturbing outcomes. However, there has been little comprehensive research concerning the mechanism of problematic behavior in the use of smartphones, particularly for behavioral addiction. Given the specific characteristics of smartphones (e.g., high mobility, instant connection, and ubiquitous access), it is highlighted that smartphone addiction is a behavior that differs from traditional addiction behavior. However, in previous research, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of the characteristics and the underlying mechanisms of smartphone addiction. Motivated to systematically theorize this issue, we primarily define addiction in the smartphone context and comprehend the characteristics of smartphone addiction, followed by developing the measures for smartphone addiction. On this conceptual foundation, future empirical research should be able to explain, predict, and test addiction behavior in the use of smartphones.

A prior version of this paper has been published in the ISD2015 Proceedings (http://aisel.aisnet.org/isd2014/proceedings2015/).

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Acknowledgments

The work described in this paper was substantially supported by “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities” (Project No.2015QNXM10) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Project No. 2015M582389).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

    Chuang Wang

  2. City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Matthew K. O. Lee

  3. Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

    Chen Yang

  4. University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Xiaodong Li

Authors
  1. Chuang Wang
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  2. Matthew K. O. Lee
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  3. Chen Yang
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  4. Xiaodong Li
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chuang Wang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

    Doug Vogel

  2. Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China

    Xitong Guo

  3. Caulfield School of IT, Monash Univ, Caulfield East, Victoria, Australia

    Henry Linger

  4. Cairnes School of Business & Econonomics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

    Chris Barry

  5. Cairnes School of Business & Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

    Michael Lang

  6. City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Christoph Schneider

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Wang, C., Lee, M.K.O., Yang, C., Li, X. (2016). Understanding Problematic Smartphone Use and Its Characteristics: A Perspective on Behavioral Addiction. In: Vogel, D., Guo, X., Linger, H., Barry, C., Lang, M., Schneider, C. (eds) Transforming Healthcare Through Information Systems. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30133-4_15

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