Exploring personal digital media environments: a configural approach to digital stress

Digital stress is shaped by the processing demands embedded in everyday media environments, yet, these environments have not been empirically examined very much beyond general media use. Drawing on network theory, we conceptualize personal digital media environments as the ways in which individuals configure media use in relation to their social ties. The purpose of this study is to examine how network properties of these media configurations are associated with different forms of digital stress.

Drawing on a network-based approach, we used a pilot sample of 793 and a test sample of 1,139 U.S. adults to compute three media configuration properties from their name-generated reported social ties (both strong and weak): size (the number of unique media), density (interconnection among unique media via social ties), and centralization (extent to which communication with one's social ties is concentrated across a small set of unique media). We also identify and justify five subdimensions of digital stress. We then tested hypotheses about how the properties associate with digital stress, using structural equation modeling.

Configuration properties explained additional variance in digital stress beyond general media use. Further, larger configurations were associated with greater communication overload, more deficient self-regulation, and higher self-presentation pressure; and greater centralization was associated with lower overconnectivity.

These findings advance understanding of personal digital media configurations and how they may relate to different forms of digital stress, and could inform interventions aimed at improving digital wellbeing.