Transforming Social Media Use through In-Time Suggestions of Healthy Alternative Behaviours

Social media (SM) has been one of the most controversial societal topics in recent years. What seems to be especially challenging is for people to identify meaningful instances of SM use and eliminate those that are not. Recent research has shown that situational interventions are the most effective way of stopping unnecessary SM use. However, what is still lacking are interventions that go one step further by implementing healthy habits instead of the SM habits. In this study, we develop and test an app-based intervention that suggests healthy alternatives whenever users attempt to access SM. These alternatives are matched to the user’s intention and effort level to provide them with a set of realistic alternative behaviours in every situation of SM use.

Team

Supervisor: David Grüning
Writing Lead: Leon Žužek
Lead Study Design: Santiago Grandas Forero
Communication Officer: Jülide Erdoğan
Lead Data Analyst: Nina Ehmann
Lead Literature and Theory: Timon Wnendt
Lead Project Manager: Varunavi Gnana Ganesh