Why is instant messaging not instant? Understanding users’ negative use behavior of instant messaging software

Abstract

With the development and popularization of communication technology, massive amounts of information have brought great challenges to how people receive and process information. In this environment, people have begun to exhibit typical negative behaviors, such as forgetting to process the information, delaying replies, and reading without replying. Negative use behavior refers to the non-active and non-interactive behavior taken by users in an attempt to resist using information systems. To explore users’ negative use behavior of instant messaging software, this study extracts characteristics of the negative use behavior through semi-structured interviews, constructs a conceptual model based on stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, and uses a structural equation model (SEM) to verify the proposed hypotheses. The results reveal that information overload, task load, and time pressure have a positive effect on individual information anxiety and psychological resistance. Information anxiety and psychological resistance have a positive effect on individual passive attention and delayed reply. We also found that perceived utility negatively mediates the relationship between individual perceptions and delayed reply. This study collects data from China with a cross-sectional design. Future research should include other countries, different online platforms and longitudinal methods to examine negative use behavior. The research conclusions present suggestions for operators to optimize software functions and users to improve multiple information literacy.