University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work recent doctoral alumnus Dr. Craig Sewall is part of an international team, led by Dr. Doug Parry at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, that authored the recent paper in Nature Human Behavior entitled “A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Discrepancies Between Logged and Self- Reported Digital Media Use.”
The paper presents a meta-analysis of the accuracy of self-reported measures of digital media use (i.e., smartphones, social media, etc.). To date, almost all studies about the effects of these digital media on well-being measure digital media use by having study participants estimate how much time they spend on various devices and applications. These estimates are then used to draw conclusions about the association between digital media use and well-being.
However, results of the meta-analysis showed that self-reported estimates of digital media use are not accurate measures of actual digital media use. In other words, they do not measure what they are supposed to measure. This suggests that many of the findings from studies that have solely relied on self-reported measures of digital media use (almost all studies to this point) should be questioned. Not only does this finding have far reaching implications for researchers across fields like communication, psychology, and information systems but, perhaps of equal importance, it suggests caution before implementing policy that restricts digital media use.
“It shouldn't really come as a surprise that people are generally quite bad at estimating their digital technology use, as it's extremely hard to estimate behaviors you engage in very frequently and (oftentimes) absent-mindedly” said Dr. Sewall. “Yet, for the last 15 years or so, the vast majority of research on digital technology has relied on these types of flawed measures to capture various forms of digital technology—such as smartphones, social media, or that vague yet all-encompassing term: ‘screen time.’ This is a big problem because if these measures are not capturing what they are supposed to measure—actual digital technology use—then it's hard to trust the findings from studies using these flawed measures. This means that much of what we think we know about the putative ‘effects’ of digital technology use on things like well-being and health is likely erroneous.”
The team was led by Dr. Doug Parry at Stellenbosch University, South Africa and consists of Dr. Craig Sewall at the University of Pittsburgh, United States, Dr. Brit Davidson at the University of Bath, England, Dr. Jacob Fisher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States, Hannah Mieczkowski at Stanford University, United States, and Dr. Daniel Quintana at the University of Oslo, Norway.
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