Explaining variation in adolescents' social media-related distraction: The role of social connectivity and disconnectivity factors

Abstract

Social media are often believed to distract adolescents' attention. While existing research has shown that some adolescents experience more social media-related distraction than others, the explanations for these differences remain largely unknown. Based on Self-Determination Theory, this preregistered study investigated two social connectivity factors (fear of missing out [FoMO] and friendship accessibility expectations) and two disconnectivity factors (self-control strategies and parental restrictions) that may explain heterogeneity in social media-related distraction. We used data collected through a measurement burst design, consisting of a three-week experience sampling method study among 300 adolescents (21,970 assessments) and online surveys. Using N = 1 analyses, we found that most adolescents (77%) experienced social media-related distraction. Contrary to expectations, none of the connectivity or disconnectivity factors explained differences in social media-related distraction. The findings indicate that social media are a powerful distractor many adolescents seem to struggle with.

Keywords: Attention; ESM; Instagram; Media effects; N = 1 research.

Fig. 1

Distribution of the person-specific associations of SMU with distraction and person-specific credible intervals. Note. Each shaded point represents a person-specific association. Each bar represents the person-specific Bayesian credible interval. Dark red, light red, grey, light green, and dark green points indicate significant negative (2%), non-significant negative (5%), non-existent (18%), non-significant positive (38%), and significant positive associations (38%), respectively

Fig. 2

N = 1 time series showing the person-specific association of SMU with distraction. Note. The x-axis shows the day of the study (range 1–21). The y-axis shows the value of distraction (red; 0 = not at all to 6 = completely) and SMU in 10 min (blue-green; 0 = 0 min to 6 = 60 min). The upper graph represents the time series of a participant for whom the association of SMU with distraction was strongly positive, and the lower graph represents the time series of a participant for whom the association was non-existent

Fig. 3

Distribution of the person-specific associations of SMU with distraction for adolescents with high and low levels of FoMO, friendship accessibility expectations (FAE), self-control strategies (SCS), and parental restrictions (PR). Note. The black solid vertical lines indicate the overall within-person associations of SMU and distraction for each level of the moderator. Negative, non-existent, and positive person-specific associations are presented in red, grey, and green, respectively