Agency over social media use can be enhanced through brief abstinence, but only in users with high cognitive reflection tendencies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21563229 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ofir Turel (0000-0002-6374-6382, Decision Sciences (United States), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 115 |
| Pages | 106590 |
| Publication date | 2021-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Computers in Human Behavior (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0747-5632 • E-ISSN: 1873-7692 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.chb.2020.106590 |
| OpenAlex | W3089729671 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 58 |
Many social media users have lost some agency over the use of these sites. Restoring this sense of agency is important as it can help users live responsibly with the technology, and can serve as a target for therapists treating people with difficulty to control their social media use. Nevertheless, knowledge about ways to increase people's sense of agency has been limited. In this study I propose that invoking reflections about agency but allowing normal use will likely produce realization about loss of agency, and result in undesirable reduced sense of agency. In contrast, I suggest that if invoking reflections on agency is followed by a brief abstinence attempt, people will process insights on their actual ability to exert control over social media use, which will result in an increase in perceived agency. I further argue that this information processing will only accrue in people high in cognitive reflection tendencies. A 2 (time: pre vs. post) by 2 (condition: abstinence vs. control) by 2 (cognitive reflection group: low vs. high) experiment with 610 Facebook users showed an increase in agency only among high cognitive reflection participants who experienced abstinence; all other groups showed decline in perceived agency. Implications are discussed
Abstinence · Cognition · Political science · Psychiatry · Sense of agency · Social media · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Mind wandering and attention · Psychology · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,6 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |