Understanding the determinants of digital distraction: An automatic thinking behavior perspective

Personality Traits and Family SES Moderate the Relationship between Media Multitasking and Reasoning Performance

The prevalence of media multitasking has raised concerns regarding its potential impact on cognitive abilities. Despite increasing attention given to this topic, there remains no consensus on how media multitasking is related to cognitive performance. This study aims to shed light on this issue by examining whether and how personality traits and family socioeconomic status (SES) moderate the relationship between media multitasking and reasoning performance. To this end, a large sample of university students (n = 777) completed a battery of measures, including the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, the Media Multitasking Inventory, the Big Five Inventory, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, the Grit Scale, and the Family SES Questionnaire. Results revealed a negative correlation between media multitasking and reasoning performance. However, this relationship was substantially moderated by conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and family SES. Specifically, media multitasking was more detrimental to reasoning performance among individuals with lower levels of conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and family SES, whereas it was less detrimental to counterparts with higher levels of these personality traits and family SES. The proposed moderation model, for the first time, not only offers novel insights into the theoretical accounts regarding how media multitasking relates to cognitive abilities, but also identifies the protective factors that may buffer the negative impacts of media multitasking.

Childhood trauma and problematic internet use: A meta-analysis based on students in mainland China

Background

In recent years, the relationship between childhood trauma and problematic Internet use has been widely studied by scholars, but the research conclusions on the relationship between them are not consistent. Some studies report that childhood trauma and problematic Internet use are significantly correlated. However, others believe that there is a weak correlation between them. So the relationship between them needs to be studied further. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between childhood trauma and problematic Internet use, and the effects of some moderating variables on both for students in Mainland China.

Methods

This study followed the requirements of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) statement for literature screening. We searched the related studies on childhood trauma and problematic Internet use in Mainland China from January 2009 to November 2022 from CNKI, Wanfang Data, Chongqing VIP Information Co., Ltd. (VIP), Baidu scholar, ProQuest dissertations, SAGE Online Journals, Elsevier SDOL, Taylor & Francis, Springer, Web of Science, Google Scholar, EBSCO, Medline, Scopus Database, PubMed Central, Embase, The Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, CMA 3.0 was used to analyse the overall effect and test the moderating effect.

Results

Among the papers included in the meta-analysis in this study, 31 papers reflected the relationship between childhood trauma and problematic Internet use, involving 52,503 subjects, and the sample size ranged from 388 to 16,130. This relationship between childhood trauma and problematic Internet use can be considered as a moderate correlation (r = 0.281, 95%CI[0.221, 0.338], p < 0.001). The results showed that the relationship between childhood trauma and problematic Internet use was affected by different problematic Internet use measures. Meanwhile, meta-regression demonstrated that the relationship between childhood trauma and problematic Internet use was moderated by survey’s year. Specifically, the correlation coefficient between childhood trauma and problematic Internet use also increases with increasing year. However, the relationship between childhood trauma and problematic Internet use was not affected by the region, grade, childhood trauma measures, publication source.

Conclusion

Childhood trauma is closely related to problematic Internet use. In order to reduce problematic Internet use, corresponding prevention and intervention measures should be taken.

Comprehensively Summarizing What Distracts Students from Online Learning: A Literature Review

As online learning becomes an indispensable component of the current education system, students benefit from the advantages of online education. At the same time, students are also facing more challenges during online learning. Multitasking, mind-wandering, and using digital devices are the extensively discussed types of distractions that detriment students’ learning performance by impairing their focused attention. However, the consensus on the definition of distraction and what represents distraction during online learning are still lacking. This literature review develops a comprehensive definition of distraction, summarizes three main types of distraction (multitasking, mind-wandering, and using digital devices), and proposes two new types of distraction (unexpected interruption and consistent interference). Since the detrimental effects of distraction on online learning are salient, more explorations on helping students to resist distractions and maintain focused attention are imperative for future studies.

The mixed blessing of cyberloafing on innovation performance during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced major changes in work routines. With many people now working from home, cyberloafing is increasingly widespread. The COVID-19 pandemic is also an economic downturn that is disruptive and challenging for organizations. Innovation is a vital strategy for organizations to survive and recover from the pandemic crisis. Recent research suggests that cyberloafing can produce complex workplace outcomes. Therefore, we seek to explore how and why cyberloafing affects employee innovation performance. Based on the conservation of resources theory, our study explores the potential positive and negative effects of cyberloafing on employee innovation performance by identifying job anxiety, state gratitude and perceived meaning of work as critical mediating mechanisms in the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from an online survey (N = 544) during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that COVID-19 based informational cyberloafing was positively related to employees' innovation performance by enhancing their perceived meaning of work. It simultaneously weakened and strengthened employees' perceived meaning of work through increased job anxiety and state gratitude, and ultimately had mixed effects on innovation performance. Our findings provide both theoretical and practical insights on personal internet use as well as innovation activation in crises.

Digital Distractions and Remote Work

The number of remote workforces proliferates to cope with the global pandemic and related stay-at-home restrictions. Remote work is more likely to persist even after the global pandemic. However, many remote workers face coping and managing digital distraction challenges as they rely on digital devices for personal and professional matters. Do they have more digital distractions for remote work at home than in the office? What factors increase and decrease the productivity of remote workers, especially concerning digital distraction? The analysis of a survey questionnaire from 87 remote workers shows that the impact of digital distraction depends on its sources. Remote workers experience more digital distraction with email and texting at home than in the office. The digital distraction that negatively lowers their work performance derives from viewing online videos. However, goal commitment in work and life can counteract such negative influences. Implications are discussed for optimizing their work performance.

Mind over Matter: Testing the Efficacy of an Online Randomized Controlled Trial to Reduce Distraction from Smartphone Use

Evidence suggests a growing call for the prevention of excessive smartphone and social media use and the ensuing distraction that arises affecting academic achievement and productivity. A ten-day online randomized controlled trial with the use of smartphone apps, engaging participants in mindfulness exercises, self-monitoring and mood tracking, was implemented amongst UK university students (n = 143). Participants were asked to complete online pre- and post-intervention assessments. Results indicated high effect sizes in reduction of smartphone distraction and improvement scores on a number of self-reported secondary psychological outcomes. The intervention was not effective in reducing habitual behaviours, nomophobia, or time spent on social media. Mediation analyses demonstrated that: (i) emotional self-awareness but not mindful attention mediated the relationship between intervention effects and smartphone distraction, and (ii) online vigilance mediated the relationship between smartphone distraction and problematic social media use. The present study provides preliminary evidence of the efficacy of an intervention for decreased smartphone distraction and highlights psychological processes involved in this emergent phenomenon in the smartphone literature. Online interventions may serve as complementary strategies to reduce distraction levels and promote insight into online engagement. More research is required to elucidate the mechanisms of digital distraction and assess its implications in problematic use.

Review of Research Trends in Learning and the Internet in Higher Education

Within the scientific literature, there has been much debate about the use of the Internet in teaching in university contexts. The potential of this tool and its educational possibilities is well documented. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the use of the Internet in university teaching from a bibliometric perspective. To analyze scientific works, scientific mapping strategies have been used; for example, exploring the co-words and co-authors in works on this topic. We have worked with an analysis unit of 5118 documents which are indexed in the Web of Science database. Among the findings of this research, it can be highlighted that most publications are in English—the topic has been thoroughly studied and works have been published in this language over time. Moreover, the United States is the country which is most productive in relation to educational and computing fields. The most relevant topics themes are “e-learning”, “systems” and “Internet of Things”.