Permanently Online and Permanently Connected: Development and Validation of the Online Vigilance Scale

• In Event: Social Media Connection, Addiction, Escapism

Abstract

Smartphones and other mobile devices have fundamentally changed patterns of Internet use in everyday life by making online access constantly available. Routines of ubiquitous online communication seem to have grown firmly into many people’s cognitive structures. The present paper offers a theoretical explication of the concept of online vigilance, referring to users’ permanent awareness of the constant availability of online content and communication as well as their motivational disposition to exploit these options anywhere, anytime, and with regard to virtually any situational circumstance. Based on four studies, a validated and reliable self-report measure of this communicational disposition was developed. In combination, the results suggest that the Online Vigilance Scale (OVS) shows a stable factor structure in various contexts and user populations. Our findings clearly support the notion of online vigilance as a trait variable with considerable temporal stability and the ability to explain variance in state measures of online vigilance.

Authors

• Leonard Reinecke, U of Mainz

• Christoph Klimmt, Hannover U of Music, Drama, and Media

• Adrian Meier, Johannes Gutenberg U Mainz

• Sabine Reich, Hanover U of Music, Drama and Media

• Dorothee Hefner, Hanover Univ. of Music, Drama and Media

• Katharina Knop-Huelss, Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media

• Diana Rieger, University of Mannheim

• Peter Vorderer, U of Mannheim