An Empirical Examination of the “Vicious Cycle” of Facebook Addiction

The use of some hedonic information systems (IS) can be addictive and lead to addiction-like symptoms. This study seeks to examine the “vicious cycle” in such situations, i.e., the ways in which past growth of hedonic system use facilitate the development of one's current level of addiction, which in turn drives further system use. These links are explicated using the theories of rational addiction and neural incentive sensitization. The resultant model is then tested with structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques applied to data collected at two points in time from 284 Facebook users. The findings suggest that increases in hedonic IS activity over the past three months facilitate the development of higher levels of technology-related addiction at time 1 (t1), which in turn influences five dimensions of system use at time 2 (t2). These include general use frequency, active use frequency, use duration, usage comprehensiveness, and access device heterogeneity.