Addressing excessive social media use: effects of perceived intrusiveness and psychological reactance on compliance with Douyin healthy use reminders

Abstract Purpose Excessive social media use has emerged as a pressing issue in recent years, prompting concerns about its adverse effects on users’ physical and mental well-being. In response to these concerns, the Chinese short video platform Douyin has implemented healthy use reminders to mitigate excessive and problematic use. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of Douyin healthy use reminders on users’ perceptions and behaviors. Design/methodology/approach We conducted an online survey on Chinese college students who were Douyin users. We measured users’ perceived intrusiveness toward the reminder messages, perceived freedom threat, psychological reactance, attitudes toward the reminder messages, and their compliance behavior in the survey. Findings Results from structural equation modeling showed that users’ perception of the reminders’ intrusiveness negatively impacted their attitude, subsequently affecting compliance behavior. Additionally, results showed that this effect could be explained by psychological reactance theory, as perceived intrusiveness heightened users’ sense of freedom threat and psychological reactance, further influencing attitude and compliance behavior. Implications Our findings imply that social media platforms like Douyin should take into account user experience and acceptance of the healthy use reminders to enhance the persuasive effects. Possible strategies to enhance the communication effectiveness of the healthy use reminder messages are discussed. Originality/value Although recent literature has paid more attention to the problematic and excessive use of social networks, these studies primarily focused on exploring users’ dispositional traits to explain the association between excessive social media use and users’ well-being. The present study is the first to explore the psychological processes that explain the effectiveness of platform-initiated healthy use intervention. We also extend the theoretical understanding of the psychological reactance theory in social media use in a non-English context.