Kyle Van Gaeveren

Texting is the most ubiquitous form of computer-mediated communication, but its ability to satisfy relational needs in an always-on society remains under scrutiny. This study examines how message content and psychological context—specifically emotional fatigue and availability pressure—determine the relational value of texting. Analyzing 5,821 ecological momentary assessments from 112 adults, the results reveal that while texting and offline interactions positively predict connectedness, offline interactions demonstrate a meaningfully stronger effect. Within the context of texting, meaningful and affectionate interactions are associated with high levels of connectedness compared with those of small talk or practical exchanges, supporting the hierarchy of communication episodes proposed by communicate bond belong theory. Notably, neither emotional fatigue nor availability pressure significantly influences the association between texting and connectedness. These findings highlight that the relational benefits of texting are resilient to emotional fatigue and availability pressure and primarily depend on the nature of the content instead of users' psychological context.

Digital well-being is an emerging concept that refers to the balance that individuals experience between the benefits and the drawbacks of ubiquitous connectivity. This article presents a preregistered study testing a Digital Well-being Scale to measure this subjective experience. We administered the scale to 1438 Flemish adults. The psychometric analysis of the scale revealed a second-order two-factor structure, with perceived benefits (hedonic and eudaimonic) and perceived drawbacks from smartphone use (loss of control and functional impairment) as separate dimensions. These dimensions formed internally consistent subscales. The findings of this study thus point towards the Digital Well-being scale as a useful measurement tool for assessing the benefits and drawbacks that individuals experience from using digital technologies, that can be integrated in future research examining the antecedents, correlates and outcomes of digital well-being.

A conundrum of digital disconnection research is that individuals who report digitally disconnecting more often report poorer digital well-being. This article explores whether underlying differences in trait self-control might explain this conundrum. Study 1 (N = 1,315 adults) shows support for a Simpson’s paradox: Within persons, deliberate digital disconnection from the smartphone is linked to reduced smartphone ill-being, but between persons it links to increased smartphone ill-being. Negative between-person associations between trait self-control and both deliberate disconnection and smartphone ill-being suggest self-control as a confounder. Study 2 (N = 2,000 adults) explores this hypothesis further by contrasting more effortful, deliberated disconnection strategies with disengagement strategies reflecting situational goal-alignment. The findings show cognitive control associates positively with the use effortful disconnection strategies, and negatively with using less effortful disengagement strategies. Combined, the studies suggest digital disconnection takes more effort for some people than for others. This has implications for intervention design.

Dit essay brengt zeven kerninzichten samen die voortvloeien uit onderzoeksprojecten aande Universiteit Gent (UGent), Universiteit Antwerpen (UAntwerpen) en KatholiekeUniversiteit Leuven (KULeuven) die de wetenschap achter digitaal welbevinden en digitaalontkoppelen onderzoeken:• Project DISCONNECT, gefinancierd door de Europese Onderzoeksraad onder het Horizon2020 Research and Innovation programma (950635).• Project DISCONNECT TO RECONNECT, gefinancierd door het Vlaams Fonds voorWetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO-Vlaanderen; S005923N).• Project COST OF 24/7, gefinancierd door het Vlaams Fonds voor WetenschappelijkOnderzoek (FWO-Vlaanderen; G075524N).

