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“I finally felt I had the tools to control these urges”: Empowering Students to Achieve Their Device Use Goals With the Reduce Digital Distraction Workshop
... While temporary abstinence is just one way of moderating use, a 2024 workshop examined multiple self-regulatory interventions for reducing screen time and screen distractions in Oxford University students. These interventions, which included time-limiting apps and other motivational techniques to voluntarily place restrictions on screen time, led most stu-dents in the study to continue to benefit from controlling their digital device use after the workshop was completed [34]. ...
Internet use disorders (IUDs) represent conditions where individuals experience a loss of control over their interactive online media use resulting in reduced functional capacity, and physical, and mental health impairments. Disordered Internet use may develop with various online use activities including video games, social media, online pornography, video watching, and shopping. Prevalence rates for these disorders are increasing worldwide resulting in an increased demand for effective treatment. A number of structured psychosocial treatment approaches have been shown to improve IUD symptoms. Effective psychosocial treatments specifically for gaming disorder include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), the Acceptance and Cognitive Restructuring Intervention Program (ACRIP) based on a cognitive behavioral and mindfulness model, and a Craving Behavioral Intervention (CBI). More general treatments for IUDs have shown to be successful based on CBT. Among pharmaceutical interventions, bupropion has been effective. Preventive interventions appear promising in school settings. Individual studies of primary prevention showed efficacy, but pooled results did not. Based on a meta-analysis, early prevention is particularly effective. Results are limited by methodological shortcomings and premature evidence. Recommendations for the future include more specific research questions related to effective components, appropriate settings, and motivational approaches to clinical treatment and prevention interventions. Considerations for clinicians and parents are outlined.
Mobile devices are ubiquitous, but their potential for adaptive educational interventions remains largely untapped. We identify three key promises of mobile interventions for educational research and practice: 1) intervening when it is most beneficial (i.e., “just-in-time adaptivity”), 2) estimating causal effects of interventions in ecologically valid settings, 3) considering the impact of context on the effectiveness of interventions. We discuss the challenges and next steps to advance this field.
Distractions are ubiquitous in today’s technology-saturated environments, an issue that significantly impacts learning contexts employing digital technologies and yields detrimental effects on learning. Digital self-control tools, which aim to assist users in their efforts to reduce digital distractions, are numerous and readily available. Despite several dedicated empirical studies focusing on specific tools, there remains a notable lack of information regarding their daily use and helpfulness. Furthermore, the sheer variety of these tools prompts questions about their universal helpfulness and the potential influence of individual differences.
To address these issues, we surveyed a sample of higher-education students, totaling 273 individuals. These students reported on their media use, satisfaction with learning, and experiences with features of digital self-control tools. Our study’s findings indicate a discrepancy in the perception and awareness of these features; those deemed most helpful are among the least known, and conversely, common features are often perceived as unhelpful.
Our research also uncovered a negative correlation between habitual media use and the use of less restrictive features. Another identified issue was constraints on the use of these tools for learning, as platforms often serve dual purposes for both education and entertainment. We delve into these practical problems and propose future research directions to further advance the understanding of digital self-control tools.
Doomsurfing, doomscrolling or zombie scrolling. These new additions to the tech vocabulary have become part of our everyday routine, scrolling endlessly through social media feeds. Furthermore , some users report a sense of compulsion, a decrease in mental wellbeing and an increased sense of distraction. A common complaint among users harks back to the Facebook newsfeed. In a field experiment with real Facebook users (= 138), we investigate the difference between a strict newsfeed diet (where the newsfeed is automatically reduced to a minimum) and self-regulated newsfeed diet (where the newsfeed is reduced, but users can then manage its content). Our results indicate that both of these newsfeed diets are effective at reducing the time spent on Facebook's platform (−64% for the strict diet, −39% for the self-regulated diet). Our findings also suggest that these design interventions come with positive and negative user experiences such as increased self-awareness and fear of missing out (FOMO).
