Smartphones and other mobile devices have fundamentally changed patterns of Internet use in everyday life by making online access constantly available. The present paper offers a theoretical ...explication and empirical assessment of the concept of online vigilance, referring to users' permanent cognitive orientation towards online content and communication as well as their disposition to exploit these options constantly. Based on four studies, a validated and reliable self-report measure of online vigilance was developed. In combination, the results suggest that the Online Vigilance Scale (OVS) shows a stable factor structure in various contexts and user populations and provides future work in communication, psychology, and other social sciences with a new measure of the individual cognitive orientation towards ubiquitous online communication.
Computer-mediated communication (CMC), and specifically social media, may affect the mental health (MH) and well-being of its users, for better or worse. Research on this topic has accumulated ...rapidly, accompanied by controversial public debate and numerous systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Yet, a higher-level integration of the multiple disparate conceptual and operational approaches to CMC and MH and individual review findings is desperately needed. To this end, we first develop two organizing frameworks that systematize conceptual and operational approaches to CMC and MH. Based on these frameworks, we integrate the literature through a meta-review of 34 reviews and a content analysis of 594 publications. Meta-analytic evidence, overall, suggests a small negative association between social media use and MH. However, effects are complex and depend on the CMC and MH indicators investigated. Based on our conceptual review and the evidence synthesis, we devise an agenda for future research in this interdisciplinary field.
Digitale Autonomie, hier verstanden als das selbstbestimmte Handeln in der privaten interpersonalen digitalen Kommunikation, ist in unserem von Kommunikation durchzogenen Alltag möglicherweise ein ...zentraler Faktor für die psychische Gesundheit geworden. Basierend auf der Selbstbestimmungstheorie untersucht dieser Beitrag daher, inwieweit sich individuelle Unterschiede in der Befriedigung vs. Frustration des Autonomiebedürfnisses in der digitalen interpersonalen Kommunikation auf allgemeine Bedürfnisbefriedigung und -frustration sowie die psychische Gesundheit im Alltag auswirken. Die Ergebnisse einer Tagebuchstudie mit N=532 studentischen Smartphone-Nutzern zeigen, dass Nutzer, die mehr Autonomiebedürfnisbefriedigung in der digitalen Kommunikation angaben, im Alltag geringfügig gesteigerte allgemeine Bedürfnisbefriedigung (Verbundenheit, Kompetenz und Autonomie) sowie gesteigertes eudaimonisches Wohlbefinden (Authentizität) erlebten. Umgekehrt gaben Nutzer, deren Autonomiebedürfnis in der digitalen Kommunikation eher frustriert wurde, leicht erhöhte Frustration von Verbundenheit, Kompetenz und Autonomie sowie erhöhtes Stresserleben im Alltag an. Autonomie erweist sich somit als fruchtbares Konzept zur Differenzierung positiver und negativer Wirkungen digitaler Kommunikation.
Self-presentation on social network sites (SNS) such as Instagram is often assumed to be inauthentic or even fake. While authenticity on SNS has been linked to increased well-being, most research has ...investigated it either monolithically (e.g., via screen time measures) or with regard to stable self-presentations (e.g., in Facebook profiles). In contrast, this study compares subjective authenticity perceptions within users and between self-presentations via two SNS features—Stories vs Posts. Drawing on the affordances approach, we theorize and test whether and how Stories produce greater state authenticity than Posts. Results from a preregistered within-subjects study comparing self-reports on N = 489 Posts and N = 546 Stories from N = 202 Instagram users show that by allowing more spontaneous self-presentation, Stories indeed produced (slightly) higher authenticity perceptions than Posts. However, subjective authenticity was high in both features, indicating that they similarly offer a space for authentic online self-presentation.
Most prior research on the effects of mobile and social media on well-being has worked from either the “technology addiction” or “screen time” approach. Yet these frameworks struggle with ...considerable conceptual and methodological limitations. The present study discusses and tests an established but understudied alternative, the technology habit approach. Instead of conflating mobile usage with problems (i.e., addictive/problematic usage) or ignoring users’ psychological engagement with mobiles (i.e., screen time), this approach investigates how person-level (habit strength) and day-level aspects of mobile habits (perceived interruptions and the urge to check) contribute to a key problem outcome, procrastination, as well as affective well-being and meaningfulness. In a five-day diary study with N = 532 student smartphone users providing N = 2,331 diary entries, mobile checking habit strength, perceived interruptions, and the urge to check together explained small to moderate amounts of procrastination. Procrastination, in turn, was linked to lower affective well-being and meaningfulness. Yet mobile habits showed only very small or no direct associations with affective well-being and meaningfulness. By separating habitual mobile connectivity from problem outcomes and well-being measures, this research demonstrates a promising alternative to the study of digital well-being.
Adolescents with a strong tendency for irrational task delay (i.e., high trait procrastination) may be particularly prone to use Internet applications simultaneously to other tasks (e.g., during ...homework) and in an insufficiently controlled fashion. Both Internet multitasking and insufficiently controlled Internet usage may thus amplify the negative mental health implications that have frequently been associated with trait procrastination. The present study explored this role of Internet multitasking and insufficiently controlled Internet use for the relationship between trait procrastination and impaired psychological functioning in a community sample of
= 818 early and middle adolescents. Results from multiple regression analyses indicate that trait procrastination was positively related to Internet multitasking and insufficiently controlled Internet use. Insufficiently controlled Internet use, but not Internet multitasking, was found to partially statistically mediate the association between trait procrastination and adolescents' psychological functioning (i.e., stress, sleep quality, and relationship satisfaction with parents). The study underlines that adolescents with high levels of trait procrastination may have an increased risk for negative outcomes of insufficiently controlled Internet use.
