Your Call—Keep or Wrap: Examining the Impact of Self-regulatory Intervention on Short-form Video Consumption Behavior

Paper Title

Your Call—Keep or Wrap: Examining the Impact of Self-regulatory Intervention on Short-form Video Consumption Behavior

Publication Info

• Topic area: Self-regulatory interventions for digital media consumption.
• Keywords: Self-regulation, short-form videos, digital wellbeing, goal-setting, reflection, user behavior, intervention design, field study, media consumption, usability.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Excessive consumption of short-form videos, driven by their addictive design, leads to weakened self-regulation and negative psychological outcomes. Existing interventions, such as time limits and warnings, are often externally imposed, triggering resistance and failing to engage users’ intrinsic motivation.
• Significance: Addressing short-form video overuse is critical for mitigating attention difficulties, memory impairments, and anxiety, while fostering healthier digital habits.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research highlights the potential of self-regulatory interventions to promote balanced media use. However, most studies focus on social media or general smartphone use, leaving a gap in understanding how self-regulation can address the unique challenges of short-form video consumption.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A self-regulatory intervention comprising four features—Goal Nudge, Micro Reflection, Viewing Checkpoint, and Viewing Logbook—designed to support users in autonomously managing their short-form video consumption.
• Novelty:
  1. Integration of self-regulation principles (goal-setting, reflection, feedback) tailored to short-form video contexts.
  2. Empirical evaluation of the intervention’s impact through a 4-week field study with baseline, intervention, and withdrawal phases.
  3. Design insights for fostering sustainable self-regulation and enhancing user acceptance.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  1. Goal Nudge: Users set a viewing goal before starting, receiving nonjudgmental feedback upon reaching it.
  2. Micro Reflection: Optional reflections on watched content via tags or notes.
  3. Viewing Checkpoint: Periodic feedback every 10 videos, showing counts and lists of watched videos.
  4. Viewing Logbook: Summaries of daily and session-based viewing behavior for self-reflection.
  5. Implementation as an Android overlay app using Accessibility Service and Firebase for data collection.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Average daily entries into short-form videos decreased significantly during the intervention (23.40 to 15.89; p = 0.005) but rebounded during withdrawal (23.69).
  • Average consecutive videos watched per session decreased during withdrawal (4.66 to 3.50; p = 0.006).
  • Self-regulation scores (BSCS) improved significantly from 2.53 to 2.97 (p = 0.027).
  • Short-form addiction indicators (SAS) showed significant reductions in sleep loss (p = 0.048), social interference (p = 0.048), and anxiety (p = 0.021).
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Participants reported greater awareness and control over their viewing behavior compared to prior externally imposed interventions.
  • Improved viewing quality through selective and mindful engagement.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • 4-week field study with 20 participants (ages 20–33) using YouTube Shorts.
  • Behavioral metrics (entries, videos watched, session lengths) and pre/post surveys (SAS, BSCS).
  • Semi-structured interviews for qualitative insights.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Short study duration (2-week intervention) limits insights into long-term effects.
  • Small, homogeneous sample (20 participants, mostly in their 20s).
  • Need for comparative studies with other digital wellbeing tools.
  • Potential Hawthorne effect influencing baseline behavior.

Summary

This study developed and evaluated a self-regulatory intervention for short-form video consumption, integrating goal-setting, reflection, feedback, and viewing summaries. A 4-week field study demonstrated that the intervention enhanced users’ awareness, self-discipline, and control over viewing behavior, reducing problematic use and improving viewing quality. However, the effects on entry frequency were not sustained after the intervention’s removal, highlighting challenges in fostering long-term self-regulation. The findings provide actionable design implications for creating adaptive, lightweight, and context-aware interventions to support sustainable digital wellbeing.