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Ergebnisse 2 Einträge
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Digital devices are marketed as tools to improve efficiency and save time, however their use is also often associated with time pressure, time poverty and reduced wellbeing. Precisely how and why digital technologies reduce the availability of time is largely unknown. This study sought to explore the ways in which people experience a loss of time as a result of digital technology use. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 300 people from Spain, Poland, Czechia, Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Thematic analysis of the interview data revealed that digital technology use impacted the way in which time was used, monitored and evaluated. Participants associated digital technology use with a loss of time, a desire to fill all time, a propensity to forget time and, as a result, a desire to gain greater control of time. As a result, the experience of loss of time to digital technology was associated with feelings of guilt, shame and a lack of self-control. The findings suggest that a combination of structural factors, including imperfect algorithm content provision and ease of device use, and attitudinal factors, including the belief that digital time was inauthentic, unintellectual or “bad for you”, lead to the perception of time loss through digital device use. Improvements in algorithmic content generation and greater acceptance of the benefits of time on digital media may help reduce the sense that time is lost to digital technology, and the associated feelings of guilt and loss of control.
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Despite the widespread use of digital technologies during free time and its potential benefits for wellbeing and recovery from work life, digital engagement is considered a low-quality form of free time that often results in significant regret and guilt. Given its increasing significance as an accessible source of relaxation and enjoyment in today's post-COVID digitised society and the negative health consequences of chronic regret and guilt, the current study sought to explore the drivers of guilt and regret following digital free time across Europe. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 150 participants from Czechia, Germany, Poland, Spain, French-speaking Switzerland and the UK. A thematic analysis of the data showed that digital free time was perceived as inconsistent with the ideal of meaningful and self-determined free time and led to a spiral of guilty pleasure: Unintentional or involuntary uptake of digital activity, digital engagement beyond the desired duration and consumption of unwanted content were followed by a negative evaluation of one's own digital behaviour as a self-regulative failure and digital free time as unproductive, passive, unhealthy and inauthentic. The perceived meaninglessness and lack of control over digital free time engendered feelings of guilt and regret, which were maintained through continued digital engagement during free time. Measures to reduce guilt and regret may require societal-level changes in the way digital technology use during free time is portrayed in media and mainstream discourse in combination with structural changes to digital entertainment apps or services.
Erkunden
Team
- Wittmann (2)
Eintragsart
Thema
- Guilt
- Digital technology (2)
- Free time (1)
- Regret (1)
- Social media (2)
- Time experience (1)
- Time pressure (1)