Mobile mindfulness: Predictors of mobile screen time tracking

As individuals spend more time with mobile devices, concerns over screen time have grown, and thus so have efforts to reduce it. Even with mixed evidence for screen time's negative effects, mindfulness about mobile phone use has emerged as a coping mechanism and intervention strategy. This study uses an online survey (N = 405) to investigate whether general mindfulness and perceptions of one's phone use predict the use of Apple's Screen Time feature to track mobile screen time. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model, results indicate that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use predict positive attitudes toward the feature, intention to use it, and actual use of it. However, mindfulness is a negative predictor of usefulness, indicating that those who are already more mindful find this feature less useful. Perceived time spent on one's phone was not related to perceived usefulness and thus did not predict use of the feature in the overall model. These results provide theoretical implications for the role of mindfulness in communication technology use, for predicting the adoption of screen time tracking tools, and practical implications for how to design these features for users based on their perceptions of their screen time and of screen time tracking.