Some Users Dissociate When Using Social Media: UW Study

SEATTLE — If you've ever logged into Twitter or Facebook and felt the real world melt away, you're not alone. In fact, a new study from the University of Washington has found that users may enter a dissociative state — similar to the feeling of being transported into a good book or movie — while surfing social media.

The study, “I Don't Even Remember What I Read”: How Design Influences Dissociation on Social Media, was sparked by lead author Amanda Baughan's experiences early in the COVID-19 pandemic, as many people transitioned to remote work and spent more time online and on social media.

As researchers explain, there are several types of dissociation. Some can be tied to trauma, but spacing out and losing track of time is another, everyday type of disassociating.

“Dissociation is defined by being completely absorbed in whatever it is you’re doing,” Baughan said. “But people only realize that they’ve dissociated in hindsight. So once you exit dissociation there’s sometimes this feeling of: How did I get here? It’s like when people on social media realize: ‘Oh my gosh, how did 30 minutes go by? I just meant to check one notification.'”

To study the absorbing effect of social media, the team built their own app, called Chirp. Chirp linked to users Twitter accounts and functioned relatively similarly, but allowed researches to ask users how much attention they were paying every fifteen minutes.

“We used their rating as a way to measure dissociation,” Baughan said. “It captured the experience of being really absorbed and not paying attention to what’s around you, or of scrolling on your phone without paying attention to what you’re doing.”

43 regular Twitter users from across the U.S. were asked to switch to Chirp for a month for UW's study. During that time, 18 said the "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that they were not paying attention to the outside world. In interviews, seven of the users said they experienced dissociation while using Chirp.

Chirp also tested a few ways to fight dissociation, like asking users if they wanted to log off every 20 minutes, or letting them know when they were caught up on their feeds.

“One of our interview participants said that it felt safer to use Chirp when they had these interventions. Even though they use Twitter for professional purposes, they found themselves getting sucked into this rabbit hole of content,” Baughan said. “Having a stop built into a list meant that it was only going to be a few minutes of reading and then, if they wanted to really go crazy, they could read another list. But again, it’s only a few minutes. Having that bite-sized piece of content to consume was something that really resonated.”

Others, however, said they didn't care for the timed reminder.

“If people were dissociating, having a dialog box pop up helped them notice they had been scrolling mindlessly. But when they were using the app with more awareness and intention, they found that same dialog box really annoying,” senior author Alexis Hiniker said. “In interviews, people would say that these interventions were probably good for ‘other people’ who didn’t have self-control, but they didn’t want it for themselves.”

Ultimately, researches say they found the best advice: take some time off the app every now and then.

“Taking these so-called mindless breaks can be really restorative,” Baughan said. “But social media platforms are designed to keep people scrolling. When we are in a dissociative state, we have a diminished sense of agency, which makes us more vulnerable to those designs and we lose track of time. These platforms need to create an end-of-use experience, so that people can have it fit in their day with their time-management goals.”