Where Are Your Thoughts? On the Relationship between Technology Use and Mind Wandering

Abstract

Mind wandering is an important brain activity that fosters creativity and productivity. Research suggests that individuals spend up to 50% of their waking time thinking about things that are unrelated to the present situation or task. Previous literature has acknowledged the importance of mind wandering in technology-related contexts by investigating its mediating role between task and individual performance. In this study, we go one step further and investigate the direct relationship between technology use and mind wandering. In particular, we investigate if different types of technology use (hedonic use vs. utilitarian use) have an impact on mind wandering. Results from a factorial survey study (n=90) suggest that there is a significant difference between hedonic use and utilitarian use when it comes to mind wandering. Based on these insights, we discuss the role of mind wandering for IS research and potentials for future research.

The impact of IT mindfulness on complex task performance

“…For instance, Kreps et al [7] call for mindfulness of people to gain control of their digital behavior rather than mindlessly browsing through apps. Mind wandering might be connected to mindlessness somehow, and it has been considered an important activity allowing creativity [15].…”

Creativity Loading – Please Wait! Investigating the Relationship between Interruption, Mind Wandering and Creativity

“…This effect can be enhanced by the individual level of motivation and interest in the topic [43], which is a significant indicator for being in a state of a wandering mind. Additionally, it is more likely to mind wander while resting, in non-demanding circumstances and during task-free activities [13,46,61].…”

“…Given its ubiquity and complexity, the interest in mind wandering has increased in the IS domain in recent years [46,63,67]. Oschinsky et al show that using hedonic systems (e.g., writing an email) yields in a higher occurrence of mind wandering than using utilitarian systems (e.g., using Facebook) [46]. In addition, Wati et al refer to mind wandering as prerequisite for the outcome of performance in case of accuracy and efficiency adding different IS task complexities.…”

“…In order to identify the occurrence of mind wandering in the experiment, a self-report measurement is obtained by means of a questionnaire, which represents standard in the previous literature [68]. For the measurement of mind wandering, we combine two established item collections [46,67], which were slightly adjusted to the given circumstances. The selected items (Table 1) are all concerned with divergent thinking and denote taskunrelated thoughts.…”

Measuring Mind Wandering During Online Lectures Assessed With EEG

“…Based on the work of Sullivan et al (2015) and the NASA Task Load Index (NASA TLX 1989), the questionnaire measures were administered to identify whether there was an effect of task load or whether the reported mind wandering was related to an information technology. This latter question was included in response to calls by information technology scholars to investigate whether intended or actual technology use affects the degree or quality of mind wandering ( Oschinsky et al, 2019 ; Klesel et al, 2021 ).…”