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Psychological perspectives have long been integral to research on mobile media and communication. In this piece, we complete a high-level review of psychology-centered work published in Mobile Media & Communication (MMC). Our “flyover review” affirms that MMC represents a key watering hole for exploring – and debating – the novel psychological implications of mobile technologies. We identify 57 articles across the 10-year history of MMC that are framed around established psychological concepts. Among this sub-sample of articles, we then extract four key themes: 1) psychological predictors of general usage, 2) psychological dynamics of online/offline contexts, 3) psychological well-being and alarmism, and 4) psychological dis/connection to mobile media. Following the review, we ponder the trajectory of psychological research on mobile media, including where it is published and how it can be integrated across fields given its discipline-bending nature. We argue the body of psychological research in MMC is highly phenomenological and correlational, resulting in theoretical fragmentation and limited evidence for mobile media effects. Nonetheless, we suggest Mobile Media & Communication is best positioned to sync the scattered literature on the psychology of mobile media.

Two of the most important developmental tasks in adolescence are developing autonomy and establishing relationships (i.e., friendships and romantic relationships). Self-socialization processes are ...

It is our great pleasure and honor to begin this year as the new co-editors of Media Psychology. For the four of us, Media Psychology has been an intellectual home throughout our academic lives—a c...

Concerns have been expressed that permanent online connectedness might negatively affect media user’s stress levels. Most research has focused on negative effects of specific media usage patterns, such as media multitasking or communication load. In contrast, users’ cognitive orientation toward online content and communication has rarely been investigated. Against this backdrop, we examined whether this cognitive orientation (i.e., online vigilance with its three dimensions salience, reactibility, monitoring) is related to perceived stress at different timescales (person, day, and situation level), while accounting for the effects of multitasking and communication load. Results across three studies showed that, in addition to multitasking (but not communication load), especially the cognitive salience of online communication is positively related to stress. Our findings are discussed regarding mental health implications and the origins of stress.

Computer-mediated communication (CMC), and specifically social media, may affect the mental health (MH) and well-being of its users, for better or worse. Research on this topic has accumulated rapidly, accompanied by controversial public debate and numerous systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Yet, a higher-level integration of the multiple disparate conceptual and operational approaches to CMC and MH and individual review findings is desperately needed. To this end, we first develop two organizing frameworks that systematize conceptual and operational approaches to CMC and MH. Based on these frameworks, we integrate the literature through a meta-review of 34 reviews and a content analysis of 594 publications. Meta-analytic evidence, overall, suggests a small negative association between social media use and MH. However, effects are complex and depend on the CMC and MH indicators investigated. Based on our conceptual review and the evidence synthesis, we devise an agenda for future research in this interdisciplinary field.

Abstract: An increasing number of studies indicate that individuals have difficulties in exerting self-control over media use, such as mobile messaging. Specifically, individuals frequently experience that their messenger use conflicts with primary goals (e.g., work tasks), which may cause negative self-conscious emotions such as guilt. At the same time, not checking and answering messages violates a now widely established availability norm, which may trigger negative self-conscious emotions as well. The current study, therefore, tests how goal conflicts and connection cues interact in influencing users’ negative self-conscious emotions about their messenger usage behavior. Drawing on self-control research in conjunction with self-determination theory and theoretical approaches to social norms, we derived hypotheses on the boundary conditions under which the frequency of messenger use causes negative self-conscious emotions. We thereby significantly extend previous research on the self-regulation of mobile media use, which largely assumes that self-control failure results from users’ intrinsic motivation to experience need satisfaction and pleasure and tends to overlook the fact that mediated communication is often extrinsically motivated due to the availability norm. The hypotheses were tested based on a preregistered laboratory experiment.

Mobile connectivity can negatively affect smartphone users by eliciting stress. Past research focused on stress-inducing potentials of smartphone use behaviors and, recently, on the cognitive-motivational engagement with online interactions. However, theoretical perspectives as the mobile connectivity paradox and the IM³UNE model further suggest that digital stress effects may be conditional. A preregistered experience sampling study ( n = 123; 1,427 use episodes) investigated relationships of cognitive-motivational (online vigilance) and behavioral (communication load, media multitasking) smartphone use patterns with perceived stress and introduced two situational boundary conditions (goal conflict, autonomy need dissatisfaction). Results demonstrate that online vigilance can induce stress directly and via increasing communication load. Goal conflict and autonomy need dissatisfaction moderated the influence of online vigilance and media multitasking on stress. Findings are discussed in the context of effect directionality and the need to further investigate boundary conditions in digital well-being research.