YouTube has many features, such as homepage recommendations, that encourage users to explore its vast library of videos. However, when users visit YouTube with a specific intention, e.g., learning how to program in Python, these features to encourage exploration are often distracting. Prior work has innovated ‘commitment interfaces’ that restrict social media but finds that they often indiscriminately block needed content. In this paper, we describe the design, development, and evaluation of an ‘adaptable commitment interface,’ the SwitchTube mobile app, in which users can toggle between two interfaces when watching YouTube videos: Focus Mode (search-first) and Explore Mode (recommendations-first). In a three-week field deployment with 46 US participants, we evaluate how the ability to switch between interfaces affects user experience, finding that it provides users with a greater sense of agency, satisfaction, and goal alignment. We conclude with design implications for how adaptable commitment interfaces can support digital wellbeing.
The endless stream of social media newsfeeds and stories captivates users for hours on end, sometimes exceeding what users themselves consider unhealthy. However, reducing one's social media consumption has proven to be challenging. To address this issue, this study investigates how the co-creation of the digital feedback nudge can improve digital well-being without increasing privacy threats. To achieve this goal, a mixed method study is used through a two-week pre-post study design. Results demonstrate that co-creation significantly increased users' sense of agency, sense of accomplishment and perceived sense of privacy while reducing users' privacy concern. Furthermore, the feedback nudge allowed participants to significantly decrease their social media use.
Background:
Digital technology use is nearly ubiquitous among young adults, this use provides both benefits and risks. Risks of technology use include maladaptive technology use or technology addiction. Several conceptualizations of these addictions have emerged, each with their own assessment tools. These conditions include Problematic Internet Use (PIU), Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and Social Media Addiction (SMA). These conditions have been associated with health outcomes such as problematic alcohol use, sleep disorders and mental illness. These maladaptive technology conditions have most commonly been studied in isolation from each other.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to examine PIU, IGD and SMA together to better inform future research approaches and provider screening practices for young adults.
Methods:
This cross-sectional survey study was conducted using Qualtrics panel-based recruitment and survey hosting. We recruited US young adults ages 18-25 years. The survey assessed PIU, IGD and SMA. Survey measures also included assessments for problematic alcohol use, sleep, depression and anxiety. We evaluated the frequency and overlap in positive screening scores among PIU, IGD and SMA, and modeled each condition using multivariate logistic regression. Finally, we calculated sensitivity and specificity, as well as positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the screening tools using the most prevalent maladaptive technology type.
Results:
Our 6000 participants had average age of 21.7 (SD=2.35). A total of 3062/6000 (51%) were female and 3431/6000 (57.3%) were Caucasian; 1686/6000 (28.1%) were in a 4-year college and 2319/6000 (38.8%) worked full time. The mean PIU score was 3.5 (SD=3.1), a total of 3215/6000 (55%) of participants met criteria for PIU. The mean IGD score was 2.7 (SD=2.6), a total of 1460/6000 (25%) met criteria for IGD. The mean SMA score was 7.5 (SD=5.7), and a total of 205/6000 (3.5%) met criteria for SMA. Across all three maladaptive technology use diagnoses, there were varied associations with demographic variables and similar overlap with health outcomes. The sensitivity of PIU screening to detect IGD was 82%, and to detect SMA was 93%, while the specificity and positive predictive value were much lower (37-54% specificity, 6-37% positive predictive value).
Conclusions:
This cross-sectional survey screened a large national sample of AYAs for PIU, IGD and SMA to determine prevalence and overlap, demographic associations with each, and associations between these technology-related conditions and health outcomes. There was overlap across PIU, IGD and SMA in some associated demographic variables as well as health outcomes. However, the patterns in associated variables demonstrated unique qualities of each of these conditions.
Clinicaltrial:
Smartphones are often distraction for everyday life activities. In this work, we envision designing a context-aware system that helps users better manage smartphone distractions. This system design requires us to have an in-depth understanding of users' contexts of smartphone distractions and their coping strategies. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the contexts in which users perceive that smartphones are distracting in their everyday lives. Furthermore, prior studies did not systematically examine users' preferred coping strategies for handling interruptions caused by smartphones, possibly supported by context-aware systems that proactively manage smartphone distraction. To bridge this gap, we collect in-situ user contexts and their corresponding levels of perceived smartphone distraction as well as analyze the daily contexts in which users perceive smartphones as distracting. Moreover, we also explore how users want to manage phone distraction by asking them to write simple if-then rules. Our results on user contexts and coping strategies provide important implications for designing and implementing context-aware distraction management systems.
