Requirements Engineering For ADDICTion-Aware Software (E-ADDICT)

Digital Addiction, (hereafter referred to as DA), has become a serious issue that has a diversity of socio-economic side effects. In spite of its high importance, DA has received little recognition and little guidance as to how software engineering should take it into account. This is in stark contrast to other domains known for traditional addiction, e.g. drugs, gambling, and alcohol, in which there are clear rules and policies on how to manufacture, market and sell the products. We contend that software engineering is required to attempt to provide ways to develop software that does not lead to addiction and to accommodate users who are genuinely vulnerable to addictive behaviour. This thesis will concentrate on conceptualising DA to advance the understanding of how addiction elements influencing features and functionalities of social networking systems.