The relationship between online vigilance and affective well-being in everyday life: combining smartphone logging with experience sampling

Johannes, N., Meier, A., Reinecke, L., Ehlert, S., Setiawan, D. N., Walasek, N., Dienlin, T., Buijzen, M. and Veling, H. (2021) The relationship between online vigilance and affective well-being in everyday life: combining smartphone logging with experience sampling. Media Psychology, 24(5), pp. 581-605. (doi: 10.1080/15213269.2020.1768122)

Abstract

Through communication technology, users find themselves constantly connected to others to such an extent that they routinely develop a mind-set of connectedness. This mind-set 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 = 1,615) 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.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Johannes, Mr Niklas
• Authors: Johannes, N., Meier, A., Reinecke, L., Ehlert, S., Setiawan, D. N., Walasek, N., Dienlin, T., Buijzen, M., and Veling, H.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Psychology
• Journal Name: Media Psychology
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1521-3269
• ISSN (Online): 1532-785X
• Published Online: 27 May 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2020 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Media Psychology 24(5): 581-605
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence