Driven by fatigue and fear: the push-pull mechanism of information overload on reflective smartphone disengagement
Ping Han, Yiwei Wu, Lin Cai · 2026
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Description
Ping Han, Yiwei Wu, and Lin Cai survey in 2026 why flooded phone users sometimes step back from their screens on purpose. Endless feeds tire the mind, yet fear of missing news keeps people scrolling. That push and pull sits at the heart of the study.
Questionnaires from 2,508 people in Sichuan Province, China, fed the analysis. Feeling overloaded tied directly to more reflective breaks from phone use. Social media fatigue carried much of that link, passing the effect along. Confidence in handling threats changed the pattern, with links weaker among the highly confident. Students low in confidence leaned hardest on stepping back as a shield against overload.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ping Han, Yiwei Wu, Lin Cai |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 57 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |