2019/05/23 by Marco Gui, Moritz Büchi · 5 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Impact of Technology on Adolescents #Social Media and Politics #Technostress in Professional Settings
paper · doi:10.1177/0894439319851163
openalex publication_date 2019/05/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Public discourse about overuse as an undesired side effect of digital communication is growing. This article conceptually develops and empirically analyzes users’ perceived digital overuse (PDO) as a widespread social phenomenon sensitive to existing inequalities. In an age of digital communication abundance and closing Internet access divides, overuse has not been systematically investigated nor are its social disparities known. In a first step, PDO is demarcated from Internet addiction, theoretically defined, and operationalized. Then, the prevalence of perceived overuse is assessed in a representative population sample of Italian Internet users ( N = 2,008) and predictors of digital overuse are tested. Results show that digital communication use and the level of social pressure to function digitally are positively related to PDO. Education is negatively associated with PDO and positively with digital communication use and social digital pressure. Overuse is emerging as a new dimension of digital inequality with implications for theory and future research in digital well-being.