Exploring the relationship between smartphone activities, flow experience, and boredom in free time

Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate how flow experience and diverse smartphone activities play a role in influencing people's perceived boredom during free time. Through a telephone survey, data were gathered from a probability sample of 653 smartphone users. Results indicate that the more people who engage in pleasure-seeking, short-lived, and diversionary hedonic activities, the stronger the feeling that their physical involvement is lacking. Eudaemonic activities, such as information seeking, significantly predicted a lack of meaningful involvement, while utilities significantly predicted a perceived slowness of time and lack of mental involvement. Findings also revealed that people achieve flow state when they use a smartphone for entertainment, information seeking, and sociability, especially when they feel bored, sense a lack of meaningful involvement, and want their free time to last. Furthermore, the interaction effects found in the study provide a more nuanced view about the ways in which eudaemonic smartphone activities (especially for information seeking and sociability) can interact with flow experience to regulate perceived boredom in free time. This study suggests that app designers should recognize the role of newly developed hedonic and eudaemonic functions of the smartphone which may significantly alleviate perceived boredom in free time.