Research has repeatedly demonstrated that the use of interactive media is associated with recovery experiences, suggesting that engaging with media can help people to alleviate stress and restore mental and physical resources. Video games, in particular, have been shown to fulfil various aspects of recovery, not least due to their ability to elicit feelings of mastery and control. However, little is known about the role of cognitive task demand (i.e., the amount of cognitive effort a task requires) in that process. Toward this end, our study aimed to investigate how cognitive task demand during gameplay affects users’ recovery experiences. Results of a laboratory experiment suggest that different dimensions of the recovery experiences seem to respond to different levels of cognitive task demand. While control experiences were highest under low cognitive task demand, there was no difference between groups regarding experiences of mastery and psychological detachment. Nevertheless, both gaming conditions outperformed the control condition regarding experiences of mastery and psychological detachment. Controlling for personal gaming experiences, relaxation was higher in the low cognitive task demand condition compared to the control condition. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for research on the multilayered recovery effects of interactive media.

© 2019, © 2019 Mass Communication & Society Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Sleep experts have raised concern over the effects of electronic media use on sleep. To date, few studies have looked beyond the effects of duration and frequency of media exposure or examined the underlying mechanisms of this association. As procrastinatory media use has been related to lower well-being, we used data from two survey studies (N1 = 821, N2 = 584) to investigate (a) predictors of procrastinatory TV viewing and (b) the link between procrastinatory TV viewing and sleep quality. Findings from both studies indicate that those with a stronger viewing habit, higher TV involvement, and an eveningness preference reported more procrastinatory TV viewing. Procrastinatory TV viewing was related to subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep efficiency, and daytime dysfunction. This association was fully mediated by perceived stress. As sleep is key for the replenishment of self-control, procrastinators may be setting themselves up to fail at self-regulating, a situation exacerbated by the omnipresence of media in today’s society. ispartof: Mass Communication And Society vol:22 issue:5 pages:654-685 status: Published online

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 IM³UNE offers an integrative framework, guiding further research towards a more nuanced, less technologically deterministic study of mobile media’s well-being effects.

Self-presentation on social network sites (SNS) such as Instagram is often assumed to be inauthentic or even fake. While authenticity on SNS has been linked to increased well-being, most research has investigated it either monolithically (e.g., via screen time measures) or with regard to stable self-presentations (e.g., in Facebook profiles). In contrast, this study compares subjective authenticity perceptions within users and between self-presentations via two SNS features—Stories vs Posts. Drawing on the affordances approach, we theorize and test whether and how Stories produce greater state authenticity than Posts. Results from a preregistered within-subjects study comparing self-reports on N = 489 Posts and N = 546 Stories from N = 202 Instagram users show that by allowing more spontaneous self-presentation, Stories indeed produced (slightly) higher authenticity perceptions than Posts. However, subjective authenticity was high in both features, indicating that they similarly offer a space for authentic online self-presentation.

The relationship between self-control and media use is complicated. Loss of self-control capacity has been linked to generally higher levels of media use, which might represent self-regulatory failure, but could also be attempts at replenishing self-control. Indeed, self-determination theory proposes that satisfying intrinsic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), for example via media use, aids the recovery of self-control. In this 2-wave survey (N = 395), we examined the interplay of users’ self-control capacity and their perceived satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs via media use and alternative leisure activities. Satisfaction of intrinsic needs during leisure activities increased self-control capacity at the end of the evening. Feelings of autonomy and competence during TV and social media use, and competence during socializing, positively contributed to greater self-control. However, respondents with less self-control capacity before primetime experienced less intrinsic need satisfaction while engaged with TV, social media, reading, sports, and socializing, diminishing self-control at bedtime. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Contains fulltext : 220301.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Through communication technology, users find themselves constantly connected to others to such an extent that they routinely develop a mindset of connectedness. This mindset has been defined as online vigilance. Although there is a large body of research on media use and well-being, the question of how online vigilance impacts well-being remains unanswered. In this preregistered study, we combine experience sampling and smartphone logging to address the relation of online vigilance and affective well-being in everyday life. Seventy-five Android users answered eight daily surveys over five days (N = 1615) whilst having their smartphone use logged. Thinking about smartphone-mediated social interactions (i.e., the salience dimension of online vigilance) was negatively related to affective well-being. However, it was far more important whether those thoughts were positive or negative. No other dimension of online vigilance was robustly related to affective well-being. Taken together, our results suggest that online vigilance does not pose a serious threat to affective well-being in everyday life. 25 p.