Procrastinating with popular online media such as Facebook has been suggested to impair users’ well-being, particularly among students. Building on recent procrastination, self-control, and ...communication literature, we conducted two studies (total N = 699) that examined the predictors of procrastination with Facebook as well as its effects on students’ academic and overall well-being. Results from both studies consistently indicate that low trait self-control, habitual Facebook checking, and high enjoyment of Facebook use predict almost 40 percent of the variance of using Facebook for procrastination. Moreover, results from Study 2 underline that using Facebook for the irrational delay of important tasks increases students’ academic stress levels and contributes to the negative well-being effects of Facebook use beyond the academic domain. The implications of investigating procrastination as a specific pattern of uncontrolled and dysfunctional media use are discussed with regard to research on the uses and effects of ubiquitous online media.
•Using Facebook (FB) to procrastinate tasks is common among students.•Trait self-control (TSC), FB habits, and FB enjoyment predicted procrastination.•Procrastination with FB increased students’ academic stress and FB-induced strains.•Procrastination mediated the effects of TSC, habits, and enjoyment on well-being.•Conclusion: Procrastinating with FB can impair users’ well-being.
Research on the negative psycho-emotional implications of social comparisons on social network sites such as Instagram has rapidly accumulated in recent years. However, little research has considered ...the extent to which such comparisons can elicit positive motivational outcomes for adolescent users, specifically inspiration. Furthermore, little is known about whether it matters whom young people compare themselves to on Instagram (i.e., network composition) and how this may modulate the emotional outcomes of Instagram social comparisons. The present study thus sought to determine how adolescents' Instagram comparisons of ability associate with inspiration through the mechanism of benign and malicious envy. We further examined whether two key aspects of network composition-perceived similarity and the amount of strangers followed-moderated these relationships. Results from a paper survey among
= 266 British adolescents confirm the hypothesis that those adolescents who compare more strongly on Instagram also report more inspiration from Instagram use. While benign envy positively mediated this relationship, malicious envy worked in the opposite direction, indicating the need to distinguish these two types of envy in future research. In addition, while the amount of strangers followed did not significantly affect the relationships between social comparison, envy, and inspiration, higher perceived network homophily positively moderated the relationship between social comparison and inspiration by eliciting more benign and less malicious envy. Results overall suggest that social comparisons on Instagram may be more inspiring when adolescents compare themselves to similar others and avoid unachievable false role models in their online networks.
Abstract
Passive exposure to others’ positive self-presentations on social network sites (SNS) such as Instagram has been repeatedly associated with reduced well-being, particularly by triggering ...upward social comparison and envy. However, prior research has largely neglected that upward comparisons on SNS may also facilitate positive outcomes, specifically media-induced inspiration, a motivational state highly conducive to well-being. We conducted two experiments that tested whether and how cognitive-affective processing of visual SNS postings results in inspiration. Study 1 (N = 270) provides first evidence that users react to more positive, optimized Instagram nature and travel posts with stronger upward comparison, which facilitates inspiration via an assimilative emotional reaction (benign envy), thus enhancing well-being. The preregistered Study 2 (N = 408) replicates these findings. Overall, results indicate that users can be inspired from comparing upwards on SNS, which may briefly improve their well-being. We discuss boundary conditions and implications for future communication research.
Abstract
Mobile messaging has been associated with guilt. Guilt about too much messaging may result from self-control failures during goal conflicts. Conversely, guilt about too little messaging may ...result from violating the salient norm to be available. This research considers both boundary conditions of guilt about mobile communication—goal conflicts and availability norm salience—simultaneously for the first time. We conducted two preregistered experiments to investigate their interplay. Results from a vignette experiment, but not from a laboratory experiment, support the hypotheses that goal conflicts trigger guilt about using messengers and that guilt about not using messengers arises if the availability norm is salient. In both studies, using messengers elicited more guilt than not using messengers. The boundary conditions did not interact in influencing guilt. Overall, this research emphasizes the importance of self-control, norms, and usage contexts when studying effects of mobile media use on emotional well-being.
Lay Summary
In this article, we examine feelings of guilt about the use of mobile messaging. On the one hand, we assume that guilt can arise if we message too much when we should be doing something else. On the other hand, we may feel guilty about too little messaging, i.e., when others expect us to be readily available via messaging, but we do not meet that expectation. These two assumptions were supported as seen in the results of an experiment where the participants were asked to imagine messaging (or not using messaging) in certain situations. However, in a second experiment where the participants actually experienced situations that we assumed would cause guilt, the expected feelings of guilt did not occur. In both studies, using messaging when the individual should have been doing something else caused stronger feelings of guilt than not being available for messaging. Previous research suggests that the resulting feelings of guilt can reduce our well-being. We therefore discuss our findings in terms of how users can avoid the negative effects of messenger use on their well-being.
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