Scrolling social media with the third eye: Mindful technology use as a disconnection strategy

Constant connectedness and social media overuse have prompted disconnection practices like quitting and digital detoxing. Besides these approaches, mindfulness stands as a promising quality to benefit from social media without being overwhelmed by their drawbacks. Accordingly, this study investigates whether mindful technology use (MTU) can help manage social media use. Based on the Affordance-Use-Reflection-Automaticity Model, MTU was proposed as a means to regulate the effects of social media affordances (i.e. hedonic and utilitarian content gratification), habit, satisfaction, and system use. The research model was tested on three different social media—Facebook ( n = 220), Instagram ( n = 132), and Twitter/X ( n = 123)—using a cross-sectional survey. The results show that MTU is associated with lower habit and system use, and a stronger positive link between hedonic content gratification and habit. These findings indicate that MTU can be a disconnection strategy by supporting mindful consumption and weakening habitual use.