Vviewpoints
DOI: 10.1145/1735223.1735237
Viewpoint
is Mobile email
addiction overlooked?
He reaCTs ProMPTLY to every sound from his BlackBerry. He checks his BlackBerry continuously, can’t even think of missing a single
message, and responds aggressively
if you distract him. Once he tried to
get rid of his BlackBerry but could not
because he became depressed. His
family, friends, and the entire world
cease to exist when an email message
arrives. It looks like he lives only in order to check and respond to his email.
Sounds familiar? We know a person
like this. Do you?
PhotograPh by gage young
Over the past several years, tens of
millions of users have acquired BlackBerry, iPhone, or other devices supporting email applications. In many cases,
users received these devices from their
organizations. A major driver of the
spread of mobile email is its ubiquity
and convenience—people may check
their email and respond from anywhere anytime. On the one hand, mobile email helps employees connect
with their organizations and increase
productivity. Employees can become
more aware of and responsive to organizational, customer, and peer needs.
Indeed, organizational benefits resulting from mobile email usage are unarguable. On the other hand, some individuals may become addicted to mobile
email. Certainly, anecdotal evidence
supports the existence of mobile email
addiction; for example, the term “
crackberry” was coined for describing the addictive nature of such technologies.
Mobile email addiction is a form of
non-substance addiction that involves
excessive interaction with both a mo-
bile technology (mobile device) and the
content (electronic communication)
under conditions of psychological de-
pendency. It can be viewed as a special
type of a broader Internet addiction,
as the latter concept involves excessive
email messaging (but also other behav-
iors such as excessive gaming and sexu-
al preoccupation). 2 The ubiquitous na-
ture of mobile email technologies can
facilitate and augment excessive email
preoccupation, which is no longer re-
stricted to one’s office but rather could
be done anytime and from anywhere.
symptoms
Mobile email addiction may be manifested through many symptoms. When
using mobile email, an addicted person may notice the activity dominates
his or her thoughts and behaviors, offers a thrill or relief, and it is difficult to
control or quit this behavior. It conflicts
with other people or tasks, and causes
negative emotions when interrupted.
