Smartphone Use and Well-Being in Two Contexts

Author(s):  
Kathryn J. O’Toole

Abstract. Excessive smartphone use is a growing concern in many societies around the world today. To date, attention has primarily been paid to psychological correlates of use, including well-being, with less work concentrating on the role that context plays in smartphone use. This was the goal of the current project. College student smartphone use was measured twice over 1 week in two contexts – a college campus and an outdoor camp – and participant well-being was measured using the SPANE. The findings indicate that daily smartphone use significantly decreased for camp participants and significantly increased for campus participants, and latency to use a phone upon waking significantly increased for camp participants but remained stable for campus participants. Additionally, waiting longer to use a phone upon waking at the end of the week significantly predicted reduced well-being but only for camp participants. Overall, these findings suggest that setting is an important contextual variable to consider when pursuing an understanding of the complex relation between smartphone use and well-being.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay A. Olson ◽  
Dasha Sandra ◽  
Denis Chmoulevitch ◽  
Amir Raz ◽  
Samuel P. L. Veissière

Problematic smartphone use is rising across the world and has been associated with reductions in concentration and well-being. Few interventions aiming to reduce smartphone use take a multi-faceted approach that balances feasibility and effectiveness. We developed such an intervention with ten simple guidelines that nudge users to reduce their screen time (e.g., disabling non-essential notifications). Two pre-registered studies tested the intervention. Study 1 (N = 51) found reductions in screen time, problematic smartphone use, and depressive symptoms after two weeks. Study 2 (N = 70) found that the intervention caused larger changes in screen time, problematic smartphone use, and sleep quality than a control group of screen time monitoring alone. Our brief intervention reduced screen time by one hour per day and returned problematic smartphone use scores to normal levels for at least six weeks. This intervention provides simple, scalable, and feasible behavioural guidelines to promote healthy technology use.


Author(s):  
Christopher Michaelson

Not enough people have decent work in the world today. Fewer still have work that they consider to be meaningful. Even among those people who have the power to choose their work, the absence of work that they consider to be meaningful adversely impacts their physical and emotional well-being—and a considerable portion of most adults’ waking hours are spent at work. Accordingly, work is a primary means by which most of us can experience meaningfulness in life. This chapter offers two arguments for why we have a moral obligation to pursue and practice meaningful work, if we have the autonomy to choose it.


2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 238-251
Author(s):  
Victor F. Petrenko ◽  
Olga V. Mitina ◽  
Kirill A. Bertnikov

The aim of this research was the reconstruction of the system of categories through which Russians perceive the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Europe, and the world as a whole; to study the implicit model of the geopolitical space; to analyze the stereotypes in the perception of different countries and the superposition of mental geopolitical representations onto the geographic map. The techniques of psychosemantics by Petrenko, originating in the semantic differential of Osgood and Kelly's “repertory grids,” were used as working tools. Multidimensional semantic spaces act as operational models of the structures of consciousness, and the positions of countries in multidimensional space reflect the geopolitical stereotypes of respondents about these countries. Because of the transformation of geopolitical reality representations in mass consciousness, the commonly used classification of countries as socialist, capitalist, and developing is being replaced by other structures. Four invariant factors of the countries' descriptions were identified. They are connected with Economic and Political Well-being, Military Might, Friendliness toward Russia, and Spirituality and the Level of Culture. It seems that the structure has not been explained in adequate detail and is not clearly realized by the individuals. There is an interrelationship between the democratic political structure of a country and its prosperity in the political mentality of Russian respondents. Russian public consciousness painfully strives for a new geopolitical identity and place in the commonwealth of states. It also signifies the country's interest and orientation toward the East in the search for geopolitical partners. The construct system of geopolitical perception also depends on the region of perception.


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Lucas A. Keefer ◽  
Zachary K. Rothschild

Abstract. Clinical and personality research consistently demonstrates that people can form unhealthy and problematic attachments to material possessions. To better understand this tendency, the current paper extends past research demonstrating that anxieties about other people motivate these attachments. These findings suggest that although object attachment generally correlates with poorer well-being, it may attenuate well-being deficits associated with insecurity about close relationships. The current paper presents two studies using converging correlational ( N = 394) and diary methods ( N = 413) to test whether object attachments’ association with poorer well-being is moderated by relationship uncertainties. We find that both trait (Study 1) and state (Study 2) insecurities about others eliminated, and in some cases reversed, the negative psychological correlates of object attachment. These effects, however, were only observed when focusing on between-person variation in both studies; within-person analysis demonstrated that state variation in object attachment predicted better psychological well-being. These results highlight a need for more nuanced studies of object attachment and well-being.