This study examines digital emotion regulation as a dynamic process, involving both processes of media selection and media effects. Using a large intensive-longitudinal data set with more than 50,000 experience sampling data points gathered from over 1,000 adults, we investigated cross-lagged associations between negative affect and two smartphone-based strategies for regulating negative emotions, namely emotion expression and avoidance. Results indicate that individuals are more likely to engage in both smartphone-based expression and avoidance following negative affect (i.e., media selection). However, we observed no meaningful effect of smartphone-based emotion regulation on subsequent negative affect (i.e., media effects). Additionally, we explored the person-specificity of these associations, showing that media selection effects vary meaningfully across individuals, while media effect associations do not. Finally, using passively sensed behavioral smartphone data, we found that smartphone-based emotion expression partially explained the association between negative affect and mobile communication. Similarly, smartphone-based avoidance partially explained the association between negative affect and social media use. Overall, these findings suggest that while individuals may turn to smartphone-based strategies such as negative emotion expression and avoidance in response to negative emotional states, clear evidence of their short-term effectiveness in reducing negative affect is still lacking. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This mixed-methods study combines experience sampling and smartphone log data to explore momentary associations between passively sensed smartphone use, feeling rushed, and perceived task juggling in daily life. Using data from 774 adults, we analyze how four use features (frequency, duration, fragmentation, and notifications received) of four mobile app categories (email, social media, chat, and work communication) affect how rushed people feel, both directly and indirectly by increasing their perceived juggling load. At the between-person level, persons who use work communication apps more frequently and longer, and who receive more chat notifications, also felt more rushed on average. Findings also revealed within-person associations in the theorized direction (e.g., increased email frequency predicting increased task load and feelings of being rushed) for nearly all features of three out of four examined app categories, with social media use features as a noticeable exception. Perceived task juggling mediated these associations, suggesting that the examined smartphone use features contribute to feeling rushed by increasing the (real or perceived) load of tasks that people juggle within and across role domains. Some patterns differed based on age, gender, parenthood, and segmentation preference. Taken together, these findings support the theoretical link between technology use and experiences of time scarcity.

How much we sleep at night is believed to impact next-day affective experiences. Yet, the existing research is encumbered by methodological limitations. To address this issue we harnessed experience sampling data (68,232 observations across 10,905 days) from 1,415 Belgian participants to examine whether normal variations in sleep duration linearly or nonlinearly influence next-day fatigue, stress, happiness, anxiety, despondence, and calmness. We also tested whether people that sleep less on average benefit more from a standard sleep increase than people that generally sleep more. We tested 10,080 models as part of a multiverse analyses in this non-pre-registered study. Findings indicate even small increases in sleep duration promote (albeit, in a small way) more positive affective experiences, that effects are generally stronger in the period after waking relative to later in the day, and that effect magnitudes differ markedly across affective experiences. Findings also tentatively indicate that the impact of sleep on fatigue and feelings of despondence soon after waking may be greater for people that sleep less on average. However, little support was gained for sleep effects being nonlinear. In short, our findings advance understanding of whether and to what extent sleep impacts various affective experiences, and reveal a range of important nuances to this relationship.

This mixed-methods study investigates whether online vigilance promotes mental fatigue, and whether this effect is greater when under pressure to be available online. Additionally, it examines whether passively sensed smartphone behavior can serve as a digital proxy for online vigilance. Data were collected from 1,315 adult participants, who received 84 experience sampling questionnaires over 14 days, providing 67,762 usable datapoints on individuals’ perceptions of momentary online vigilance, mental fatigue, and availability pressure. Additionally, the smartphone use of 834 participants was passively monitored. Findings revealed both a momentary and lagged association between self-reported online vigilance and self-reported mental fatigue. Availability pressure was not a significant moderator, but did predict mental fatigue directly and indirectly, by promoting online vigilance. We found behavioral smartphone use features were weakly associated with self-reported online vigilance and mental fatigue. Overall, this study provides initial support that online vigilance may play a role in the development of mental health conditions such as burnout via its tendency to promote one of its precursors, mental fatigue.

This manuscript presents findings from a preregistered mixed-method study involving 67,762 ecological momentary assessments and behavioral smartphone observations from 1,315 adults. The study investigates (a) momentary associations between mindless scrolling, goal conflict, and guilt over smartphone use, and (b) whether guilt experiences during the day culminate into lower well-being. Results indicate that individuals experienced more guilt over their smartphone use when they had mindlessly scrolled for a longer period and that experienced goal conflict partially mediated this relationship. Daily analyses revealed that mindless scrolling was also associated with small negative changes in well-being, and this relationship was partially mediated by guilt experienced over the same day. Individuals with less self-control were more prone to experiencing goal conflict after mindlessly scrolling. These findings indicate that although mindless scrolling may seem a relatively harmless media behavior, it may have both momentary and downstream negative implications for well-being.