“Maybe I should get rid of it for a while…”: Examining motivations and challenges for social media disconnection

This study explores the motivations for why people disconnect from social media and the challenges they experience in doing so. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews with current and past social media users aged 21–39, the study finds that people discontinue, take breaks from, or change their use of social media for various reasons (e.g., lack of interest, overuse and overload, privacy concerns, social influences, keeping a work-life balance), but disconnection experiences vary greatly across individuals as well as within individuals over time. Notably, disconnection does not always follow negative experiences with social media, but can also be triggered by important life transitions or broader lifestyle choices. People also experience various practical, social, and societal challenges, making disconnection not always desirable or possible. Ultimately, this study gives insight into the factors that contribute to people’s complex and ambivalent relationship with social media. Thereby, it extends our understanding of the ever-evolving uses and perceptions of social media in a time where digital media is omnipresent

Digital inequality in disconnection practices: voluntary nonuse during COVID-19

The pervasiveness of digital media renders people constantly connected. Digital inequality theory tends to focus on how socio-digital factors link to technology access, skills, uses, and opportunities derived from such use. It is not clear, however, whether this theoretical lens applies to a time of heightened connection when privilege may also explain intended disconnection. Drawing on data from 1,551 U.S. adults surveyed during the pandemic, we find that younger age, higher education, frequent Internet use, less dependable access, and better skills are related to partaking in voluntary nonuse (e.g., having technology-free moments, switching off the Internet). As digital disconnection emerges from a place of socio-digital privilege as well as disadvantage, in a society of technology abundance, new inequalities arise around who has the freedom to use it in moderation rather than use it at all. Our study extends theoretical notions from digital inequality to the realm of voluntary digital nonuse

The value of face-to-face communication in the digital world: What people miss about in-person interactions when those are limited

Face-to-face communication is important for building and maintaining relationships. The COVID-19 pandemic led to severe limitations in people’s face-to-face interactions, resulting in most people relying more heavily on digital communication for social connection. Existing research has contributed to the understanding of how face-to-face communication is used alongside digital communication. However, we know little about what elements of face-to-face interactions people miss especially when in-person meetings are heavily reduced, and how this is related to their use of digital communication for social connection. In this study, we draw upon survey data that we collected in spring 2020 from a national sample of U. S. adults to answer these questions. We find that most people missed elements of face-to-face interactions and particularly valued spontaneous interactions, physical closeness, and independence from technology about in-person interactions. More frequent and increasing use of popular digital modes such as voice calls, video calls, text messages, and social media were all positively related to missing face-to-face communication. Our results contribute to the understanding of the role and value of in-person interactions in a digital world

Everyday disconnection experiences: Exploring people’s understanding of digital well-being and management of digital media use

With the permeation of digital media into all spheres of life, individual-level efforts to manage information abundance and constant availability have become more common. To date, information on the prevalence of the motivations and strategies for such disconnection practices and how different sociodemographic groups experience digital disconnection is scarce. We surveyed a national sample of 1163 Swiss Internet users in November 2020. Thematic coding of open-text responses demonstrated people’s understandings of “balanced digital media use” as primarily concerned with subjectively appropriate amounts of use, purposeful use, social connections, non-addiction, and time for “real life.” Through principal components analysis, we provide a classification of the types of motivations people have for disconnecting and strategies people use to disconnect. Persistent age differences suggest that life-span approaches to studying digital disconnection are imperative. We formulate implications for disconnection research in the context of digital inequality and provide an outlook for evolving digital habits in future digital societies

Changes in digital communication during the COVID-19 global pandemic: implications for digital inequality and future research

Governments and public health institutions across the globe have set social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. With reduced opportunities to spend time together in person come new challenges to remain socially connected. This essay addresses how the pandemic has changed people’s use of digital communication methods, and how inequalities in the use of these methods may arise. We draw on data collected from 1,374 American adults between 4 and 8 April 2020, about two weeks after lockdown measures were introduced in various parts of the United States. We first address whether people changed their digital media use to reach out to friends and family, looking into voice calls, video calls, text messaging, social media, and online games. Then, we show how age, gender, living alone, concerns about Internet access, and Internet skills relate to changes in social contact during the pandemic. We discuss how the use of digital media for social connection during a global public health crisis may be unequally distributed among citizens and may continue to shape inequalities even after the pandemic is over. Such insights are important considering the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s social wellbeing. We also discuss how changes in digital media use might outlast the pandemic, and what this means for future communication and media research

Conflicting Norms - How Norms of Disconnection and Availability Correlate With Digital Media Use Across Generations

