Awareness, Control and Impact in Digital Wellbeing - Results from Explorative Self-experiments

Abstract

Research and design for digital wellbeing commonly focus on a single device, and time spent is the most common indicator of digital wellbeing. In this paper, we examine digital wellbeing along three dimensions: awareness, control, and impact, including positive and negative aspects. We report from two-week explorative self-experiments with 29 participants that made diary entries and reflection reports. The study discusses how digital wellbeing can be seen across devices and tasks to understand the usage patterns that can be used to identify possible interventions and problematic use that can be addressed by new designs. The impact of computers and smartphones differed among participants, with laptops receiving a more positive evaluation than smartphones. While the choice of the device itself may not be the primary factor in understanding digital well-being, further research efforts should identify different usage patterns - across devices and over the three dimensions of awareness, control, and impact.

Awareness, Control and Impact in Digital Wellbeing - Results from Explorative Self-experiments