Several fields of science are experiencing a ""replication crisis"" that has negatively impacted their credibility. Assessing the validity of a contribution via replicability of its experimental evidence and reproducibility of its analyses requires access to relevant study materials, data, and code. Failing to share them limits the ability to scrutinize or build-upon the research, ultimately hindering scientific progress.Understanding how the diverse research artifacts in HCI impact sharing can help produce informed recommendations for individual researchers and policy-makers in HCI. Therefore, we surveyed authors of CHI 2018-2019 papers, asking if they share their papers' research materials and data, how they share them, and why they do not. The results (34% response rate) show that sharing is uncommon, partly due to misunderstandings about the purpose of sharing and reliable hosting. We conclude with recommendations for fostering open research practices.This paper and all data and materials are freely available at https://osf.io/3bu6t.
Natural language processing (NLP) plays a vital role in modern medical informatics. It converts narrative text or unstructured data into knowledge by analyzing and extracting concepts. A comprehensive lexical system is the foundation to the success of NLP applications and an essential component at the beginning of the NLP pipeline. The SPECIALIST Lexicon and Lexical Tools, distributed by the National Library of Medicine as one of the Unified Medical Language System Knowledge Sources, provides an underlying resource for many NLP applications. This article reports recent developments of 3 key components in the Lexicon. The core NLP operation of Unified Medical Language System concept mapping is used to illustrate the importance of these developments. Our objective is to provide generic, broad coverage and a robust lexical system for NLP applications. A novel multiword approach and other planned developments are proposed.
N-of-1 tools offer the potential to support people in monitoring health and identifying individualized health management strategies. We argue that elicitation of individualized goals and customization of tracking to support those goals are a critical yet under-studied and under-supported aspect of self-tracking. We review examples of self-tracking from across a range of chronic conditions and self-tracking designs (e.g., self-monitoring, correlation analyses, self-experimentation). Together, these examples show how failure to elicit goals can lead to ineffective tracking routines, breakdowns in collaboration (e.g., between patients and providers, among families), increased burdens, and even designs that encourage behaviors counter to a person's goals. We discuss potential techniques for eliciting and refining goals, scaffolding an appropriate tracking routine based on those goals, and presenting results in ways that advance individual goals while preserving individual agency. We then describe open challenges, including how to reconcile competing goals and support evolution of goals over time.
In the past few years, we have become increasingly focused on technology use that is impulsive, unthinking, and distractive. There has been a strong push to understand such technology use in terms of dopamine addiction. The present article demonstrates the limitations of this so-called neurobehaviorist approach: Not only is it inconsistent in regard to how it understands humans, technologies, and their mutual relationship, it also pathologizes everyday human behaviors. The article proceeds to discuss dual-systems theory, which helpfully discusses impulsive technology use in terms of habit instead of addiction, but can be criticized for its mentalist celebration of conscious control. Finally, the article introduces a phenomenological approach whose conceptualization of habit manifests many of the experiential qualities that we try to capture with addiction, but remains non-pathologizing and opens a space for learning: While tech addiction is bad and must be eliminated, good tech habits can be trained and cultivated.
Understanding how people use technology remains important, particularly when measuring the impact this might have on individuals and society. However, despite a growing body of resources that can quantify smartphone use, research within psychology and social science overwhelmingly relies on self-reported assessments. These have yet to convincingly demonstrate an ability to predict objective behavior. Here, and for the first time, we compare a variety of smartphone use and ‘addiction’ scales with objective behaviors derived from Apple's Screen Time application. While correlations between psychometric scales and objective behavior are generally poor, single estimates and measures that attempt to frame technology use as habitual rather than ‘addictive’ correlate more favorably with subsequent behavior. We conclude that existing self-report instruments are unlikely to be sensitive enough to accurately predict basic technology use related behaviors. As a result, conclusions regarding the psychological impact of technology are unreliable when relying solely on these measures to quantify typical usage.
