Growing evidence has shown the negative impact of social media usage on young people’s behaviour. Spending hours on social media can have several unprecedented impacts, including anxiety, depression, loneliness, sleep deprivation, fear of missing out (FOMO), and addiction.
This negative impact is a product of the dark patterns used by social media algorithms to keep users attached to platforms without considering their health and wellbeing.
This project investigates the overconsumption of social media platforms as habitual behaviour, specifically focusing on young adults in the UK. It aims to 1) measure the impact of a habit-theory educational intervention designed to alter users’ behaviour and reduce the time spent on social media, and 2) inform design guidelines for social media platforms to mitigate their negative effects.
We are currently exploring the social media usage habit and how the awareness workshop can contribute to understanding users’ behaviour and disrupting their usage. For this aim, we received a fund from the School of Design, University of Leeds, to run a pilot study with international students in the UK.
We are currently analysing the data from the pilot study, and the findings will be used in a wider study involving other universities including Université Savoie Mont-Blanc and University of Leon.
The HABIT Lab 