ABSTRACT

A widespread concern in society is that adolescents experience an increased inability to concentrate and sustain attention because they are continuously distracted by social media. The current experience sampling method (ESM) study examined whether adolescents who use more social media than their peers experience more distraction (between-person association), whether social media use (SMU) and distraction co-fluctuate within adolescents (momentary within-person associations), and to what extent this within-person association differs from person to person (person-specific associations). With a sample of 383 adolescents (M_age = 14.11), who together completed 35,099 ESM surveys (73% compliance), we found both a positive between-person association (β = .31) and a positive momentary within-person association (β = .12) of SMU with distraction. The momentary within-person association differed from adolescent to adolescent: While SMU and distraction were positively associated among 82.5% of all adolescents, they were not associated among 15.7% of the adolescents, and negatively associated among 1.8% of the adolescents. Additional analyses on the direction of the effect showed that the within-person effect of SMU on subsequent levels of distraction was somewhat stronger (β = .05) than the effect of distraction on subsequent levels of SMU (β = .03).

摘要

社会普遍关注的问题是，青少年越来越无法集中注意力和维持注意力，因为他们不断地被社交媒体分心。目前的经验抽样方法 (ESM) 研究检查了使用更多社交媒体的青少年是否比同龄人经历更多的分心（人与人之间的关联），社交媒体使用 (SMU) 和分心是否在青少年内部共同波动（瞬间的人际关联)，以及这种人际关联在多大程度上因人而异（特定于人的关联）。以 383 名青少年（M_年龄 = 14.11），他们一起完成了 35,099 次 ESM 调查（73% 的依从性），我们发现 SMU 具有正向的人际关联 (β = .31) 和正向的瞬时人内关联 (β = .12) 与分心。瞬间的人际关联因青少年而异：虽然 SMU 和分心在 82.5% 的青少年中呈正相关，但在 15.7% 的青少年中不相关，在 1.8% 的青少年中呈负相关。对效应方向的进一步分析表明，SMU 对后续分心水平的影响（β = .05）比分心对后续 SMU 水平的影响（β = .03）要强一些。