How and when do mobile media demands impact well-being? Explicating the Integrative Model of Mobile Media Use and Need Experiences (IM3UNE)

Frank M Schneider,Leonard Reinecke,Annabell Halfmann,Adrian Meier,Sarah Lutz

doi:10.1177/20501579211054928

Abstract

Using mobile media can be both detrimental and beneficial for well-being. Thus, explaining how and when they elicit such effects is of crucial importance. To explicate boundary conditions and processes for digital well-being, this article introduces the Integrative Model of Mobile Media Use and Need Experiences (IM³UNE). Instead of assuming mobile media to be pathogenic, the IM³UNE offers a salutogenic perspective—it focuses on how we can stay healthy when using mobile media ubiquitously in daily life. More specifically, the model assumes that both the satisfaction and the frustration of basic psychological needs are key underlying mechanisms linking demanding mobile media use to well-being. However, the impact of these mechanisms is contingent on how users perceive, appraise, act on, and make sense of mobile media demands according to their global orientation to life (i.e., their sense of coherence, SOC). Integrating prior work, we theoretically link mindfulness, self-control, and meaningfulness to SOC's central facets, arguing that they represent crucial personal resources required to cope with mobile media demands. Thus, the offers an integrative framework, guiding further research towards a more nuanced study of mobile media’s effect on well-being.

Highlights

Mobile media afford anytime, anyplace connectivity (Vanden Abeele et al, 2018), allowing us to be permanently online and permanently connected with others (POPC; e.g., Vorderer et al, 2016)
We briefly introduce the basic tenets of Basic psychological needs theory (BPNT) and integrate previously fragmented evidence on the link between mobile media demands, need experiences, and well-being
In the IM3UNE (Figure 1), the former relation refers to Figure-A1, whereas the latter refers to A2, respectively. Following this new perspective on the role of boundary conditions in BPNT (Vansteenkiste et al, 2020) and drawing on a salutogenic take on mobile media (Schneider et al, 2019), we propose that sense of coherence (SOC) as a salutary trait can take such a moderating role (Antonovsky, 1987)

Summary

Introduction

Anyplace connectivity (Vanden Abeele et al, 2018), allowing us to be permanently online and permanently connected with others (POPC; e.g., Vorderer et al, 2016). The model assumes that both the satisfaction and the frustration of basic psychological needs are key underlying mechanisms linking demanding mobile media use to wellbeing.

Results

Conclusion