Many smartphone users engage in compulsive and habitual phone checking they find frustrating, yet our understanding of how this phenomenon is experienced is limited. We conducted a semi-structured interview, a think-aloud phone-use demonstration, and a sketching exercise with 39 smartphone users (ages 14-64) to probe their experiences with compulsive phone checking. Their insights revealed a small taxonomy of common triggers that lead up to instances of compulsive phone use and a second set that end compulsive phone use sessions. Though participants expressed frustration with their lack of self-control, they also reported that the activities they engage in during these sessions can be meaningful, which they defined as transcending the current instance of use. Participants said they periodically reflect on their compulsive use and delete apps that drive compulsive checking without providing sufficient meaning. We use these findings to create a descriptive model of the cycle of compulsive checking, and we call on designers to craft experiences that meet users' definition of meaningfulness rather than creating lock-out mechanisms to help them police their own use.
Open-source software improves the reproducibility of scientific research. Because existing open-source tools often do not offer dedicated support for longitudinal data collection on phones and computers, we built formr, a study framework that enables researchers to conduct both simple surveys and more intricate studies. With automated email and text message reminders that can be sent according to any schedule, longitudinal and experience-sampling studies become easy to implement. By integrating a web-based application programming interface for the statistical programming language R via OpenCPU, formr allows researchers to use a familiar programming language to enable complex features. These can range from adaptive testing, to graphical and interactive feedback, to integration with non-survey data sources such as self-trackers or online social network data. Here we showcase three studies created in formr: a study of couples with dyadic feedback; a longitudinal study over months, which included social networks and peer and partner ratings; and a diary study with daily invitations sent out by text message and email and extensive feedback on intraindividual patterns.
While becoming inextricable to our daily lives, online social media are blamed for increasing mental health problems in younger people. This systematic review synthesized evidence on the influence of social media use on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. A search of PsycINFO, Medline, Embase, CINAHL and SSCI databases reaped 13 eligible studies, of which 12 were cross-sectional. Findings were classified into four domains of social media: time spent, activity, investment and addiction. All domains correlated with depression, anxiety and psychological distress. However, there are considerable caveats due to methodological limitations of cross-sectional design, sampling and measures. Mechanisms of the putative effects of social media on mental health should be explored further through qualitative enquiry and longitudinal cohort studies.
Productivity behavior change systems help us reduce our
time on unproductive activities. However, is that time actually saved, or is it just redirected to other unproductive
activities? We report an experiment using HabitLab, a behavior change browser extension and phone application, that
manipulated the frequency of interventions on a focal goal
and measured the effects on time spent on other applications
and platforms. We find that, when intervention frequency
increases on the focal goal, time spent on other applications
is held constant or even reduced. Likewise, we find that time
is not redistributed across platforms from browser to mobile
phone or vice versa. These results suggest that any conservation of procrastination effect is minimal, and that behavior
change designers may target individual productivity goals
without causing substantial negative second-order effects.
The widespread use of digital technologies by young people has spurred speculation that their regular use negatively impacts psychological well-being. Current empirical evidence supporting this idea is largely based on secondary analyses of large-scale social datasets. Though these datasets provide a valuable resource for highly powered investigations, their many variables and observations are often explored with an analytical flexibility that marks small effects as statistically significant, thereby leading to potential false positives and conflicting results. Here we address these methodological challenges by applying specification curve analysis (SCA) across three large-scale social datasets (total n = 355,358) to rigorously examine correlational evidence for the effects of digital technology on adolescents. The association we find between digital technology use and adolescent well-being is negative but small, explaining at most 0.4% of the variation in well-being. Taking the broader context of the data into account suggests that these effects are too small to warrant policy change.
In the last 2 decades, the widespread adoption of Internet technologies has inspired concern that they have negatively affected mental health and psychological well-being. However, research on the topic is contested and hampered by methodological shortcomings, leaving the broader consequences of Internet adoption unknown. We show that the past 2 decades have seen only small and inconsistent changes in global well-being and mental health that are not suggestive of the idea that the adoption of Internet and mobile broadband is consistently linked to negative psychological outcomes. Further investigation of this topic requires transparent study of online behaviors where they occur (i.e., on online platforms). We call for increased collaborative efforts between independent scientists and the Internet-technology sector.
A growing - yet debated - discussion around the negative aspects of overusing technology led researchers and practitioners to consider a new kind of psychological digital wellbeing, giving rise to the flourishing of digital self-control tools (DSCTs). As many people nowadays own and use several devices, there is a need to understand better their overlapping use (and non-use) and the relationships to digital wellbeing. This special issue aims to provide the academic and industry research communities a venue for work at the state-of-the-art on digital wellbeing and DSCTs, with a particular focus on digital wellbeing within complex technological and social contexts.
