Speaker
Description
In today’s rapidly advancing technological landscape, pervasive computing is increasingly common. As devices become smaller and more powerful, they seamlessly integrate into daily life, forming an omnipresent digital environment. This environment facilitates access to knowledge, social connections, commercial activities, and more. Despite its longstanding presence in literature, the concept of the digital environment lacks a cohesive definition, especially regarding its impact on health and behavior. This study aims to conceptualize the digital environment to better understand and measure its impact. It will: 1) Define the digital environment and its relationship with the physical and social environments; 2) Explore pathways through which the digital environment influences health and health-related behavior; 3) Propose a sensor-based method to measure the digital environment's interaction with the physical and social environments and their combined effects on health. The study will present initial findings on the measurement of digital environment usage, particularly smartphone usage, through both a large-scale self-reported survey among adolescents and the use of a dedicated mobile phone that recorded second-by-second interactions with digital, physical, and social environments.
