Perpetual Mobile Availability as a Reason for Communication Overload: Experiences and Coping Strategies of Smartphone Users

Introduction

The term communication overload was first introduced in the context of an amplification of communication channels at the workplace. Nowadays communication overload has increasingly entered the private sphere (Harper, 2010). A main reason can be seen in the mobilization of Internet-connected communication devices, first and foremost the smartphone. Whereas the “perpetual contact” (Gergen, 2002) in the mobile phone era was limited to a one- or two-channel (calls or/and SMS) communicative experience, smartphones have introduced a new multidimensionality of mobile interaction channels by making all types of computer-mediated communication available without time or space constraints (Turkle, 2008). But this communicative deliberation also causes a new complexity of communication practices that can result in “technostress” (Weil & Rosen, 1997) and communication overload. Communication overload is defined as a state when communication demands from information and communication technology channels exceed users’ communication capacities (Cho et al., 2011). Communication overload can interrupt users’ daily tasks (Cho et al., 2011) and increase stress levels as well as the risk for certain diseases (Lee et al., 2016).

As a theoretical background, the “transactional theory of stress and coping” (Lazarus & Cohen, 1977) is used to analyze stress experiences and related coping strategies as a transactional process. Based on a research review, this paper discusses four characteristics of smartphone usage that could be potential precursors of communication overload and stress emotions:

• 1.

  “Perpetual contact”,

• 2.

  Technologically induced availability expectations,

• 3.

  Parallelization of communication channels, and

• 4.

  “Doubling of space”.

Using data from an empirical project, we will analyze the theoretically discussed stress experiences and stress inducers during smartphone usage.