Binge-watching—the intensive, consecutive viewing of televised series—has become a prevalent usage pattern of entertainment media, which may influence users’ psychological well-being both positivel...

This study extends research on the relationship between hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment and its potential for recovery experiences and aspects of well-being (e.g., Rieger, Reinecke, Frischlich, & Bente, 2014). With the broad notion of what hedonic and eudaimonic media can entail, this research focused on unique affective experiences—namely, positive affect—and an expanded concept of meaningful affect (including elevation and gratitude). An online experiment with 148 full-time employees in the United States was conducted to investigate the unique role of positive and meaningful affect eliciting YouTube videos (compared to neutral control video) on recovery experiences and vitality and work satisfaction in the work context. A path model suggests that meaningful videos predicted mastery recovery experiences, whereas positive affect predicted psychological detachment and relaxation experiences. In addition, mastery recovery experiences predicted vitality, whereas relaxation experiences predicted satisfac...

A growing number of studies suggest that Internet users frequently utilize online media as “tools for procrastination.” This study thus investigated the relationship between trait procrastination, Internet use, and psychological well-being in a representative sample of N = 1,577 German Internet users. The results revealed that trait procrastination was associated with an increased use of leisure-related online content and impaired control over Internet use. As a result, Internet users high in trait procrastination showed a higher risk of experiencing negative consequence of Internet use in other life domains. These negative repercussions of insufficiently self-regulated Internet use partially accounted for the correlation between trait procrastination and impaired well-being (i.e. stress, anxiety, and depression). These findings underline the role of online media as an instrument for dysfunctional task delay among Internet users. Implications of the results are discussed with regard to media use and self-control in general and procrastinatory media use in specific.

Today's constant availability of media content provides users with various recreational resources. It may also challenge self-control, however, once media exposure conflicts with other goals and obligations. How media users deal with these self-regulatory chances and risks in their daily lives is largely unknown. Our study addressed the predictors and consequences of recreational and procrastinatory media use using experience sampling methodology (N = 215; 1,094 media use episodes). Results suggest that trait (self-control, performance goal orientation) as well as state variables (exhaustion) are significant predictors of media use for recovery versus procrastination. Whereas recreational media use showed a positive effect on entertainment, which in turn enhanced subjective well-being, negative self-evaluation elicited by procrastinatory media use negatively affected well-being.

In recent years, entertainment theory has undergone a paradigmatic shift: The traditional conceptualization of entertainment as an exclusively pleasurable affective state has been significantly extended by recent two-factor models. These models have introduced a second dimension of entertainment that incorporates more complex nonhedonic experiences, such as the search for meaning or intrinsic need satisfaction. They have not only crucially altered the way communication scholars conceptualize the audience of media entertainment but also our discipline's view on the effects of entertaining media content. The present article discusses the implications of this changing model of the media user both for entertainment theory and research as well as for the discipline of communication as a whole

The pervasive access to media options seriously challenges users’ self-regulatory abilities. One example of deficient self-regulation in the context of media use is procrastination—impulsively ‘giving in’ to available media options despite goal conflicts with more important tasks. This study investigaes procrastinatory media use across 3 types of media (TV, computer, smartphone) from a dual-systems perspective, taking both person-level and situation-level predictors into account. Results from a 14-day long diary study (N = 347) suggest that procrastinatory media use is driven by automatic media selection, which is facilitated by strong media habits (person level) and low motivation for behavioral control (situation level). The results underline the value of a dual-systems perspective on media choices in our media-saturated environment.

Smartphones and other mobile devices have fundamentally changed patterns of Internet use in everyday life by making online access constantly available. The present paper offers a theoretical explication and empirical assessment of the concept of online vigilance, referring to users' permanent cognitive orientation towards online content and communication as well as their disposition to exploit these options constantly. Based on four studies, a validated and reliable self-report measure of online vigilance was developed. In combination, the results suggest that the Online Vigilance Scale (OVS) shows a stable factor structure in various contexts and user populations and provides future work in communication, psychology, and other social sciences with a new measure of the individual cognitive orientation towards ubiquitous online communication.

Contains fulltext : 199030pub.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) As mobile technology allows users to be online anywhere and at all times, a growing number of users report feeling constantly alert and preoccupied with online streams of online information and communication - a phenomenon that has recently been termed online vigilance. Despite its growing prevalence, consequences of this constant orientation toward online streams of information and communication for users' well-being are largely unclear. In the present study, we investigated whether being constantly vigilant is related to cognitive consequences in the form of increased mind-wandering and decreased mindfulness and examined the resulting implications for well-being. To test our assumptions, we estimated a path model based on survey data (N = 371). The model supported the majority of our preregistered hypotheses: online vigilance was indeed related to mind-wandering and mindfulness, but only mindfulness mediated the relationship with decreased well-being. Thus, those mentally preoccupied with online communication were overall less satisfied with their lives and reported less affective well-being when they also experienced reduced mindfulness. 7 p.

