“How does tech make you feel?” a review and examination of negative affective responses to technology use

Abstract

The study of individual, affect-related consequences from technology adoption and use is gaining traction in the information systems discipline. Efforts to explore affective reactions to technology have considered positive, affective constructs (e.g., enjoyment, playfulness, and flow), with a more recent focus on the dark side of technology use and constructs such as technostress, technophobia, and computer anxiety. While some research has examined these negative affective responses to technology, construct definitions and relationships are not well-defined or theoretically grounded. In this research, an integrative literature review is conducted on computer anxiety, technophobia and technostress, and the known antecedents, dimensions, and outcomes of each concept are organised into nomological networks. These nomological networks are then combined to identify inconsistencies and omissions in the literature. The Affective Response Model, a recently advanced, theoretically grounded taxonomy of affective responses to technology, is applied to differentiate the three constructs and to introduce technology-induced state anxiety (TISA), a new temporal (state-like) negative response to a specific instance of technology. Two empirical studies are conducted using existing and newly developed scales, and demonstrate that computer anxiety, technophobia, technostress and TISA are conceptually and empirically distinct and provide insight into how these constructs are related. Future research opportunities on affective responses to technology are described based on the integrated nomological network and empirical findings.