Keep talking, I need to check my phone! Online vigilance and phubbing: the role of loneliness and moral disengagement

ABSTRACT

In the present study, we investigated the relationship between online vigilance and phubbing, a specific form of technoference that implies ignoring someone while favoring technological, Internet-based devices, such as smartphones. We also explored the mediating role of loneliness and the moderating role of moral disengagement in the relationship between online vigilance and phubbing. Our sample comprised 607 young adults aged 18 to 30 (M = 20.80, SD = 2.70, 71.5% females) who completed an online survey. Correlation analyses suggested significant positive relations between phubbing, loneliness, moral disengagement, and online vigilance. Subsequent analyses suggested that loneliness mediated the relation between online vigilance and phubbing, regardless of participants’ age and gender. At the same time, moral disengagement moderated this relationship. Finally, we discuss some practical ways to use these results (i.e. online vigilance and loneliness predict phubbing and moral disengagement moderates the relation between online vigilance and phubbing) to prevent and reduce phubbing behaviors among youth

KEYWORDS:

• Phubbing
• online vigilance
• moral disengagement
• loneliness
• youth

Acknowledgments

This work was co-funded by the European Social Fund, through Operational Programme Human Capital 2014-2020, project number POCU/993/6/13/153322, project title “Educational and training support for PhD students and young researchers in preparation for insertion in the labor market”.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).