When People are Problematically Attached to Social Media: How Would the Design Matter?

Abstract

Social technology, in particular, social media has increasingly become part of individual's life. People rely on social media interaction to relate with other people and satisfy their leisure or behavioural support purposes. Features such as those presented in the Honeycomb ecology, e.g. sharing, profiling and reputation, are used as means to that end. Recent designs of technology embed social features in them, enabling people to talk to the machine and interact with it as a sentient being, e.g. chatbot and robots, or use it as a mediator for social interaction, e.g. Social Internet of Things (SIoT). However, we argue that over-reliance on social media may result in a problematic attachment to it leading to a negative impact on users' wellbeing. We conduct a multi-stages study to explore the negative psychological states that social media features can trigger. We mainly employ diary studies trying to increase the ecological validity of our data. We also discuss the enrichment of social media with tools to aid people in staying in control of their attachment and the risks such tools can introduce to user experience as well as their behaviour change process.

Digital Wellbeing for All: Expanding Inclusivity to Embrace Diversity in Socio-Emotional Status

“…However, as the design can make the user experience more compelling (and sometimes addictive), it can also consider reducing the triggers that underpin compulsive behaviours (Churchill, 2020), such as fear of missing out (FoMO). FoMO is a type of addictive online behaviour and represents an overdependence on social media due to the fear of not seeing or reacting to online activities on time (Alutaybi et al, 2019). Digital addiction can lead to anxiety, interrupted sleep, lack of concentration and emotional control (Cham et al, 2019, Altuwairiqi et al, 2019b.…”

“…FoMO is a type of addictive online behaviour and represents an overdependence on social media due to the fear of not seeing or reacting to online activities on time (Alutaybi et al, 2019). Digital addiction can lead to anxiety, interrupted sleep, lack of concentration and emotional control (Cham et al, 2019, Altuwairiqi et al, 2019b. As such, FoMO is an example of how the design, in a particular socio-emotional status and context of use, triggers negative feelings such as fear.…”

“…As such, FoMO is an example of how the design, in a particular socio-emotional status and context of use, triggers negative feelings such as fear. At the same time, an inclusive design can provide design features such as an advanced version of the autoreply, status and filtering (Alutaybi et al, 2019) to empower those who may be overly susceptible to social pressure and lack impulse control. Digital wellbeing can be supported by software mediated countermeasures which target behaviours directly and indirectly.…”

Defining digital addiction: Key features from the literature

“…Utilising this type of data may help researchers reach a better understanding of what DA is and how it should be conceptualised, and in turn, how it should be defined and potentially diagnosed. Even if the phenomenon is not as of this year recognised as a diagnosable mental health disorder, such research could also help inform the design of social media platforms, so as to mitigate harmful experiences associated with DA (Altuwairiqi, Arden-Close, Bolat, Renshaw-Vuillier, & Ali, 2019). Finally, the study has also revealed that some DA definitions are likened to substance use disorders, which has influenced the design or treatment and preventative strategies.…”

Dijital Bağımlılık ve FoMo, Kişilik Faktörleri ve Mutluluk ile İlişkisi: Üniversite Öğrencileri İle Bir Uygulama

“…DiB tüm dünyada üzerine araştırmalar yürütülen ve son yıllarda farklı araştırma konularında yer alan önemli bir kavram haline gelmiştir (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17). Türkiye'de DiB kavramı ile ilgili yapılan araştırmalarda ölçek geliştirme çalışmaları olduğu görülmektedir (18)(19)(20).…”