Vol. 14 No. 2 (2026): Business & Management Studies: An International Journal
Articles

The effects of digital literacy and internet addiction on digital burnout: A study on advertising irritation and advertising avoidance behaviour

PDF (Turkish)
  • Sinem Sargın
Sinem Sargın
Res. Assist., Nuh Naci Yazgan University, Kayseri, Türkiye

Published 2026-06-25

Keywords

  • Digital Literacy, Digital Burnout, Internet Addiction, Advertising Irritation, Advertising Avoidance, Consumer Behaviour
  • Dijital Okuryazarlık, Dijital Tükenmişlik, İnternet Bağımlılığı, Reklam İrritasyonu, Reklamdan Kaçınma, Tüketici Davranışları

How to Cite

The effects of digital literacy and internet addiction on digital burnout: A study on advertising irritation and advertising avoidance behaviour. (2026). Business & Management Studies: An International Journal, 14(2), 1092-1117. https://doi.org/10.15295/bmij.v14i2.2741

Copyright (c) 2026 Sinem Sargın

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

The effects of digital literacy and internet addiction on digital burnout: A study on advertising irritation and advertising avoidance behaviour. (2026). Business & Management Studies: An International Journal, 14(2), 1092-1117. https://doi.org/10.15295/bmij.v14i2.2741

Abstract

In today's era of rapid digitalisation, consumers' intensive interaction with digital tools and online platforms significantly influences their psychological and behavioural responses. This study aims to examine the effects of digital literacy and internet addiction on digital burnout and the role of digital burnout in shaping advertising irritation and advertising avoidance behaviour within a holistic model framework. The research was conducted with 359 valid responses obtained from consumers aged 18 and older living in Türkiye through an online survey. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed for data analysis. The findings reveal that digital literacy reduces digital burnout, whereas internet addiction increases it; furthermore, digital burnout plays both a direct and an indirect mediating role in advertising irritation and advertising avoidance. The results demonstrate that digital burnout is a crucial mediating mechanism shaping consumer responses toward digital advertisements. This study offers an original contribution to the literature by examining the antecedents of digital burnout, integrating digital literacy and internet addiction within a single model and addressing the effects of digital burnout on advertising irritation and avoidance behaviour. The findings highlight the importance of accounting for consumers' levels of digital burnout when developing digital marketing strategies.

PDF (Turkish)

References

  1. Alodia, J. E., & Qastharin, A. R. (2024). The impact of Spotify advertisements on free accounts to purchase decisions for Spotify premium accounts with consumer attitudes as the mediating variable. Journal Integration of Management Studies, 2(1), 140-147. https://doi.org/10.58229/jims.v2i1.171
  2. Cao, N., Isa, N. M., & Perumal, S. (2023). Effects of risk attitude and time pressure on the perceived risk and avoidance of mobile app advertising among Chinese generation Z consumers. Sustainability, 15(15), 11547. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511547
  3. Chen, L., & Nath, R. (2016). Understanding the underlying factors of Internet addiction across cultures: A comparison study. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 17, 38–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.elerap.2016.02.003
  4. Choi, D., & Kim, J. (2022). The impacts of ad skip option and ad time display on viewer response to in-stream video ads: The role of perceived control and reactance. Internet Research, 32(3), 790-813. https://doi.org/10.1108/intr-09-2020-0514
  5. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  6. Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). Sage Publications.
  7. Darke, P. R., Ashworth, L., & Ritchie, R. J. B. (2008). Damage from corrective advertising: Causes and cures. Journal of Marketing, 72(6), 81-97. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.72.6.081
  8. Erten, P., & Özdemir, O. (2020). The digital burnout scale development study. İnönü Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 21(2), 668–683. https://doi.org/10.17679/inuefd.597890
  9. Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 5(1), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11
  10. Fornell, C. & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39-50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104
  11. Gordon, B. R., Jerath, K., Katona, Z., Narayanan, S., Shin, J., & Wilbur, K. C. (2021). Inefficiencies in digital advertising markets. Journal of Marketing, 85(1), 7-25. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3459199
  12. Guerra-Tamez, C., Kraul Flores, K., Serna-Mendiburu, G. M., Chavelas Robles, D., & Ibarra Cortés, J. (2024). Decoding Gen Z: AI's influence on brand trust and purchasing behaviour. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, 7, 1323512. https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2024.1323512
  13. Günüç, S. & Keskin, A. (2016). Online shopping addiction: Symptoms, causes and effects. Addicta the Turkish Journal on Addictions, 3(3), 353-364. https://doi.org/10.15805/addicta.2016.3.0104
  14. Hair, J. F., Risher, J. J., Sarstedt, M., & Ringle, C. M. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. European Business Review, 31(1), 2-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-11-2018-0203
  15. Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M. & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115-135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8
  16. Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44(3), 513.
  17. Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
  18. Jin, C. H., & Villegas, J. (2007). Consumer responses to advertising on the internet: The Effect of individual difference on ambivalence and avoidance. Cyberpsychology & Behaviour, 10(2), 258-266. https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2006.9960
  19. Kiçir, İ., & Ünal, C. (2025). Reklamdan kaçınmanın psikolojik öncüllerinin yapısal eşitlik modeli ile incelenmesi. Selçuk İletişim Dergisi, 18(2), 564–589. https://doi.org/10.18094/josc.1682749
  20. Kock, N. (2015). Common method bias in PLS-SEM: A full collinearity assessment approach. International Journal of e-Collaboration (IJEC), 11(4), 1-10.
  21. Li, S., Jin, X., Song, L., Fan, T., Shen, Y., & Zhou, J. (2025). The association between internet addiction and the risk of suicide attempts in Chinese adolescents aged 11-17 years: Prospective cohort study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 27, e52083. https://doi.org/10.2196/52083
  22. Lohmöller, J.B. (1989) Latent variable path modeling with partial least squares. Physica-Verlag, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-52512-4
  23. Mohasseb, N., & Hashemi, M. (2024). Effectiveness of individual psychotherapy program for information and communication technologies for Instagram addiction. Journal of Client-Centered Nursing Care, 10(3), 179-190.
  24. Mohr, S. & Kühl, R. (2021). Exploring persuasion knowledge in food advertising: An empirical analysis. Sn Business & Economics, 1(8), 107. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-021-00108-y
  25. Ng, W. (2012). Can we teach digital natives digital literacy? Computers & Education, 59(3), 1065–1078. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.04.016
  26. Niu, L., Wang, X., Wallace, M., Pang, H., & Xu, Y. (2022). Digital learning of English as a foreign language among university students: How are approaches to learning linked to digital competence and technostress?. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 38(5), 1332-1346. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12679
  27. Noor, S. (2024). Consumer behaviour in online shopping: Insights and ımplications for marketers. Open Journal of Business Entrepreneurship and Marketing, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.63471/ojbem24002
  28. Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
  29. Olney, T. J., Holbrook, M. B., & Batra, R. (1991). Consumer responses to advertising: The effects of Ad content, emotions, and attitude toward the Ad on viewing time. Journal of Consumer Research, 17(4), 440-453. https://doi.org/10.1086/208569
  30. Poikela, M. & Möller, S. (2018). The role of privacy violations in privacy calculus. İçinde European Workshop on Usable Security (EuroUSEC-2018), London, England. https://doi.org/10.14722/eurousec.2018.23015
  31. Rahayuningrat, P. S., Ardiani, G. T., Alisa, J., Sugiarti, R., & Taufik, N. (2024). The effectiveness of Instagram advertising for digital marketing strategy: Systematic literature review. International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality in Asia Pasific, 7(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.32535/ijthap.v7i1.2888
  32. Roslan, N. S., Yusoff, M. S. B., Asrenee, A. R., & Morgan, K. (2021). Burnout prevalence and its associated factors among Malaysian healthcare workers during COVID-19 Pandemic: An embedded mixed-method study. Healthcare, 9(1), 90. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9010090
  33. Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C. M., & Hair, J. F. (2021). Partial least squares structural equation modeling. In Handbook of Market Research (pp. 587-632). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
  34. Sattayathamrongthian, M., Unvilai, K., Panjamanond, E., & Amatyakul, V. (2025). The influence of social media buying pressure on digital fatigue and compulsive purchasing among first jobbers in Thailand. The Euraseans Journal on Global Socio-Economic Dynamics, 4(53), 167-182. https://doi.org/10.35678/2539-5645.4(53).2025.167-182
  35. Shek, D. T. & Yu, L. (2016). Adolescent internet addiction in Hong Kong: Prevalence, change, and correlates. Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology, 29(1), 522-S30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpag.2015.10.005
  36. Sipahutar, R. J., Saragi, S. N. A., Ginting, K. A., Sihombing, E. V., Manalu, I., Rambe, F. A.,& Khairunnisa, N. N. S. (2024). Exploring the impact of digital literacy on microtransaction decisions in online gaming among university students. International Journal of Educational Practice and Policy, 2(2), 100-107. https://doi.org/10.61220/ijepp.v2i2.0255
  37. Süzer, Ö. Ö., & Altın, S. (2023). Kadın tüketicilerin dijital okuryazarlıklarının e-satın alma niyeti üzerine etkisi. Uluslararası Ekonomi İşletme ve Politika Dergisi, 7(2), 203-225. https://doi.org/10.29216/ueip.1250837
  38. Üstündağ, M. T., Güneş, E., & Bahçivan, E. (2017). Dijital okuryazarlık ölçeğinin Türkçeye uyarlanması ve fen bilgisi öğretmen adaylarının dijital okuryazarlık durumları. Journal of Education and Future, (12), 19–29.
  39. Young, K. S. (1998). Internet addiction: The emergence of a new clinical disorder. Cyberpsychology & Behaviour, 1(3), 237-244.