Increasing Smartphone Screen Time Awareness using an Ambient Information System

Abstract

Smartphones have become ubiquitous in modern life, but the amount of time spent using them can be a source of conflict for many users. Digital-Self Control Tools (DSCT) are apps that aim to assist users in tracking and controlling their device usage, but they can be limited in their effectiveness and can sometimes cause irritation. In this paper, we propose the use of an Ambient Information System (AIS) as a novel approach to increasing awareness of screen time. For this, we combine different aspects of HCI research to design and develop the hardware and software for our AIS, based on a single-board computer, server and smartphone app. We dis- cuss related work on DSCT and AIS’, provide our own contextual research study (N = 95) and provide a user study that was conducted to evaluate the objective and subjective effectiveness of our implementation (N = 16). We observed a significant increase in screen time awareness among participants who used our system compared to those who did not (F(1,14) = 10.84, p = .0058, η2p = .4548). Furthermore, although not a significant effect, we also observed a positive trend between using our system and lower SAS-SV scores, indicating an improvement in digital well-being.