Burning out together? A study on excessive consumption in fan tribes of professional wrestling

Excessive consumption of digital content has significant impact on consumer wellbeing. Compared to information or choice overload, excessive consumption often co-occurs with compulsive and addictive qualities. Excessive consumption of digital content, such as binge watching and social media addiction, involves an ongoing negotiation between temporary gratification and long-term wellbeing. It presents not only an individual challenge of control, but also a socio-moral challenge. Our research question asks: How do consumers manage challenges of excessive consumption and its wellbeing impacts? This study investigates the challenges and implications of excessive consumption for professional wrestling fans in an online community. We employ a multi-staged exploratory study to understand how consumers manage excessive consumption individually and as a group. Netnography and approximately 40 in-depth interviews are planned until theoretical saturation is achieved. From our findings we aim to develop better understandings on excessive consumption and how to manage it, especially for vulnerable consumers.