Digital Habit Interventions

Conditions

• Digital Well-being
• Social Media

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

18 Years - 24 Years

Healthy Volunteers

Accepted

Interventions

• Friction-Based Smartphone Intervention — BEHAVIORAL
  Participants assigned to the intervention will install the one sec application and select a target social media application they wish to use less. When attempting to open the target application, participants will encounter an approximately five-second delay, estimate how long they intend to use the application, and receive a prompt asking whether they wish to continue. The intervention will remain active for approximately 14 days.

Study Details

Social media apps are designed to make opening and continuing to use them easy, which may contribute to habitual or unwanted use. This study will test whether adding a brief pause before opening a selected social media app can help young adults reduce the time they spend using the app. It will also examine whether the intervention improves digital well-being. Participants ages 18 to 24 who regularly use social media will be randomly assigned either to use a smartphone tool that adds a brief pause before opening a social media app they would like to use less or to continue using social media as usual for approximately two weeks. Participants will visit the laboratory before and after the two-week study period. At each visit, they will complete a survey measuring digital well-being and tasks measuring attention, memory, and self-control. They will also use their smartphones while their brain activity is measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a noninvasive method that uses light sensors worn on the head. During the two-week period, participants will complete brief daily smartphone surveys, and study applications will collect information about their screen time and app use. Researchers will compare the two groups to determine whether the brief pause reduces time spent using the selected social media app and improves digital well-being. Behavioral and neural measures will be examined on an exploratory basis to better understand how participants respond to the intervention.

Key Dates

First listed

Sep 18, 2026

Start date

Oct 31, 2026

Status verified

Sep 2026

Primary completion

Aug 31, 2027

Completion

Aug 31, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment

120 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

PREVENTION

Arms

• Experimental: Friction-Based Smartphone Intervention
  Participants will install the one sec application and select a target social media application they wish to use less. When attempting to open the target application, participants will encounter an approximately five-second delay, estimate how long they intend to use the application, and receive a prompt asking whether they wish to continue to the target application. The intervention will remain active for approximately two weeks.
• No Intervention: Control
  Participants will continue using their social media applications as usual for approximately two weeks without the friction-based intervention. They will complete the same baseline, daily, and post-intervention assessments as participants assigned to the experimental arm.

Primary Outcome Measure

Change in Average Daily Time Spent Using the Target Social Media Application [ Time Frame: The 14 days immediately preceding the intervention through the end of the 14-day intervention period. ]

Central Contacts

• Elisa C Baek, PhD
  213-740-2203
  [email protected]

Locations (1)

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