Patterns of Meaningful and Meaningless Smartphone Use:A Diary Study

Smartphones are highly popular, addictive everyday items which have raised concerns about over-dependency. This has led to a wealth of research on smartphone overuse albeit exploration of how habitual or phone overuse contrasts with purposeful or more meaningful use has been limited. To address this gap, this paper reports a one week diary study with 20 users. Findings highlight the distinction between pragmatic and eudemonic activities supporting meaningful use, and of hedonic activities associated with habitual use. We suggest a more nuanced conversation of habitual and meaning smartphone use. We conclude with two design implications including support for pragmatic experiences augmented with hedonic content and support for meaningful use rather than limiting meaningless use

Functionalities Review of Digital Wellbeing Apps:Towards Research-informed Design Implications for Interventions Limiting Smartphone Use

Background: Much HCI research has focused on wellbeing and how it can be better supported through a range of technologies from affective interfaces to mindfulness systems. At the same time, we have seen a growing number of digital wellbeing apps. However, there has been limited scholarly work reviewing these apps. Objective: This paper reports on an auto-ethnographic study and functionality review of the most popular 39 digital wellbeing apps on Google Play Store. Methods: A review of apps functionality based on descriptions from Google Play, and auto-ethnographic approach where the first author downloaded and used each app for at least 30 minutes on a Samsung Galaxy Note9 phone with Android mobile operating system. Results: Findings indicate that these apps focus mostly on limiting screen time and we advanced a richer conversation about such apps articulating the distinction between monitoring use, tracking use against set limits, and four specific strategies supporting limited use. Conclusions: We conclude with three implications for designing digital wellbeing apps including the call to move beyond screen time and support the broader focus of digital wellbeing, supporting meaningful use rather than limiting meaningless use, and leveraging (digital) navigation in design for friction

Isolation of filter passing bacteria from a range of dental clinic surfaces

Filter passing bacteria have been isolated from a variety of natural environments, appearing as a mixture of Gram-positive and Gram-negative, as well as nano-forms and wall-free species. In this study, filter passing bacteria were isolated from surfaces located in various dental departments at the College of Dentistry, King Saud University Hospital. Surface samples were obtained by using Q-tip swabs, with ten different surfaces being sampled in each clinic during pre-patient and post-patient visits. Filterable bacteria (using 0.4 and 0.2 micron filters, but not 0.1 micron filter) were isolated, being mainly Gram-positive cocci. Isolation results of filterable bacteria were compared before and after patient treatment in the clinic. More frequently, filter passing bacteria were isolated on clinic surfaces after patient treatment. The results show that dental settings are contaminated with filterable bacteria which may act as a reservoir for the wider contamination of hospital environments