Does smartphone use affects our well-being? [17.06.20]
Most of us know the at times overwhelming feeling that comes with countless unread emails, new messages and social media interactions piling up. Many studies warn about the consequences of constant digital connectedness. Excessive online interactions could permanently impair mental health and general well-being. A new study involving the University of Hohenheim is dealing with precisely this highly relevant topic. The smartphone use of 75 participants was investigated in the context of everyday well-being. The researchers observed that not the smartphone use per se, but the thoughts about digital interactions had a negative effect on the daily well-being of the participants. According to the authors, this effect could result from the social pressure of constant digital connectedness.
Picture Credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/girl-teen-smartphone-russian-1848478/
Publication
Johannes, N., Meier, A., Reinecke, L., Ehlert, S., Setiawan, D.N., Walasek, N., Dienlin, T., Buijzen, M., Veling, H., 2020. The relationship between online vigilance and affective well-being in everyday life: Combining smartphone logging with experience sampling. Media Psychology 0, 1–25. doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2020.1768122
Abstract
Through communication technology, users find themselves constantly connected to others to such an extent that they routinely develop a mind-set of connectedness. This mind-set has been defined as online vigilance. Although there is a large body of research on media use and well-being, the question of how online vigilance impacts well-being remains unanswered. In this preregistered study, we combine experience sampling and smartphone logging to address the relation of online vigilance and affective well-being in everyday life. Seventy-five Android users answered eight daily surveys over five days (N = 1,615) whilst having their smartphone use logged. Thinking about smartphone-mediated social interactions (i.e., the salience dimension of online vigilance) was negatively related to affective well-being. However, it was far more important whether those thoughts were positive or negative. No other dimension of online vigilance was robustly related to affective well-being. Taken together, our results suggest that online vigilance does not pose a serious threat to affective well-being in everyday life.
