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"In my defense, only three hours on Instagram": Designing Toward Digital Self-Awareness and Wellbeing

Karthik S. Bhat, Jiayue Melissa Shi, Wenxuan Song, Dong Whi Yoo, Koustuv Saha

TL;DR

Digital wellbeing research often prioritizes reducing screen time, but this paper argues for self-awareness as a pathway to mindful engagement. It introduces WellScreen, a lightweight technology probe that prompts daily estimation, end-of-day adjustment, and actual usage logging to surface the $E$-$A$ gap. In a two-week deployment with 25 college students, the study finds category-specific estimation biases, a roughly 10% rise in positive affect, and that smaller $E$-$A$ gaps relate to higher satisfaction yet higher stress and goal-adherence challenges. The findings advocate for reflective, context-aware wellbeing tools that emphasize meaningful engagement over blanket restriction and provide design implications for future DW interventions.

Abstract

Screen use pervades daily life, shaping work, leisure, and social connections while raising concerns for digital wellbeing. Yet, reducing screen time alone risks oversimplifying technology's role and neglecting its potential for meaningful engagement. We posit self-awareness -- reflecting on one's digital behavior -- as a critical pathway to digital wellbeing. We developed WellScreen, a lightweight probe that scaffolds daily reflection by asking people to estimate and report smartphone use. In a two-week deployment with college students (N=25) focused on generating formative insights, we examined how discrepancies between estimated and actual usage shaped digital awareness and wellbeing. Participants often underestimated productivity and social media while overestimating entertainment app use. They showed a 10% improvement in positive affect, rating WellScreen as moderately useful. Interviews revealed that structured reflection supported recognition of patterns, adjustment of expectations, and more intentional engagement with technology. Our findings highlight the promise of lightweight reflective interventions for supporting self-awareness and intentional digital engagement, offering implications for designing digital wellbeing tools.

"In my defense, only three hours on Instagram": Designing Toward Digital Self-Awareness and Wellbeing

TL;DR

Digital wellbeing research often prioritizes reducing screen time, but this paper argues for self-awareness as a pathway to mindful engagement. It introduces WellScreen, a lightweight technology probe that prompts daily estimation, end-of-day adjustment, and actual usage logging to surface the - gap. In a two-week deployment with 25 college students, the study finds category-specific estimation biases, a roughly 10% rise in positive affect, and that smaller - gaps relate to higher satisfaction yet higher stress and goal-adherence challenges. The findings advocate for reflective, context-aware wellbeing tools that emphasize meaningful engagement over blanket restriction and provide design implications for future DW interventions.

Abstract

Screen use pervades daily life, shaping work, leisure, and social connections while raising concerns for digital wellbeing. Yet, reducing screen time alone risks oversimplifying technology's role and neglecting its potential for meaningful engagement. We posit self-awareness -- reflecting on one's digital behavior -- as a critical pathway to digital wellbeing. We developed WellScreen, a lightweight probe that scaffolds daily reflection by asking people to estimate and report smartphone use. In a two-week deployment with college students (N=25) focused on generating formative insights, we examined how discrepancies between estimated and actual usage shaped digital awareness and wellbeing. Participants often underestimated productivity and social media while overestimating entertainment app use. They showed a 10% improvement in positive affect, rating WellScreen as moderately useful. Interviews revealed that structured reflection supported recognition of patterns, adjustment of expectations, and more intentional engagement with technology. Our findings highlight the promise of lightweight reflective interventions for supporting self-awareness and intentional digital engagement, offering implications for designing digital wellbeing tools.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 47 sections, 3 figures, 7 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background and Related Work
  3. Digital Wellbeing: Concept and Importance
  4. Digital Wellbeing in HCI
  5. Digital Wellbeing for College Students
  6. Self-Awareness and Self-Reflective Tools
  7. Human-Centered Design of Wellbeing Tools
  8. Study Design and Methods
  9. Developing a technology probe: WellScreen
  10. Participants and Recruitment
  11. Deployment of WellScreen
  12. Choice of Survey Instruments
  13. Phase 1: Entry Survey and Interview
  14. Phase 2: Digital Activity Logging
  15. Phase 3: Exit Survey and Interview
  16. ...and 32 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Screenshots of the WellScreen web application.
  • Figure 2: Distribution plots based on the exit surveys (the dotted lines represent the median values of the corresponding color distribution).
  • Figure 3: A two-dimensional representation showing distribution of participants by self-control (above vs. below median) and SUS usability scores (above vs. below median). The figure also shows example responses to the question "Would you like to use this tool in the future?" (Yes/No/Maybe), along with example responses in each quadrant.