Contextual influences and agency to transform context in excessive gaming: A social-ecological perspective

Abstract

Excessive media use has long been the focus of communication research. Yet most research focuses on the role of individual traits or technological affordances in explaining excessive media use (e.g., gaming), while overlooking the influence of contexts. Drawing on the social-ecological theory, we explore how contexts shape people’s excessive gaming and how players exercise their agency to navigate these contextual influences. Through in-depth interviews with 44 Chinese game players, our study suggests that people’s availability and access to games, social networks, and gameplay experiences dynamically shape their excessive gaming. People also proactively combat excessive gaming by altering their gameplay availability, negotiating with their social networks, and re-appropriating gameplay experiences. These findings highlight the contextual nature of excessive gaming, and the role of context transformation, in which people exercise agency in negotiating with contexts to counter the downsides of media use.