Digital Dependence in The Past Decade: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Digital Dependence is a person's persistent inability to regulate the use of digital devices, on which he or she has become highly dependent. Internet dependence has been described since the mid-1990s, and studies on this topic have intensified since 2010. This type of individual dependence has been the subject of considerable published literature, but in the collective setting of Organizations it is recent, offering the hypothesis that it can also be collective. To review literature on Digital Dependency from 2011 to 2020, considering three perspectives: (a) evolution of the theme during the period; (b) impacts on human behavior; (c) its stage in collective organizational settings. Method and Materials: Systematic literature review of English language articles, in three databases: PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycInfo, using this article's keywords, refined by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). After analysis of Titles, Abstracts and Contents, 58 articles were selected as fitting those three perspectives. Results: Of 2,821 manuscripts initially selected, 51 of them displayed evolution, characteristics of digital dependence, and impacts on human behavior in line with the objectives of this study. Seven other articles were added after checking the biographical references of the first 51 articles for other references also meeting our research objectives. Research evolved geographically from three countries (2009-2016) to 17 (2017-2020), with 7 new scales for digital dependence. There were thirteen new revalidations of the Nomophobia Questionnaire (NMP-Q), with an increase from 1,000 to 13,000 volunteers in the two periods. The 58 manuscripts included in this survey confirmed the evolution of digital dependence and its impacts on human behavior. Conclusions: Geographical evolution, and an increase in the number of scales and of volunteers as well as their different profiles were described. New approaches reinforce evolution, and its impacts on human behavior. This study provides historical insight into Digital Dependence and opens new prospects for research on the differences between nations and people, between genders, between professionals and the need for further research in organizations.