Research suggests various associations of smartphone use with a range of physical, psychological, and performance dimensions. Here, we test one sec, a self-nudging app that is installed by the user in order to reduce the mindless use of selected target apps on the smartphone. When users attempt to open a target app of their choice, one sec interferes with a pop-up, which combines a deliberation message, friction by a short waiting time, and the option to dismiss opening the target app. In a field-experiment, we collected behavioral user data from 280 participants over 6 wk, and conducted two surveys before and after the intervention span. one sec reduced the usage of target apps in two ways. First, on average 36% of the times participants attempted opening a target app, they closed that app again after one sec interfered. Second, over the course of 6 wk, users attempted to open target apps 37% less than in the first week. In sum, one sec decreased users' actual opening of target apps by 57% after six consecutive weeks. Afterward, participants also reported spending less time with their apps and indicated increased satisfaction with their consumption. To disentangle one sec's effects, we tested its three psychological features in a preregistered online experiment (N = 500) that measured the consumption of real and viral social media video clips. We found that providing the additional option to dismiss the consumption attempt had the strongest effect. While the friction by time delay also reduced consumption instances, the deliberation message was not effective.
Public media and researchers in different areas have recently focused on perhaps unexpected problems that derive from an excessive and frequent use of technology, giving rise to a new kind of psychological “digital” wellbeing. Such a novel and pressing topic has fostered, both in the academia and in the industry, the emergence of a variety of digital self-control tools allowing users to self-regulate their technology use through interventions like timers and lock-out mechanisms. While these emerging technologies for behavior change hold great promise to support people’s digital wellbeing, we still have a limited understanding of their real effectiveness, as well as of how to best design and evaluate them. Aiming to guide future research in this important domain, this article presents a systematic review and a meta-analysis of current work on tools for digital self-control. We surface motivations, strategies, design choices, and challenges that characterize the design, development, and evaluation of digital self-control tools. Furthermore, we estimate their overall effect size on reducing (unwanted) technology use through a meta-analysis. By discussing our findings, we provide insights on how to (i) overcome a limited perspective that exclusively focuses on technology overuse and self-monitoring tools, (ii) evaluate digital self-control tools through long-term studies and standardized measures, and (iii) bring ethics in the digital wellbeing discourse and deal with the business model of contemporary tech companies.
To help users reduce distractions, many digital self-control tools (DSCTs) use strong enforcement mechanisms (e.g., locking theuser out of undesired apps during work hours). However, these tools often trigger psychological reactance: the desire to restore therestricted autonomy by circumventing or contradicting the tool. We propose ways that designers can leverage self-determinationtheory, an evidence-based theory of human motivation and wellbeing, to support users in internalizing the motivation behind theirgoals and reduce reactance.
Much effort has been invested in designing digital systems that keep people ‘hooked’. By contrast, comparatively little is known about how designers can support people in re-gaining control. Online, however, hundreds of apps and browser extensions promise to help people self-regulate use of digital devices. Reviews and popularity metrics for these digital self-control tools (DSCTs) can indicate which design patterns are useful in the wild. Moreover, they reveal how platforms like Android and iOS differ in the ecosystems they enable for DSCTs, which has important implications for end users. We analysed reviews, installation numbers, and ratings for 334 DSCTs on the Google Play, Chrome Web, and Apple App stores, investigating what user reviews reveal about usage contexts and key design challenges, and how functionality relates to popularity metrics. Our thematic analysis of 1,529 reviews (sampled from a data set of 53,978 distinct reviews scraped in March 2019) found that DSCTs are seen as highly important for focusing on less instantly rewarding tasks when digital distractions are easily available. Users seek DSCTs that adapt to their personal definitions of distraction, and provide support that is sufficient to change behaviour without feeling too coercive. Reviewers suggested combining design patterns to provide a level of support that is ‘just right’. This was mirrored in the ratings, where tools combined different types of design patterns (e.g., website blocking and goal reminders) tended to receive higher ratings than those implementing a single type. We discuss implications for research and design, including how design patterns in DSCTs interact, and how psychological reactance to DSCTs can be reduced.