This article addresses ego depletion as a mechanism influencing media-based stress recovery processes. Using structural equation modeling, relationships between ego depletion, procrastination, guilt, enjoyment, vitality, and recovery experience were tested using data from an online survey (N = 471). Results suggest that ego depletion may increase the risk of negatively appraising the use of interactive (video games) and noninteractive (television) entertaining media as a form of procrastination. The resulting guilt is negatively related to the recovery experience associated with using entertainment. Therefore, ego-depleted individuals may benefit less from the psychological recovery potential of entertainment media, despite their greater need for recovery. These findings are an important step in understanding the pivotal role of appraisal processes for media-induced recovery and the entertainment experience.

While intrinsic motivation has received broad attention in recent entertainment research, the effects of extrinsic motivation, such as social pressure to use media, on media enjoyment remain unknown. Based on an online-survey (N = 230), this study tested the effects of intrinsic need satisfaction and perceived social pressure on the enjoyment of Facebook use with structural equation modeling. The results reveal complex effects of extrinsic motivation: While social pressure negatively affected autonomy need satisfaction, it was positively related to competence and relatedness need satisfaction. This study is the first to develop and test a theoretical model of entertainment experience in the context of social media use and to theoretically integrate the role of extrinsic need satisfaction in media enjoyment.

This paper explores the impact of hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment experience on well-being. We propose that the satisfaction of recovery needs can provide an important link that connects recent 2-factor models of entertainment with well-being after media consumption. Using path modeling, relationships between hedonic/eudaimonic entertainment experiences, media-induced recovery experience, and vitality as a recovery outcome were explored in an experiment (N = 120). Results suggest that different recovery needs are satisfied by hedonic versus eudaimonic entertainment: Although hedonic entertainment experiences were associated with the recovery dimensions of relaxation and psychological detachment, eudaimonic entertainment was related to mastery experiences. Both entertainment facets, thus, lead to media-induced recovery and resulted in increased psychological well-being represented by higher levels of vitality after media use.

People around the globe now regularly interact with family and friends through social network sites (SNSs). In this article, we investigated the differences between social interactions in online and offline contexts as well as users' satisfaction with the social support received in these contexts. It was hypothesized that SNSs are better set up for the task of leveraging informational support but that they are inferior to offline contexts in terms of emotional or instrumental support. We further assumed that users might feel similarly satisfied with how support is rendered online and offline but that only social support transacted in offline contexts would contribute to overall life satisfaction. All hypotheses were supported by longitudinal data (N = 327) that were used to investigate social support over the course of 2 years with 4 points of measurement.

Recent research has linked the enjoyment of entertaining media to the satisfaction of intrinsic human needs (Tamborini, Bowman, Eden, Grizzard, & Organ, 2010; Tamborini, Grizzard, et al., in press). The present investigation addressed the satisfaction of recovery needs through the use of interactive and noninteractive entertaining media stimuli and the resulting recovery outcomes. In an experiment (N = 160), participants were first exposed to a working task to elicit the need for recovery and then randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: 1) a video game, 2) a video recording of a game, 3) an animated video clip, or 4) the control condition. The results demonstrate that interactive and noninteractive media stimuli elicit different patterns of recovery experience. Furthermore, recovery experience was significantly related to enjoyment as well as subjective (energetic arousal) and objective (cognitive performance) recovery outcomes. Enjoyment mediated the relationship between recovery experi...

Based on the model of complex entertainment experiences ( Vorderer, Klimmt, & Ritterfeld, 2004 ), the competitiveness of a computer game (media prerequisite) and the individual life satisfaction (user prerequisite) are hypothesized to influence game enjoyment. Avatar-player similarity was hypothesized to determine identification with the avatar, which in turn was suggested to enhance the enjoyment experience. In a quasi-experimental study, (N = 666) participants were asked to choose the personality features of an avatar for six different game scenarios. The results demonstrate that the games’ competitiveness as well as the participants’ life satisfaction influenced avatar choice and identification. In noncompetitive games, similar avatars were created, whereas in competitive games, dissimilar avatars were created. Participants who were well satisfied with their lives created avatars that resemble themselves in terms of personality factors, whereas dissatisfied users created dissimilar avatars. Player-avatar similarity was positively related to identification. This correlation was significantly stronger for noncompetitive games. Identification with the avatar was strongly related to game enjoyment. When controlling for the influence of identification on enjoyment, player-avatar similarity was negatively related to enjoyment, suggesting that identity play can be an independent source of enjoyment in computer games.

