Zooming in on Smartphone Habits: Identifying Behavioral Indicators of Perceived Automaticity

Research suggests that a large portion of media use is driven by habit. Yet our ability to measure habitual processes directly remains limited, suggesting that more naturalistic methods are needed. Leveraging a deep mobile event log and experience sampling dataset of German Internet users (N = 889), we probe the situational dynamics of smartphone habits. We investigate how moment-to-moment smartphone behavior corresponds to the perception of automaticity, with implications for the measurement of habitual behavior more generally. Contrary to expectations, duration – rather than frequency – of smartphone behavior emerged as the more consistent predictor of situational habit perception at both within- and between-person levels. However, these links varied by the type of behavior, with sessions and episodes (but not glances) relating to perceived automaticity. Additionally, home screen and gateway app use were not associated with perceived automaticity. Our results generate new insights – and deep questions – into the nature of real-world media habits.