Digital Addiction Ontology for Social Networking Systems

Digital Addiction (hereafter referred to as DA) is an emerging, perhaps controversial, issue that is expected to profoundly impact modern societies. Different types of addiction, such as drugs, gambling and alcohol, have clear standards, regulations and policies on how to manufacture, market and sell them. In great contrast, DA has received little recognition or guidance in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and social media research communities. These communities are required to support software industry to provide ways to develop products that are more aware of DA. This research focuses on conceptualising DA to advance the understanding of how the design of social networking systems might influence human behaviour in a way that facilitates addiction. This paper presents an initial ontology and logical models for DA, and discusses potential HCI related implications.