Digital disconnection has emerged as a response to constant connectivity and the perceived harms to well-being that technology overuse may cause in a digital society. Despite the apparent conflict with expectations of constant availability, there has been limited research on the role of social norms in individuals’ regulation of their digital media use. The present study applied a nuanced conceptualization of social norms—by differentiating referent groups (i.e., family, friends, and everyday contacts) as well as injunctive and descriptive norms—and examined the associations of disconnection and availability norms with disconnection behavior across two generations of digital media users. Drawing on an online survey based on a stratified population sample ( N = 1163), we found perceptions of injunctive disconnection norms to differ across generations, with younger digital media users perceiving digital disconnection but also availability to be more important to their social environment. This conflict of contradictory norms was also reflected in an interactional effect on own disconnection behavior in this group, where positive correlations between disconnections norms and behavior were countered by availability norms. Overall, our findings demonstrate the social complexity of the individual decision to (dis)connect and, on the societal level, that social norms of disconnection are in transition with disconnection behavior becoming and being perceived as more and more important

IMPACT OF RISK FACTORS ON BUSINESS RESULTS OF LIFE INSURANCE PRODUCTS IN INSURANCE COMPANIES IN HUE CITY

Abstract: On the basis of the leveraging Monte Carlo simulation method and @Risk – a risk analysis software, this study aims to identify and analyse the impacts of the potential risk factors on business results of life insurance products in the insurance companies in Hue city. Both the qualitative and quantitative method is applied. Data were collected from interviewing the leaders, financial managers and senior consultants at four most representative life insurance companies in the area, namely Bao Viet life insurance, Prudential, AIA, and PCI Sun Life using the DELPHI technique. The following findings are found. Firstly, besides the identified events, 10 other types of risks could affect the business results of life insurers. Secondly, these types of risks have varied frequencies and levels of impact on the three studied variables of the simulation model. Finally, the risk of rumours and the risk of new competitors appear to be the most significant dangers to the expected profits of life insurance companies.Keywords: Monte Carlo simulation, @Risk, Delphi technique, life insuranc

Modelling and Control of a 2-DOF Robot Arm with Elastic Joints for Safe Human-Robot Interaction

Collaborative robots (or cobots) are robots that can safely work together or interact with humans in a common space. They gradually become noticeable nowadays. Compliant actuators are very relevant for the design of cobots. This type of actuation scheme mitigates the damage caused by unexpected collision. Therefore, elastic joints are considered to outperform rigid joints when operating in a dynamic environment. However, most of the available elastic robots are relatively costly or difficult to construct. To give researchers a solution that is inexpensive, easily customisable, and fast to fabricate, a newly-designed low-cost, and open-source design of an elastic joint is presented in this work. Based on the newly design elastic joint, a highly-compliant multi-purpose 2-DOF robot arm for safe human-robot interaction is also introduced. The mechanical design of the robot and a position control algorithm are presented. The mechanical prototype is 3D-printed. The control algorithm is a two loops control scheme. In particular, the inner control loop is designed as a model reference adaptive controller (MRAC) to deal with uncertainties in the system parameters, while the outer control loop utilises a fuzzy proportional-integral controller to reduce the effect of external disturbances on the load. The control algorithm is first validated in simulation. Then the effectiveness of the controller is also proven by experiments on the mechanical prototype.publishedVersio

A Passivity-based Control Combined with Sliding Mode Control for a DC-DC Boost Power Converter

In this paper, a passivity-based control combined with sliding mode control for a DC-DC boost power converter is proposed. Moreover, a passivity-based control for a DC-DC boost power converter is also proposed. Using a co-ordinate transformation of state variables and control input, a DC-DC boost power converter is passive. A new plant is zero-state observable and the equilibrium point at origin of this plant is asymptotically stable. Then, a passivity-based control is applied to this plant such that the capacitor voltage is equal to the desired voltage. Additionally, the sliding mode control law is chosen such that the derivative of Lyapunov function is negative semidefinite. Finally, a passivity-based control combined with sliding mode control law is applied to this plant such that the capacitor voltage is equal to the desired voltage. The simulation results of the passivity-based control, the sliding mode control and the passivity-based control combined with sliding mode control demonstrate the effectiveness and show that the capacitor voltage is kept at the desired voltage when the desired voltage, the input voltage E and the load resistor R are changed. The results show that compared with the passivity-based control, the passivity-based control combined with sliding mode control has better performance such as shorter settling time, 8.5 ms when R changes and it has smaller steady-state error, which is indicated by the value of integral absolute error (IAE), 0.0679 when the desired voltage changes. The paper has limitations such as the assumed circuit parameters