Modelling smartphone addiction

To quantitatively assess the association of problematic smartphone use (PSU) with poor sleep quality, depression, and anxiety, we reviewed current evidence from observational studies and performed a systematic review and meta-analysis. The EBSCO PsycARTICLES, EMBASE, PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched, and 14 studies were included for the systematic review and meta-analysis. We calculated odds risk and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), using random-effect or fixed-effect models. Heterogeneity was assessed using I2 and chi2 statistics. Subgroup analyses were conducted based on country, adjusted variables, the methods of statistical analysis, outcome measures and publication year. We found significantly increased risks of poor sleep quality, depression, and anxiety in people with PSU. Our findings highlight the necessity of managing the PSU. However, further studies are required to confirm the results due to the high heterogeneity and methodological limitations.

Association of problematic smartphone use with poor sleep quality, depression, and anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Though many people report an interest in self-limiting certain aspects of their phone use, challenges adhering to self-defined limits are common. We conducted a design exercise and online survey to map the design space of interventions for smartphone non-use and distilled these into a small taxonomy of intervention categories. Using these findings, we implemented "MyTime," an intervention to support people in achieving goals related to smartphone non-use. We conducted a deployment study with 23 participants over two weeks and found that participants reduced their time with the apps they feel are a poor use of time by 21% while their use of the apps they feel are a good use of time remained unchanged. We found that a small taxonomy describes users' diverse set of desired behavior changes relating to smartphone non-use, and that these desired changes predict: 1) the hypothetical features they are interested in trying, 2) the extent to which they engage with these features in practice, and 3) their changes in behavior in response to the intervention. We link users' desired behaviors to the categories of our design taxonomy, providing a foundation for a theoretical model of designing for smartphone non-use.

/pdf/mytime-designing-and-evaluating-an-intervention-for-3tsjj6k71j.pdf

MyTime: Designing and Evaluating an Intervention for Smartphone Non-Use

Prior research indicates that many people wish to limit aspects of their smartphone use. Why is it that certain smartphone use feels so meaningless? We examined this question by using interviews, the experience sampling method, and mobile logging of 86,402 sessions of app use. One motivation for use (habitual use to pass the time) and two types of use (entertainment and passive social media) were associated with a lower sense of meaningfulness. In interviews, participants reported feeling a loss of autonomy when using their phone in these ways. These reports were corroborated by experience sampling data showing that motivation to achieve a specific purpose declined over the course of app use, particularly for passive social media and entertainment usage. In interviews, participants pointed out that even when smartphone use itself was meaningless, it could sometimes still be meaningful in the context of broader life as a 'micro escape' from negative situations. We discuss implications for how mobile apps can be used and designed to reduce meaningless experiences.

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3191754

What Makes Smartphone Use Meaningful or Meaningless

Mobile devices have begun to raise questions around the potential for overuse when in the presence of family or friends. As such, we conducted a diary and interview study to understand how people use mobile devices in the presence of others at home, and how this shapes their behavior and household dynamics. Results show that family members become frustrated when others do non-urgent activities on their phones in the presence of others. Yet people often guess at what others are doing because of the personal nature of mobile devices. In some cases, people developed strategies to provide a greater sense of activity awareness to combat the problem. Mobile phone usage was sometimes perceived as beneficial by providing a mechanism for needed disengagement from family members. These findings suggest several opportunities for redesigning mobile device software to mitigate emergent frustrations, and open up new opportunities for nurturing social interactions among family members.

The Frustrations and Benefits of Mobile Device Usage in the Home when Co-Present with Family Members

Our preliminary study reveals that individuals use various management strategies for limiting smartphone use, ranging from keeping smartphones out of reach to removing apps. However, we also found that users often had difficulties in maintaining their chosen management strategies due to lack of self-regulation. In this paper, we present NUGU, a group-based intervention app for improving self-regulation of limiting smartphone use through leveraging social support: groups of people limit their use together by sharing their limiting information. NUGU is designed based on social cognitive theory, and it has been developed iteratively through two pilot tests. Our three-week user study (n = 62) demonstrated that compared with its non-social counterpart, the NUGU users' usage amount significantly decreased and their perceived level of managing disturbances improved. Furthermore, our exit interview confirmed that NUGU's design elements are effective for achieving limiting goals.

/pdf/nugu-a-group-based-intervention-app-for-improving-self-1xpuyp0p2u.pdf

Christian Heizmann

Papers

NUGU: A Group-based Intervention App for Improving Self-Regulation of Limiting Smartphone Use