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When Digital Connectivity Drivers Meet Digital Disconnection: A Cross-Country Study on Smartphone Checking, Digital
1Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Mobile Media & Communication
|April 17, 2026
Summary
Digital disconnection strategies can be conditional. Reflective smartphone disengagement may reduce stress from habitual checking but worsen it for compulsive users, especially in U.S. youth.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Media Studies
- Sociology
Background:
- Digital disconnection is a growing trend to manage technology's impact.
- Previous research highlighted the conditional nature of digital disconnection strategies.
- Understanding these conditions is crucial for digital well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore how digital disconnection strategies moderate the link between smartphone checking behaviors and digital stress.
- To investigate the effectiveness of different strategies like digital detox apps, reflective disengagement, and digital solitude.
- To compare these effects across different cultural contexts (U.S. and Indonesia).
Main Methods:
- Large-scale cross-sectional surveys conducted in the United States (N=1,922) and Indonesia (N=2,107).
- Examined relationships between habitual/compulsive smartphone checking, digital stress, and three disconnection strategies.
- Analyzed data to identify moderating effects of disconnection strategies.
Main Results:
- Reflective smartphone disengagement potentially mitigates negative impacts of habitual checking for U.S. youth.
- This strategy may, however, intensify digital stress for U.S. youth with compulsive checking behaviors.
- No significant differences were found across cultural contexts in the abstract.
Conclusions:
- Digital disconnection strategies have conditional effects on digital stress.
- Reflective smartphone disengagement presents an ambivalent moderator, beneficial for some checking habits but detrimental for others.
- Future research should explore nuanced individual differences and cultural factors in digital well-being strategies.
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