Users can nowadays take advantage of Digital-Self Control Tools (DSCT) to self-regulate their usage of applications and websites by means of interventions like timers and lockout mechanisms. However, DSCTs mainly focus on the interaction between users and a single device at a time, while people typically use more than one device, and in a concurrent way. This motivates the need of exploring tools that can adapt to multi-device settings. We present FeelHabits, a DSCT that allows users to set up, through a novel approach, multi-device intentions, i.e., contextual time and launch limits for the simultaneous and/or alternating use of the PC and the smartphone. Stemming from the defined intentions, FeelHabits employs different levels of severity to warn the user about a reached limit on the currently used device. A preliminary study on 7 participants suggests that FeelHabits might be effective for reducing some multi-device behaviors, and opens the way for further research.
We live in a world of communication overload, where there is a wide range of platforms and devices to choose from, each providing massive content, offering different affordances, and fighting for our attention. Mobile technologies have contributed to expectations of anywhere anytime connectedness, making it hard for individuals to switch off. As a result, it can be hard to feel truly disconnected from work. A lack of control over work-home boundary cross-overs and interruptions can reduce post-work recovery, reducing productivity and increasing stress. Technology is not inherently good or bad, but rather, the way it is adopted and used can positively or negatively color one’s experience. As such, in this critical review we take a social constructionist approach to emphasize how communication technologies are challenging, as well as supporting, work-home boundary management. In doing so, we bring together work from occupational psychology (boundary theory) and human-computer interaction (computer-mediated communication and cross-device interaction). Understanding how these aspects interact and influence each other is important in order to support individuals appropriately, inform policies and guidelines, and ensure both social and digital interactions are designed carefully.
For all its popularity as a psychological construct, willpower is irremediably polysemous. A more helpful construct is self-control, defined as the self-regulation of conflicting impulses. We show how the process model of self-control provides a principled framework for examining how undesirable impulses may be weakened and desirable impulses may be strengthened.
Self-regulation is a core aspect of human functioning that helps facilitate the successful pursuit of personal goals. There has been a proliferation of theories and models describing different aspects of self-regulation both within and outside of psychology. All of these models provide insights about self-regulation, but sometimes they talk past each other, make only shallow contributions, or make contributions that are underappreciated by scholars working in adjacent areas. The purpose of this article is to integrate across the many different models in order to refine the vast literature on self-regulation. To achieve this objective, we first review some of the more prominent models of self-regulation coming from social psychology, personality psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. We then integrate across these models based on four key elements—level of analysis, conflict, emotion, and cognitive functioning—specifically identifying points of convergence but also points of insufficient emphasis. We close with prescriptions for future research.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 72 is January 5, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Most methods used to make theory-relevant observations of technology use rely on self-report or application logging data where individuals' digital experiences are purposively summarized into aggregates meant to describe how the average individual engages with broadly defined segments of content. This aggregation and averaging masks heterogeneity in how and when individuals actually engage with their technology. In this study, we use screenshots (N > 6 million) collected every five seconds that were sequenced and processed using text and image extraction tools into content-, context-, and temporally-informative "screenomes" from 132 smartphone users over several weeks to examine individuals' digital experiences. Analyses of screenomes highlight extreme between-person and within-person heterogeneity in how individuals switch among and titrate their engagement with different content. Our simple quantifications of textual and graphical content and flow throughout the day illustrate the value screenomes have for the study of individuals' smartphone use and the cognitive and psychological processes that drive use. We demonstrate how temporal, textual, graphical, and topical features of people's smartphone screens can lay the foundation for expanding the Human Screenome Project with full-scale mining that will inform researchers' knowledge of digital life.
