Paper ID

1609

Paper Type

short

Description

Mobile technologies like the smartphone allow for checking and responding to requests almost instantaneously. The public and academic discourse is replete with critical assessments of potentially unhealthy behaviors that can result from this “constant connectivity”. This pilot study explores the notion of constant connectivity and investigates why people continue to engage in such behaviors by using a student sample. We propose to conceptualize constant connectivity as a three-tiered phenomenon and study work ethic, social expectations and emotional reward as its antecedents. In contrast to our expectations, our findings do not support that work ethic serves as a good predictor for constant connectivity. However, a perceived reward for using the smartphone and beliefs regarding the expected timing between receiving and responding to a message both positively affected behaviors of constant connectivity. Our study thus suggests that individuals have an emotional connection to their smartphone rather than seeing it as a tool to conduct work with.

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Predicting Constant Connectivity via one’s Smartphone – the Role of Work Ethic, Expectations and Emotional Reward

Mobile technologies like the smartphone allow for checking and responding to requests almost instantaneously. The public and academic discourse is replete with critical assessments of potentially unhealthy behaviors that can result from this “constant connectivity”. This pilot study explores the notion of constant connectivity and investigates why people continue to engage in such behaviors by using a student sample. We propose to conceptualize constant connectivity as a three-tiered phenomenon and study work ethic, social expectations and emotional reward as its antecedents. In contrast to our expectations, our findings do not support that work ethic serves as a good predictor for constant connectivity. However, a perceived reward for using the smartphone and beliefs regarding the expected timing between receiving and responding to a message both positively affected behaviors of constant connectivity. Our study thus suggests that individuals have an emotional connection to their smartphone rather than seeing it as a tool to conduct work with.