Real-World Winds: Micro Challenges to Promote Balance Post Smartphone Overload

We present and evaluate the concept of winds – micro challenges to be done in the physical world post-smartphone overload, to encourage exiting the digital smartphone tunnel and promote refreshing breaks from the digital realm. Whereas digital detox solutions are unsustainable in everyday life, current everyday interventions such as screen time reminders or app blockers can induce negative feelings in users. We hypothesize that winds, delivered by our mobile app Real-World Wind (RWW), promote balance between the user’s physical and digital activities, as well as engagement with the intervention. RWW tracks users’ smartphone use behavior and distributes winds of five categories upon overload pattern detection. We evaluated the effectiveness of RWW in a week-long field study with 25 participants. Our findings show that winds foster a fun and engaging experience, and significantly promote balance between the digital and physical world post-smartphone overload. We discuss implications for future technology overload interventions.