1998 ◽  
pp. 124-127
Author(s):  
V. Tolkachenko

One of the most important reasons for such a clearly distressed state of society was the decline of religion as a social force, the external manifestation of which is the weakening of religious institutions. "Religion," Baha'u'llah writes, "is the greatest of all means of establishing order in the world to the universal satisfaction of those who live in it." The weakening of the foundations of religion strengthened the ranks of ignoramuses, gave them impudence and arrogance. "I truly say that everything that belittles the supreme role of religion opens way for the revelry of maliciousness, inevitably leading to anarchy. " In another Tablet, He says: "Religion is a radiant light and an impregnable fortress that ensures the safety and well-being of the peoples of the world, for God-fearing induces man to adhere to the good and to reject all evil." Blink the light of religion, and chaos and distemper will set in, the radiance of justice, justice, tranquility and peace. "


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (Special) ◽  

Dubai Health Authority (DHA) is the entity regulating the healthcare sector in the Emirate of Dubai, ensuring high quality and safe healthcare services delivery to the population. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on the 11th of March 2020, indicating to the world that further infection spread is very likely, and alerting countries that they should be ready for possible widespread community transmission. The first case of COVID-19 in the United Arab Emirates was confirmed on 29th of January 2020; since then, the number of cases has continued to grow exponentially. As of 8th of July 2020 (end of the day), 53,045 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed with a death toll of 327 cases. The UAE has conducted over 3,720,000 COVID-19 tests among UAE citizens and residents over the past four months, in line with the government’s plans to strengthen virus screening to contain the spread of COVID-19. There were vital UAE policies, laws, regulations, and decrees that have been announced for immediate implementation to limit the spread of COVID- 19, to prevent panic and to ensure the overall food, nutrition, and well-being are provided. The UAE is amongst the World’s Top 10 for COVID-19 Treatment Efficiency and in the World’s Top 20 for the implementation of COVID-19 Safety measures. The UAE’s mission is to work towards resuming life after COVID-19 and enter into the recovery phases. This policy research paper will discuss the Dubai Health Authority’s rapid response initiatives towards combating the control and spread of COVID-19 and future policy implications and recommendations. The underlying factors and policy options will be discussed in terms of governance, finance, and delivery.


Author(s):  
Anwar Ibrahim

This study deals with Universal Values and Muslim Democracy. This essay draws upon speeches that he gave at the New York Democ- racy Forum in December 2005 and the Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in Istanbul in April 2006. The emergence of Muslim democracies is something significant and worthy of our attention. Yet with the clear exceptions of Indonesia and Turkey, the Muslim world today is a place where autocracies and dictatorships of various shades and degrees continue their parasitic hold on the people, gnawing away at their newfound freedoms. It concludes that the human desire to be free and to lead a dignified life is universal. So is the abhorrence of despotism and oppression. These are passions that motivate not only Muslims but people from all civilizations.


Moreana ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 25 (Number 98-9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 5-8
Author(s):  
Laura Bonner
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Alyshia Gálvez

In the two decades since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, Mexico has seen an epidemic of diet-related illness. While globalization has been associated with an increase in chronic disease around the world, in Mexico, the speed and scope of the rise has been called a public health emergency. The shift in Mexican foodways is happening at a moment when the country’s ancestral cuisine is now more popular and appreciated around the world than ever. What does it mean for their health and well-being when many Mexicans eat fewer tortillas and more instant noodles, while global elites demand tacos made with handmade corn tortillas? This book examines the transformation of the Mexican food system since NAFTA and how it has made it harder for people to eat as they once did. The book contextualizes NAFTA within Mexico’s approach to economic development since the Revolution, noticing the role envisioned for rural and low-income people in the path to modernization. Examination of anti-poverty and public health policies in Mexico reveal how it has become easier for people to consume processed foods and beverages, even when to do so can be harmful to health. The book critiques Mexico’s strategy for addressing the public health crisis generated by rising rates of chronic disease for blaming the dietary habits of those whose lives have been upended by the economic and political shifts of NAFTA.


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