A widespread concern in society is that adolescents experience an increased inability to concentrate and sustain attention because they are continuously distracted by social media. The current experience sampling method (ESM) study examined whether adolescents who use more social media than their peers experience more distraction (between-person association), whether social media use (SMU) and distraction cofluctuate within adolescents (momentary within-person associations), and to what extent this within-person association differs from person to person (person-specific associations). With a sample of 383 adolescents (M age = 14.11), who together completed 35,099 ESM surveys (73% compliance), we found both a positive between-person association (β = .31) and a positive momentary within-person association (β = .12) of SMU with distraction. The momentary within-person association differed from adolescent to adolescent: While SMU and distraction were positively associated among 82.5% of all adolescents, they were not associated among 15.7% of the adolescents, and negatively associated among 1.8% of the adolescents. Additional analyses on the direction of the effect showed that the within-person effect of SMU on subsequent levels of distraction was somewhat stronger (β = .05) than the effect of distraction on subsequent levels of SMU (β = .03).

There is a popular concern that adolescents’ social media use, especially via smartphones, leads to the delay of intended, potentially more important tasks. Automatic social media use and frequent phone checking may especially contribute to task delay. Prior research has investigated this hypothesis through between-person associations. We advance the literature by additionally examining within-person and person-specific associations of automatic social media use and mobile phone checking frequency with each other and task delay. Preregistered hypotheses were tested with multilevel modeling on data from 3 weeks of experience sampling among N = 312 adolescents (ages 13–15), including T = 22,809 assessments. More automatic social media use and more frequent phone checking were, on average, associated with more task delay at the within-person level. However, heterogeneity analyses found these positive associations to be significant for only a minority of adolescents. We discuss implications for the media habit concept and adolescents’ self-regulation.

One of the key challenges in adolescence is to develop the ability for self-control. The current experience sampling method (ESM) study examined whether adolescents who spend more time on social media than their peers are more inclined to fail at this ability (between-person association), whether social media use and self-control failure co-fluctuate within adolescents (within-person association), and whether this within-person association differs from person to person. With a sample of 383 adolescents (Mage = 14.1), who together completed 35,099 ESM surveys (73% compliance), we found both a positive between-person association (β = .31) and a positive within-person association (β = .12) of social media use with self-control failure. However, the within-person association differed from adolescent to adolescent: While social media use was positively associated with self-control failure among most adolescents (52%), it was not associated among a large group (47%), and negatively associated among a very small group (1%). The findings highlight the importance of a person-specific approach in social media and self-control research and open up new directions for future studies.

There is popular concern that adolescents’ social media use, especially via smartphones, leads to irrational delay of intended tasks (i.e., procrastination). Automatic social media use and frequent phone checking may especially contribute to procrastination. Prior research has investigated this through between-person associations. We advance the literature by additionally examining within-person and person-specific associations of automatic social media use and mobile phone checking frequency with each other and procrastination. Preregistered hypotheses were tested with multilevel modeling on data from three weeks of experience sampling among N = 312 adolescents (ages 13 to 15), including T = 22,809 assessments. More automatic social media use and more frequent phone checking were, on average, associated with more procrastination at within-person level. However, heterogeneity analyses found these positive associations to be significant for only a minority of adolescents. We discuss implications for the media habit concept and adolescents’ self-regulation.

Social media are often believed to distract adolescents’ attention. While existing research has shown that some adolescents experience more social media-related distraction than others, the explanations for these differences remain largely unknown. Based on Self-Determination Theory, this preregistered study investigated two social connectivity factors (fear of missing out [FoMO] and friendship accessibility expectations) and two disconnectivity factors (self-control strategies and parental restrictions) that may explain heterogeneity in social media-related distraction. We used data collected through a measurement burst design, consisting of a three-week experience sampling method study among 300 adolescents (21,970 assessments) and online surveys. Using N = 1 analyses, we found that most adolescents (77%) experienced social media-related distraction. Contrary to expectations, none of the connectivity or disconnectivity factors explained differences in social media-related distraction. The findings indicate that social media are a powerful distractor many adolescents seem to struggle with.

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Social media are often believed to challenge adolescents’ ability to focus and sustain attention. While existing research has shown that some adolescents experience more social media-related distraction than others, the explanations for these differences remain largely unknown. The current study investigated two social connectivity factors (fear of missing out [FoMO] and friendship accessibility expectations) and two disconnectivity factors (self-control strategies and parental control strategies) that may explain differences in social media-related distraction. Using a three-week experience sampling study (N = 300; 21,970 within-person assessments), we found that the vast majority of adolescents (77%) experienced social media-related distraction. Contrary to expectations, none of the connectivity and disconnectivity factors explained differences in social media-related distraction. However, adolescents with high FoMO and friendship accessibility expectations spent more time using social media and were more distracted. Conversely, adolescents who more often used self-control strategies were less distracted. Altogether, the findings indicate that social media are a powerful distractor most adolescents seem to struggle with.

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