Event Date
Gabriella M. Harari
Contextualizing Smartphone Use in Everyday Life
Abstract: No matter where people are, whom they are with, or what they are doing, they are typically accompanied by their smartphones. But what explains whether people use their smartphones in the moments of everyday life? And does smartphone use in the moment impact subsequent well-being? In this talk, I will integrate perspectives from psychology and communication to describe a contextual framework for understanding smartphone use. I will present findings from two intensive longitudinal field studies about the antecedents and consequences of young adults' smartphone use. The first study examines the personality traits and contexts associated with smartphone use. The second study examines the relationships between smartphone use and momentary well-being, and whether contexts interact with use to explain well-being outcomes. To conclude, I will describe future directions for understanding smartphone use and the value of a contextualized framework for media research.
Bio: Gabriella Harari is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford University, where she directs the Media and Personality Lab. Her research examines how personality and well-being shape, and are shaped by, interactions with physical and digital environments. She takes an ecological approach to conducting her research, emphasizing the importance of studying people and their behavior in the natural settings of everyday life. To that end, she conducts intensive longitudinal field studies and is known for her work on mobile sensing methods. Gabriella completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship and earned her PhD at the Department of Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research has been published in academic outlets such as Perspectives in Psychological Science, the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the Journal of Environmental Psychology, and Communication Theory. Her work has been supported by national and institutional funding agencies including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI.