No abstract

The everyday use of mobile devices is sometimes performed in a minimally conscious manner (e.g., automaticity, habits, impulses), whereas other times it is performed in a highly conscious manner (e.g., immersion, presence, absorption). In Study 1, we surveyed individuals (n = 250) to evaluate the seemingly oppositional relationship between automatic (less conscious) and immersive (more conscious) tendencies toward texting. Despite their standard separation, confirmatory factor analyses revealed that automaticity and immersion were actually positively related independent of usage frequency. In Study 2 (n = 526), these consciousness tendencies were related to select facets of trait self-control and mindfulness. Together, these studies underline the importance of media cognition in combination with personality factors for understanding the psychology of mobile device use.

New media provide college students with an unprecedented number of ways to spend their unstructured time. Research on decision making suggests that choosers low in self-control presented with proximate options will eschew tasks that provide delayed benefit in favor of immediate gratification and will experience guilt when they are aware of the tradeoff between immediate gratification and long-term benefits. A survey of college students (N = 458) suggests that users are aware of overuse of leisure media because of deficits in self-control, in particular two proximate media experience (social networking sites [SNS] and online video). Of these, only online video viewing is associated with less time spent on schoolwork. Though this study is correlational and thus does not definitively establish causality, the evidence suggests that the interaction between the high-choice media environment and users' selfcontrol may account for a decline in learning among college students.

The problems of distracted driving and distracted pedestrian accidents have attracted the attention of public health officials, transportation and psychology researchers, and communication scholars. Though public safety campaigns intended to curb dangerous texting behaviors have been implemented, relatively little is known about the psychological processes involved in these behaviors. Our study integrates emerging research on automatic behavior, self-control, and mindfulness in an attempt to explain why many individuals believe that such behavior is dangerous but engage in it anyway. Our survey study (N = 925) of college students (n = 313) and adults (n = 612) revealed that texting automaticity, trait self-control, and the “acting with awareness” facet of trait mindfulness were all uniquely predictive of texting while driving as well as texting while walking. Further, we observe that texting automaticity is more strongly related to the frequency of texting while walking than driving. Together, the findings synthesize disparate strands of research on cognition and media use and demonstrate the importance of distinguishing among types of consciousness to understanding mobile communication behavior.