Scrolling in the Deep: Analysing Contextual Influences on Intervention Effectiveness during Infinite Scrolling on Social Media

TL;DR

This study investigates how contextual factors shape the effectiveness of interventions during infinite scrolling on social media. Using InfiniteScape, a native Android app, it conducted a 7-day field study with 72 participants to measure reactance and responsiveness when a break prompt appears after 15 minutes of continuous scrolling. Sleepiness reduces reactance, while being at home can dampen responsiveness, with several nuanced interactions among valence, social context, multitasking, and location influencing outcomes. The findings advocate for context-aware, multi-factor intervention designs to more effectively mitigate problematic infinite scrolling in real-world use.

Abstract

Infinite scrolling on social media platforms is designed to encourage prolonged engagement, leading users to spend more time than desired, which can provoke negative emotions. Interventions to mitigate infinite scrolling have shown initial success, yet users become desensitized due to the lack of contextual relevance. Understanding how contextual factors influence intervention effectiveness remains underexplored. We conducted a 7-day user study (N=72) investigating how these contextual factors affect users' reactance and responsiveness to interventions during infinite scrolling. Our study revealed an interplay, with contextual factors such as being at home, sleepiness, and valence playing significant roles in the intervention's effectiveness. Low valence coupled with being at home slows down the responsiveness to interventions, and sleepiness lowers reactance towards interventions, increasing user acceptance of the intervention. Overall, our work contributes to a deeper understanding of user responses toward interventions and paves the way for developing more effective interventions during infinite scrolling.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: InfiniteScape. Including the intervention overlay and the questionnaire making for the participants' reactance and current context. The questionnaire is only partly visible (see \ref{['sec:questionaire_design']} for more details)
• Figure 2: Distribution of the investigated contextual factors during infinite scrolling interventions
• Figure 3: Distribution of the interventions over time of day and the relation between sleepiness and time of day
• Figure 4: Coefficients of the main effects for reactance and responsiveness. As the responsiveness was logarithmically transformed, the coefficients must be considered as log(1+ coef.). Blue dots indicate a positive coefficient, orange dots negative ones.
• Figure 5: Interaction effects of responsiveness with 95% CI