The excessive and obsessive use of the internet and digital technologies, known as Digital Addiction (DA), is becoming a social issue. Given that it inherently involves the use of technological devices this provides the opportunity to deliver interactive, intelligent prevention and intervention strategies in real-time. However, for any large-scale, multi-national prevention campaign to be optimised cultural differences within the target population must be considered. This study aimed to contribute towards this literature by exploring cultural differences in the acceptance of DA prevention messages in the UK vs China. An initial series of exploratory interviews were conducted with a sample within the UK to determine what strategies may be used to address the overuse of digital devices. These interviews were subjected to content analysis, which was then used as the basis for an online survey that was disseminated throughout the UK and China. A total of 373 useable surveys were returned. There were several statistically significant differences in preferences over how an intervention system should operate. UK participants wished for the system to be easily under their control, whilst behaving largely autonomously when needed, and to also be transparent as to why a message had been triggered. Chinese participants, on the other hand, were less likely to state a preference for such a high degree of control over any such system. Overall, the preferred implementation of such systems does appear to vary between the UK and China, suggesting that any future prevention and intervention strategies take cultural dimensions into consideration.
The constant availability of social networking sites (SNSs) on smartphones has an enormous distracting potential and may lead to problematic usage behavior, especially among younger age groups. In this context, an emerging trend of using so-called digital detox applications (apps; e.g., iOS Screen Time) can be witnessed, which allows users to monitor and limit their smartphone use as well as to consciously disconnect for a certain period of time. However, it remains unclear whether digital detox apps can indeed reduce negative consequences of using SNSs such as problematic smartphone use (PSU) and decreased well-being. Drawing from self-regulation theory, we investigated the relationships between using SNSs, PSU, and well-being among a sample of 500 young adults between 18 and 35 years of age. We used multigroup analysis to compare digital detox app users and nonusers. Results revealed that a high proportion of young adults use digital detox apps (41.7 percent). Among those who did not use such apps, using SNSs was positively associated with PSU, which was negatively related to well-being. Among digital detox app users, we found no such relationship. Thus, digital detox apps seem to be a valuable tool to prevent harmful effects of using SNSs on well-being among young people by reducing the risk of using the smartphone compulsively.
The Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS) is a widely used measure of self-control, a construct associated with beneficial psychological outcomes. Several studies have investigated the psychometric properties of the BSCS but have failed to reach consensus. This has resulted in an unstable and ambiguous understanding of the scale and its psychometric properties. The current study sought resolution by implementing scale evaluation approaches guided by modern psychometric literature. Additionally, our goal was to provide a more comprehensive item analysis via the item response theory (IRT) framework. Results from the current study support both unidimensional and multidimensional factor structures for the 13-item version of the BSCS. The addition of an IRT analysis provided a new perspective on item- and test-level functioning. The goal of a more defensible psychometric grounding for the BSCS is to promote greater consistency, stability, and trust in future results.
Despite pervasive messaging about the dangers of "screen time," children and families remain avid consumers of digital media and other technologies. Given competing narratives heralding the promise or the peril of children's technology, how can designers best serve this audience? In this panel, we bring together world experts from: children's media and communications, pediatrics and human development, HCI and design, and industry product development to debate the validity of pundits' concerns and discuss designers' opportunities and obligations with respect to creating products for this user group. Panelists bring diverse--and sometimes conflicting--perspectives on the conceptual frameworks that are most appropriate for understanding family technology use, the ethical considerations designers should bring to this space, and the most pressing needs for future research. Grounding the conversation in guidance from the audience, panelists will share their visions for a research agenda that separates moral panics from credible concerns and promotes the design of positive digital experiences for children and families.
As smartphone use increases dramatically, so do studies about technology overuse. Many different mobile apps for breaking "smartphone addiction" and achieving "digital wellbeing" are available. However, it is still not clear whether and how such solutions work. Which functionality do they have? Are they effective and appreciated? Do they have a relevant impact on users' behavior? To answer these questions, (i) we reviewed the features of 42 digital wellbeing apps, (ii) we performed a thematic analysis on 1,128 user reviews of such apps, and (iii) we conducted a 3-week-long in-the-wild study of Socialize, an app that includes the most common digital wellbeing features, with 38 participants. We discovered that digital wellbeing apps are appreciated and useful for some specific situations. However, they do not promote the formation of new habits and they are perceived as not restrictive enough, thus not effectively helping users to change their behavior with smartphones.
While many people use social network sites to connect with friends and family, some feel that their use is problematic, seriously affecting their sleep, work, or life. Pairing a survey of 20,000 Facebook users measuring perceptions of problematic use with behavioral and demographic data, we examined Facebook activities associated with problematic use as well as the kinds of people most likely to experience it. People who feel their use is problematic are more likely to be younger, male, and going through a major life event such as a breakup. They spend more time on the platform, particularly at night, and spend proportionally more time looking at profiles and less time browsing their News Feeds. They also message their friends more frequently. While they are more likely to respond to notifications, they are also more likely to deactivate their accounts, perhaps in an effort to better manage their time. Further, they are more likely to have seen content about social media or phone addiction. Notably, people reporting problematic use rate the site as more valuable to them, highlighting the complex relationship between technology use and well-being. A better understanding of problematic Facebook use can inform the design of context-appropriate and supportive tools to help people become more in control.
Many people often experience difficulties in achieving behavioral goals related to smartphone use. Most of prior studies approached this problem with various behavior change strategies such as self-reflection and social support. However, little is known about the effectiveness and user experiences of restrictive and coercive interventions such as blocking. In this work, we developed "GoalKeeper," a smartphone intervention app that locks the user into the self-defined daily use time limit with restrictive intervention mechanisms. We conducted a four-week field experiment with 36 participants to investigate the effects and user experiences of varying intensities of restrictive interventions. The results showed that restrictive mechanisms are more effective than non-restrictive mechanisms such as warning. However, we found that restrictive mechanisms caused more frustration and pressure to the users, mainly due to diversity of usage contexts and needs. Based on our study results, we extracted practical implications for designing restrictive mechanisms that balance the intervention effectiveness for behavioral changes and the flexibility for user acceptability.
Almost everyone struggles to act in their individual and collective best interests, particularly when doing so requires forgoing a more immediately enjoyable alternative. Other than exhorting decision makers to "do the right thing," what can policymakers do to reduce overeating, undersaving, procrastination, and other self-defeating behaviors that feel good now but generate larger delayed costs? In this review, we synthesize contemporary research on approaches to reducing failures of self-control. We distinguish between self-deployed and other-deployed strategies and, in addition, between situational and cognitive intervention targets. Collectively, the evidence from both psychological science and economics recommends psychologically informed policies for reducing failures of self-control.
Many people struggle to control their use of digital devices. However, our understanding of the design mechanisms that support user self-control remains limited. In this paper, we make two contributions to HCI research in this space: first, we analyse 367 apps and browser extensions from the Google Play, Chrome Web, and Apple App stores to identify common core design features and intervention strategies afforded by current tools for digital self-control. Second, we adapt and apply an integrative dual systems model of self-regulation as a framework for organising and evaluating the design features found. Our analysis aims to help the design of better tools in two ways: (i) by identifying how, through a well-established model of self-regulation, current tools overlap and differ in how they support self-control; and (ii) by using the model to reveal underexplored cognitive mechanisms that could aid the design of new tools.
Behavior change systems help people manage their time online and achieve many other goals. These systems typically consist of a single static intervention, such as a timer or site blocker, to persuade users to behave in ways consistent with their stated goals. However, static interventions decline in effectiveness over time as users begin to ignore them. In this paper, we compare the effectiveness of static interventions to a rotation strategy, where users experience different interventions over time. We built and deployed a browser extension called HabitLab, which features many interventions that the user can enable across social media and other web sites to control their time spent browsing. We ran three in-the-wild field experiments on HabitLab to compare static interventions to rotated interventions. We found that rotating between interventions increased effectiveness as measured by time on site, but also increased attrition: more users uninstalled HabitLab. To minimize attrition, we introduced a just-in-time information design about rotation. This design reduced attrition rates by half. With this research, we suggest that interaction design, paired with rotation of behavior change interventions, can help users gain control of their online habits.
Digital behaviour change interventions, particularly those using pervasive computing technology, hold great promise in supporting users to change their behaviour. However, most interventions fail to take habitual behaviour into account, limiting their potential impact. This failure is partly driven by a plethora of overlapping behaviour change theories and related strategies that do not consider the role of habits. We critically review the main theories and models used in the research to analyse their application to designing effective habitual behaviour change interventions. We highlight the potential for Dual Process Theory, modern habit theory, and Goal Setting Theory, which together model how users form and break habits, to drive effective digital interventions. We synthesise these theories into an explanatory framework, the Habit Alteration Model, and use it to outline the state of the art. We identify the opportunities and challenges of habit-focused interventions.