Typical Phone Use Habits: Intense Use Does Not Predict Negative Well-Being

TL;DR

This study identifies diverse smartphone use patterns and finds that intense use alone does not lead to negative well-being, highlighting the importance of usage context and timing.

Contribution

The paper introduces a data-driven method to classify phone use profiles and demonstrates that intense use is not inherently linked to poor well-being.

Findings

Five distinct phone use profiles identified

Intense use does not predict negative well-being

Nightly phone sessions are associated with lower well-being

Abstract

Not all smartphone owners use their device in the same way. In this work, we uncover broad, latent patterns of mobile phone use behavior. We conducted a study where, via a dedicated logging app, we collected daily mobile phone activity data from a sample of 340 participants for a period of four weeks. Through an unsupervised learning approach and a methodologically rigorous analysis, we reveal five generic phone use profiles which describe at least 10% of the participants each: limited use, business use, power use, and personality- & externally induced problematic use. We provide evidence that intense mobile phone use alone does not predict negative well-being. Instead, our approach automatically revealed two groups with tendencies for lower well-being, which are characterized by nightly phone use sessions.