Seeing Your Mindless Face: How Viewing One's Live Self Interrupts Mindless Short-Form Video Scrolling
Kyungjin Kim, Minjeong Kim, Soobeen Jeong, Jiyeon So, Hayeon Song
TLDR
This study shows self-related cues, like a live camera or black screen, can effectively interrupt mindless short-form video scrolling and enhance self-control.
Key contributions
- Self-related cues effectively disrupt mindless short-form video consumption.
- An app periodically displayed live camera, selfie, name, or black screen to de-immerse users.
- The black screen was most preferred and effective, offering subtle self-reflection.
- Offers design guidelines for self-awareness interventions in mobile contexts.
Why it matters
This paper addresses addictive short-form video consumption. It shows self-related cues, particularly subtle ones like a black screen, effectively interrupt mindless scrolling, providing crucial design guidelines for digital well-being tools.
Original Abstract
The widespread, addictive consumption of short-form videos, which allegedly causes "brain rot," has become an urgent public concern. This study proposes that self-related cues serve as an intrinsic, self-reflective strategy that enhances self-control over media overuse. We developed an app that de-immerses users by periodically displaying different self-related cues (live camera, selfie, name in text, and black screen) and tested their effects in a laboratory experiment (N=84). Overall, findings show that self-related cues effectively disrupt mindless viewing, enabling users to voluntarily stop short-form video consumption. Interestingly, the black screen, intended as a control, elicited the greatest intention to use the app: Participants noted in the follow-up interview that they preferred the subtler reflection on a black screen over the explicit image from a live camera. The findings offer practical design guidelines for implementing self-awareness interventions in mobile contexts, including which modalities work best and how real-time contextual anchoring enhances effectiveness.
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