The Mediating Role of Digital Tool Use in the Relationship between Experiential Avoidance and Digital Addiction

Digital technologies are indispensable in our life. The fact that the internet provides interaction opportunity, and those digital tools are accessible and portable, in a way, form the basis of their digital addiction. On the other hand, many advantages of the internet facilitate avoidance behaviors. The Internet and digital tools offer people an easy way to escape from stressful and problematic situations. The strategies and defense forms that people develop to avoid unwanted and negative situations are called experiential avoidance. Escaping to protect oneself from sad and stressful situations, trying different ways to cope with problems, can give people a short-term relief and a feeling of being distant. Internet and digital technologies can provide great convenience for the person to get away from stressful situations. This situation brings with it addiction problems. The data collected by the face-to-face survey technique with 390 university students show that the participants actively use digital tools to cope with stressful situations and avoid negative feelings. In the study, the mediating role of digital tool use was determined in the relationship between experiential avoidance and digital addiction. Again, experiential avoidance has a positive and significant effect on digital tool use and digital addiction.