2025/11/13 by Roland Tóth, Douglas A. Parry, Julius Klingelhoefer · 1 voice
Decision Sciences · Psychology · #Personal Information Management and User Behavior #Mental Health Research Topics #Flow Experience in Various Fields
paper · doi:10.31235/osf.io/xt24p_v1
This study investigates reactivity in smartphone use resulting from participation in smartphone logging and experience sampling studies. Drawing on data from 815 German Android users, we analyzed digital traces collected before and during a seven-day study involving up to seven daily short surveys. Using mixed-effects models, we assessed how granting log access and completing short surveys affected glance, session, and app episode frequency and duration in both the short term (after surveys) and long term (across days). The result show that smartphone logging induced small, transient reductions in use frequency and duration, particularly during the first five days, suggesting initial self-regulation due to awareness of monitoring. Experience sampling prompts produced short-term increases in use lasting two to three hours. Overall, both methods induced some degree of reactivity in smartphone use, though the effect of this reactivity on inferences remains unknown. The findings suggest that researchers should allow acclimation periods and space surveys appropriately.