Addiction to mobile text messaging applications is nothing to “lol” about

Lol: An abbreviation for “laughing out loud” that is frequently used in text messaging.

Abstract

The recent use of mobile text messaging applications, such as Blackberry Messenger (BBM) and WhatsApp, has increased greatly throughout the world. Unfortunately, this advanced technology is not without problems. In this study, the researcher argues that BBM and WhatsApp may generate noticeable improvements in consumer's lives but may simultaneously cause serious social and personal problems, including addiction to these applications. Amazingly, this topic has received little if any attention from consumer behaviorists, who need to understand the psychological factors that affect BBM and WhatsApp consumers. Hence, the current research examines two personality traits—extraversion and social anxiety—that influence consumer attitudes toward these applications. The results of a survey from 552 BBM and WhatsApp consumers in Kuwait indicate that the interaction effect of extraversion and social anxiety is significantly related to consumer attitudes toward BBM and WhatsApp. Furthermore, addiction to these applications plays a mediating role in the examined effect.

Keywords:

• Text messaging
• Social communication
• Social phobia and anxiety
• Addiction
• Extraversion

Acknowledgement

This work was supported and funded by Kuwait University Research Grant No. IM01/12.

Notes

Lol: An abbreviation for “laughing out loud” that is frequently used in text messaging.

1 An ad hoc analysis was conducted to test for differences in extraversion and social anxiety traits between BBM and WhatsApp users. The data show there are no significant differences between the two types of users (p > .05). In addition, a three-way interaction was used to test for the effects of application type, extraversion, and social anxiety on consumer attitudes toward BBM and WhatsApp. All effects are found to be non-significant (p > .05), except for the interaction effect of extraversion and social anxiety (p < .01), suggesting that there is no significant effect of application type on the participants’ responses. Therefore, aggregated data is used for all future analyses.