The use of video and computer games for recovery purposes was investigated in an online survey of 1614 participants. The data indicate that games are systematically used after exposure to stressful situations and strain, and that recovery experience is a significant facet of the gaming experience. Using structural equation modeling, the relationships among work-related fatigue, daily hassles, social support, coping style, recovery experience, and the use of video and computer games for recovery purposes were tested. Persons who associated stronger recovery experiences with game play used video and computer games more often after stressful and exhausting situations. In addition, participants’ level of work-related fatigue and exposure to daily hassles were both positively associated with the use of games for recovery. Participants with emotion-focused coping style showed a higher tendency to use games for recovery than participants with problem-focused coping style. The relationship between work-related fatigue and game use for recovery purposes was moderated by social support. The stress buffering function of video and computer games was more important for participants receiving less social support. These participants showed a stronger relationship between work-related fatigue and the use of games for recovery than participants receiving more social support.

Abstract. This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of exposure to a computer game on arousal and subsequent task performance. After inducing a state of low arousal, participants were assigned to experimental or control conditions via self-selection. Members of the experimental group played a computer game for five minutes; subjects in the control group spent the same amount of time awaiting further instructions. Participants who were exposed to the computer game showed significantly higher levels of arousal and performed significantly better on a subsequent cognitive task. The pattern of results was not influenced by the participants' prior experience with the game. The findings indicate that mood-management processes associated with personal media use at the workplace go beyond the alteration of arousal and affect subsequent cognitive performance.

In the present study, the interplay of player performance, game-related self-efficacy experiences, and the resulting effects on game enjoyment are investigated. We hypothesized that a player's performance stimulates enjoyment via its potential to stimulate game-related self-efficacy experiences. In a laboratory setting, participants (N = 213) played a jump ’n’ run game. Their performance during game play was recorded by log-file software, and efficacy and enjoyment were assessed with questionnaires. As predicted, both player performance and game-related self-efficacy experience were significant predictors of enjoyment. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that game-related self-efficacy experience significantly mediates the relationship between player performance and game enjoyment.

This study attempted to (a) extend traditional mood management theory research by investigating the influence of the intrinsic needs for competence and autonomy on selective exposure to video games and (b) test the influence of satisfying these needs on resultant mood repair. An experiment varied satisfaction of competence and autonomy needs using false feedback. Subjects then selected media that varied in level of user demand. Measures of need satisfaction were taken before and after media selection. Results demonstrated that (a) thwarted intrinsic needs significantly predict the choice of video games with different levels of user demand and (b) the satisfaction of these needs predicts enjoyment. Findings indicate that mood management can result from mood repair through need satisfaction. © 2012 International Communication Association.

Most early research on entertainment defines media enjoyment in functional terms as the satisfaction of hedonic needs. Two studies demonstrate the value of including nonhedonic and hedonic need satisfaction in defining enjoyment. Both studies find support for a need-satisfaction model showing that hedonic (arousal and affect) and nonhedonic (competence and autonomy) need satisfaction account for unique variance in enjoyment experienced during video game play. Study 2 extends the findings of Study 1 to account for noninteractive media entertainment enjoyment. Results show hedonic and nonhedonic need satisfaction to be distinct but complementary components of media enjoyment. Discussion focuses on the advantage of a needs-based approach for understanding positive valuations of media and offers a new perspective on the enjoyment-appreciation distinction. © 2011 International Communication Association.

The present study investigated the recreational use of video and computer games in the workplace. In an online survey, 833 employed users of online casual games reported on their use of computer games during working hours. The data indicate that playing computer games in the workplace elicits substantial levels of recovery experience. Recovery experience associated with gameplay was the strongest predictor for the use of games in the workplace. Furthermore, individuals with higher levels of work-related fatigue reported stronger recovery experience during gameplay and showed a higher tendency to play games during working hours than did persons with lower levels of work strain. Additionally, the social situation at work was found to have a significant influence on the use of games. Persons receiving less social support from colleagues and supervisors played games at work more frequently than did individuals with higher levels of social support. Furthermore, job control was positively related to the use of games at work. In sum, the results of the present study illustrate that computer games have a significant recovery potential. Implications of these findings for research on personal computer use during work and for games research in general are discussed.