Is Time on Smartphones Well Spent?

Author

Maria A. Rasmussen, Julie O. Frydendahl, Elisa D. Mekler, Kasper Hornbæk

Keywords

smartphones; user experience; well-being

WHAT

  • studies on the time spent on smartphones, the specific applications used, the motivation for using them and their effects on well-being

WHY

  • limitations of previous studies

    • no explanation about how the applications that the participants rated were selected

    • no definition and measurement about how being happy or unhappy with an app

    • no exploration about the different uses of apps

    • no details why the users are happy or unhappy with the time they spend on applications

HOW

  • Indenpendent variables: Time usage

    • Frequently used applications

    • Occasionally used applications

    • Participants select from an overview of their usage history in the past 7 days

      • usage history was based on the feature Screen Time from the participants’ iPhone

    • Participants answer the same questions about the usage of each of those two applications (within-subjects)

  • Dependent variables: Results of Questionnaires

    • validated questionnaires, single-item questions and open-ended questions

    • use overlap to achieve a coherent description of users’ experiences

    • Conceptualize happiness as hedonic, eudaimonic and pragmatic

      • Hedonic value is the emotional stimulation and subjective well-being that the user experiences when interacting with technology.

      • Eudaimonic value is about technology supporting the achievement of personally meaningful goals and aspirations

      • Pragmatic value is the user’s experience ofa product’s usability and effectiveness

    • Design of questionaires

      • HEMA Scale

      • pragmatic motivational orientations

      • General value

      • notion of regret

      • binary choices of characterizing smartphone use

      • open-ended questions

  • Participants

    • recruited via Amazon Mechanical Turk

    • iPhone users with iOS 12

    • have Screen Time enabled for the past 7 days

    • e between 24 and 69 years old

    • 70% female and 30% male

  • Procedure

    • use Amazon Mechanical Turk

    • answer demographic questions

    • answer the questionaires

  • Analysis

    • a thematic analysis on open-ended questions

Results

  • Time and application type

    • application types are not in themselves related to particular patterns of use

  • Time and value

    • Pragmatic values: Occasionally used applications > Frequently used applications

    • Hedonic values: Occasionally used applications < Frequently used applications

    • Eudaimonic value: no significant differences

  • Time and regret

    • more likely to regret their use of a frequently used application than an occasionally used app

    • reasons for finding the time usage good

      • frequently used applications - relaxation

      • occasionally used applications - functionality and necessity

  • Time and when applications are used

    • no obvious difference between frequently used and occasionally used applications with regard to time of use

Discussion

  • App Ratings Study

  • Differences in value between applications

  • Motivation for using applications

  • Regret

  • Limitations and future work