Connected Yet Cognitively Drained? A Mixed-Methods Study Examining Whether Online Vigilance and Availability Pressure Promote Mental Fatigue

Abstract

This mixed-methods study investigates whether online vigilance promotes mental fatigue, and whether this effect is greater when under pressure to be available online. Additionally, it examines whether passively sensed smartphone behavior can serve as a digital proxy for online vigilance. Data were collected from 1,315 adult participants, who received 84 experience sampling questionnaires over 14 days, providing 67,762 usable datapoints on individuals’ perceptions of momentary online vigilance, mental fatigue, and availability pressure. Additionally, the smartphone use of 834 participants was passively monitored. Findings revealed both a momentary and lagged association between self-reported online vigilance and self-reported mental fatigue. Availability pressure was not a significant moderator, but did predict mental fatigue directly and indirectly, by promoting online vigilance. We found behavioral smartphone use features were weakly associated with self-reported online vigilance and mental fatigue. Overall, this study provides initial support that online vigilance may play a role in the development of mental health conditions such as burnout via its tendency to promote one of its precursors, mental fatigue.