Social Media Desire and Impulsiveness: Intensified by Self-Immersion, Reduced by Mindfulness
Brian M. Galla, Rebecca N. Baelen, Hannah Fiore, Stephen Hutt, Amitai Shenhav
PsyArXiv September 1, 2018 preprint DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/ch43n (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Two laboratory experiments |
|---|---|
| Population | Undergraduates |
| Duration | 15-minute waiting period |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Desire to check Facebook increased after a 15-minute wait in which participants heard notifications of friends' responses but could not check. A brief mindfulness exercise produced significantly less Facebook desire than control conditions, along with less positive attitudes toward a Facebook advertisement (Study 1) and more time practicing math rather than watching entertaining videos (Study 2). Reductions in reward simulations mediated these effects. |
Abstract
Two laboratory experiments with undergraduates examined how social media desire emerges, intensifies, and can be altered. At the start of the experiment, participants submitted a Facebook status update and were led to believe that this would be posted and that responses to it would be monitored and logged over the course of the experiment. Desire to check Facebook increased following a subsequent 15-minute waiting period where participants heard sounds notifying them of friends responding to their status update, but they were not allowed to check the notifications. Moreover, reward simulations—mental elaborations about the positive aspects of checking social media—during the waiting period strengthened this desire. Both experiments also contrasted a group of participants who engaged in either a brief mindfulness, self-immersion, or, in Study 1, unfocused attention exercise during the 15-minute waiting period. Following the exercise, participants then adopted this new perspective while viewing and rating a Facebook advertisement (Study 1), or while performing a self-control task that allowed them to switch between practicing math skills or watching entertaining videos (Study 2). Participants in the mindfulness condition reported significantly less Facebook desire compared with participants in control conditions. Moreover, mindfulness led participants to report less positive attitudes about the Facebook advertisement (Study 1) and spend more time spent practicing math, as opposed to watching entertaining videos (Study 2). Reductions in reward simulations mediated these effects. These findings advance theoretical understanding of how social media desire unfolds and suggest ways for helping young adults manage these desires.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cites 14
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice 2004
- Mechanisms of mindfulness Journal of Clinical Psychology December 29, 2005
- Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects Psychological Inquiry October 19, 2007
- Mindfulness Interventions Annual Review of Psychology September 30, 2016
and 9 more in the library