Digital Addictions & Compensatory Consumption: Exploring the Mediating roles of phubbing and Loneliness on Shopping Escapism & Impulsive Buying

Abstract

The rapid growth of smartphones and social media has changed how people communicate and shop, but it has also created new behavioral and emotional challenges. Many individuals now spend excessive time on their phones, which often leads to phubbing, the act of ignoring people in face-to-face interactions to focus on a smartphone. While earlier studies have examined digital addiction and phubbing separately, limited research has explained how these behaviors lead to emotional distress and later influence consumer buying behavior. This study aims to examine how digital addictions, including smartphone addiction, social media addiction, and fear of missing out (FoMO), lead to compensatory consumption behaviors through phubbing and loneliness. Grounded in Compensatory Consumption Theory, the study proposes a sequential model linking digital overuse to shopping escapism and impulsive buying. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was used. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire from young adults in Pakistan who actively use smartphones and social media. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test direct, mediating, and sequential relationships among the variables. The findings reveal that smartphone addiction and FoMO significantly increase phubbing behav-ior, while social media addiction does not show a direct effect. Phubbing was found to significantly increase loneliness, which in turn leads to higher levels of shopping escapism and impulsive buy-ing. The mediation analysis confirms that loneliness plays a key role in translating phubbing into compensatory consumption behaviors. The results also support a sequential mediation process, showing that digital addictions influence shopping behavior through phubbing and loneliness. This study contributes to theory by extending Compensatory Consumption Theory to the digital context and introducing phubbing as a key antecedent of emotional distress and consumer behav-ior. Practically, the findings highlight the need for balanced digital use to reduce loneliness and promote healthier consumption patterns among consumers.