2a:T4d2,

Parental phubbing refers to parents being distracted by their phone during an interaction with their child. The present study investigated how parental phubbing relates to adolescents’ self-control through the mediators of parent–adolescent closeness and loneliness. The current study also compared the effects of maternal and paternal phubbing. Having a sibling may influence adolescent mental health and behaviors. Thus, this study also examined whether siblings attenuate the effects of parental phubbing on self-control. We recruited 670 adolescents to participate in our survey. Path analyses revealed that maternal phubbing had both direct and indirect effects on self-control through mother–adolescent closeness and loneliness. However, paternal phubbing had only a sequential indirect effect through father–adolescent closeness and loneliness. This shows that maternal and paternal phubbing have different effects on adolescents’ self-control. Multi-group comparisons revealed that the direct and indirect effects of maternal phubbing on self-control were non-significant for adolescents with siblings. Thus, siblings attenuated the adverse relationships between maternal phubbing and adolescent self-control.

2b:T54b,

The smartphone has become an integral part of adolescents’ daily life. Despite the countless affordances of smartphones, concerns have been raised about their enormous potential to cause failures in self-regulation, such as distraction and task delay. The current study investigated whether two smartphone usage patterns, fragmented and sticky smartphone use, are associated with distraction and task delay. For three weeks, we logged the smartphone usage of 160 adolescents (733,359 observations) and assessed their distraction and task delay six times a day with experience sampling (12,723 observations). Using Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling, we found that, overall, adolescents felt more distracted when their smartphone use was more fragmented or sticky. Exploratory analyses indicated that 77% of adolescents experienced increased distraction (i.e., β > .05) when their smartphone use was more fragmented, and 55% when it was sticky. Overall, adolescents did not report more task delay as their smartphone use was more fragmented or sticky. Nonetheless, 22% experienced increased task delay when their smartphone use was more fragmented, and 42% when it was sticky. Together, our findings underline the dynamic nature of smartphone use and its differential impact on self-regulation outcomes.

2c:T409,

Wearable self-tracking devices such as Fitbit and Apple Watch have begun to be featured in high-profile criminal cases such as murder trials for the ways the data from these devices supposedly give access to objective truths about a victim's physiological state and time of death. Drawing from the concepts of deathlogging and datafication, we argue that an examination of media framing around wearables in criminal investigations and court rooms helps demonstrate how technologies become connected to different domains and practices. A discourse analysis of five case studies and 57 news stories showed how the framing of wearables in this context emphasized both enchantment with the capacity for datafication to witness, as well as contestation around how to define and interpret this witnessing. This study demonstrated how reporting around the incorporation of mobile media technologies into institutional practices often reproduced desires for digital technologies to provide access to “the truth” of social reality.

2d:T50a,

This article considers the roles that smartphones play as young people living in low-income communities navigate everyday activities, including those of online civic engagement. Drawing on ethnographic data collected during the COVID-19 lockdown, we offer empirical and methodological support for Hartmann’s concept of mediated mobilism, highlighting smartphone-related frictions and tensions that emerge at the intersec