Researcher seeks to understand the regret behind social media use

It started arsenic a tendency to walk little clip connected societal media.

Hyunsung Cho, a Ph.D. pupil successful Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, noticed she spent much and much clip looking astatine apps similar Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. She would initially unfastened the app with a intent similar messaging a person oregon scrolling done posts of accounts she follows.

"But sometimes I would get sucked into this randomly recommended content," Cho said.

Cho did not similar this. While enjoyable successful the moment, the endless scroll of recommended videos, photos and posts near her regretting the clip she spent connected social media. That feeling motivated Cho—with colleagues from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the University of Maryland—to probe however users walk clip connected societal media and however it makes them feel.

Their research, "Reflect, Not Regret: Understanding Regretful Smartphone Use With App Feature-Level Analysis," earned a Best Paper grant and peculiar designation for its methods astatine the 24th ACM Conference connected Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW) past month. The insubstantial examines which features trigger feelings of regret among users connected Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and KakaoTalk, a mobile messaging app fashionable successful South Korea.

"It started with wanting to observe and artifact these features, but it grew into investigating however radical usage societal media apps, what makes them regretful and however apps tin beryllium designed to alteration this feeling," Cho said.

To start, Cho designed an app that tin way which circumstantial features radical usage wrong a societal media app. The app, called Finesse, tin log however galore minutes a idiosyncratic spends speechmaking and sending nonstop messages, looking astatine posts from followed accounts, scrolling recommended content, oregon utilizing different features. Finesse is the archetypal usage oregon clip tracker to get down to the feature-level wrong an app. Other integer wellbeing tools way however overmuch clip a idiosyncratic spends connected an app successful wide but not connected the circumstantial features successful the app.

Twenty-nine Android users ages 19–27 installed Finesse and fto the app cod information connected their telephone usage for a week. After definite sessions connected a societal media app, Finesse would inquire the users to prime which features they regretted using. At the extremity of the week, the researchers interviewed the users to summation much discourse and reflections connected the data.

The information showed that the users regretted astatine slightest immoderate portion of their societal media usage successful 60% of sessions and regretted each their usage successful astir 40% of sessions. Features that offered recommended posts oregon contented were astir often regretted. For example, connected Instagram, users were much apt to regret viewing suggested posts than immoderate different diagnostic connected the app. And the longer a idiosyncratic utilized a societal media app, the much clip that idiosyncratic spent viewing recommended oregon suggested posts.

This information connected its ain was powerful.

"This crystal-clear grounds truly showed the users however they were utilizing societal media apps and however it made them feel," Cho said. "It not lone accrued self-awareness of their ain behaviour but besides provided bully accusation to physique an actionable plan."

The researchers were capable to place patterns that pb to regretful behavior, 1 of which was habitual checking. A idiosyncratic who checks societal media often volition tally retired of caller contented and could beryllium disappointed. People are prone to being sidetracked and falling down rabbit holes.

"Rabbit holes are usually a effect of getting sidetracked," Cho said.

Before the squad could suggest interventions, they had to decipher wherefore radical regretted utilizing definite features of societal media apps. Here, they borrowed from regret theory, which proposes that radical consciousness regret erstwhile the reward from what they are doing—known arsenic the existent reward—falls abbreviated of the reward of different activities, known arsenic the alternate reward. In their research, radical felt regret erstwhile the reward from scrolling recommended posts connected societal media did not lucifer up to the alternate reward from focusing much connected an duty oregon lecture, spending much clip with friends, oregon getting much sleep.

The tools Cho projected sought to close communal reasons wherefore users felt regret aft utilizing a societal media app. One involution showed however overmuch of the platform's contented had changed betwixt uses. Another would alert users to however overmuch clip they could expect to walk connected an app earlier they commencement utilizing it and show different imaginable activities instead, similar homework, workout oregon spending clip successful nature. A 3rd asked users what they were doing earlier they started utilizing the app and what they planned to bash aft utilizing the app.

Cho said regretful behaviour is not solely the responsibility of the user. The apps are designed to suck radical successful and support them scrolling. Frequently, radical person to bypass addictive features to get to the content they initially sought.

"Often radical blasted themselves for not having capable control, but the app designers besides stock immoderate responsibility," Cho said. "Most ideally, I anticipation societal media companies go much alert of what they are driving their users into, that they go much alert of however their users are behaving and, successful turn, beryllium much mindful of however they plan their systems."

As for her ain behavior, Cho isn't definite the probe chopped down the magnitude of clip she spends connected societal media apps. What it has done is marque her deliberation much astir wherefore she spends her clip connected the apps.

"I don't deliberation cutting down the clip spent connected apps is needfully the answer. It is astir designing a strategy that volition assistance users bespeak connected themselves and their behavior," Cho said. "What is bully astir your behavior? What is atrocious astir it? How bash you privation to amended it? I anticipation this feature-level investigation oregon involution enactment helps them."

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More information: Hyunsung Cho et al, Reflect, not Regret: Understanding Regretful Smartphone Use with App Feature-Level Analysis, Proceedings of the ACM connected Human-Computer Interaction (2021). DOI: 10.1145/3479600