Abstract
Evidence suggests a growing call for the prevention of excessive smartphone and social media use and the ensuing distraction that arises affecting academic achievement and productivity. A ten-day online randomized controlled trial with the use of smartphone apps, engaging participants in mindfulness exercises, self-monitoring and mood tracking, was implemented amongst UK university students (n = 143). Participants were asked to complete online pre- and post-intervention assessments. Results indicated high effect sizes in reduction of smartphone distraction and improvement scores on a number of self-reported secondary psychological outcomes. The intervention was not effective in reducing habitual behaviours, nomophobia, or time spent on social media. Mediation analyses demonstrated that: (i) emotional self-awareness but not mindful attention mediated the relationship between intervention effects and smartphone distraction, and (ii) online vigilance mediated the relationship between smartphone distraction and problematic social media use. The present study provides preliminary evidence of the efficacy of an intervention for decreased smartphone distraction and highlights psychological processes involved in this emergent phenomenon in the smartphone literature. Online interventions may serve as complementary strategies to reduce distraction levels and promote insight into online engagement. More research is required to elucidate the mechanisms of digital distraction and assess its implications in problematic use.
Highlights
Attentional focus is one of the most fundamental resources and a key to successful and high-order work [1]
Emerging evidence on cognitive function has shown that smartphone availability and daily interruptions compete with higher-level cognitive processes creating a cognitive interference effect [11,12,13,14,15], associated with poorer cognitive functioning [16,17,18,19], performance impairments in daily life [20] and potential supplanting of analytical thinking skills by “offloading thinking to the device” [21] (p. 473)
The present study tested the efficacy of a ten-day online app-delivered randomized controlled trial (RCT) based on cognitive-behavioural principles to reduce distraction and a number of secondary psychological outcomes: self-awareness, mindful attention, Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), anxiety, and depression among university students
Summary
Attentional focus is one of the most fundamental resources and a key to successful and high-order work [1]. In the attention economy [2], multiple online and offline activities compete for an alternative share of attention [3]. This trend is expected to grow in the face of increasing communication complexity and information overload [4], which is becoming even more prevalent partially due to the vast online accessibility, immediacy and convenience of smartphones, acting as a major motivational pull for engagement [5] and prompting constant multitasking and frequent attentional loss [6]. In spite of such initial evidence, there are cognitive correlates within the
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