Initiating Moderation in Problematic Smartphone Usage Patterns

Abstract

An increase in smartphone use has also led to an increase in overuse or undesirable use in inappropriate settings. As a first step towards moderating these types of problematic smartphone usage, we conducted an exploratory study on the efficacy of using a decisional balancing exercise. The exercise is designed to consider a user's motivation level in terms of intention and readiness to change his/her behavior. Despite a short trial period and small sample size, our results show that users who participated in the decisional balancing exercise were more likely to be receptive to their own intervention methods designed to moderate their smartphone use than those who did not participate. Thus, the results suggest that employing decisional balance exercise has the potential to moderate problematic smartphone usage.