Texting Might Lead To More 'Digital Overload' Than Scrolling, Study Suggests

Ever feel burnt out by the endless content beamed into your brain via screens? 

You’re not alone.

Scientists have found that, on average, people consume roughly 74 GB of information (the equivalent of 16 movies) a day from sources like our phones, TVs and tablets. Every year, that figure seems to go up by about 5%.

Inevitably, that can lead to what experts call “digital overload”, or feeling completely overwhelmed by the deluge of online content and contact we wade through daily. And that burden can take a toll on our mental health.

You might think that the longer you spend online, the higher your digital overwhelm might be. But according to a study from Finland’s Aalto University, another factor – how often you pick up your phone to begin with – could matter more. 

Short, frequent bursts of online activity might be more overwhelming than long scrolling sessions

In this paper, researchers looked at “13 million passively observed web traces from desktop computers and mobile devices” from 277 people over seven months.

They also asked participants to fill in four surveys about how much “digital overload” they felt throughout the study.

The study’s lead author, Henrik Lassila, said the data showed that “screen time does matter, but the heaviest users aren’t the most overloaded”. 

In fact, their data suggested that people who reported feeling most burdened by a barrage of online content spent about as much time on their screens throughout the study as those who felt fine about their digital intake.

Instead, “those who feel most overwhelmed are the ones who return to their phone again and again for brief moments and then put it down shortly after”. 

‘Fragmented’ behaviour might lead to the most overwhelm 

This kind of pick-up-and-put-down interaction happened mostly on participants’ phones, and was more common among those who were messaging. 

Something like opening a text to watch a short video your friend has sent you, and then putting your device back down again to get back to work, only to pick it back up again and reply to another message, might be uniquely trying.

Interestingly, “fragmented” phone use was more strongly linked to overwhelm when it happened in the morning. It didn’t seem to matter what kind of information people were taking in, either: social media, news sites and shopping content were just as stressful as each other.

“We feel overloaded when we can’t process all the incoming information, and our minds feel ‘full’ or stressed,” Lassila, who thinks that switching between tasks quickly and often might make our brains weary, explained. 

Worse still: this “information overload” is “linked with negative emotions, which can in turn drive more checking – a vicious cycle”.

How can I lower my digital overload? 

It can be hard to change habits, the researchers shared. But they think that trackers which show how many “mini-sessions” you have on your phone a day might help.

Professor Janne Lindqvist, who was also involved in the study, said: “You don’t need to respond to every ping immediately. Do one thing at a time”. 

Consider switching off non-essential notifications and try “batching”: checking your phone once or twice a day, and replying to texts in bursts.

“Based on our findings,you may feel less stressed,” the professor ended.