Digital solutions and wicked problems: Snapshots from our consortium meeting in Warsaw

At our recent consortium meeting in Warsaw, Poland we explored the paradoxes we face in the digital era as we strive to make the most of our time and maintain good levels of wellbeing. Hosted by our Polish PI Joanna Witowska and researcher Katarzyna Goncikowska at The Maria Grzegorzewska University between 10th and 11th March 2025, the meeting highlighted the myriad of ways in which digital technologies impact individuals in a world where digital engagement is simultaneously encouraged and rejected.

Our research studies reveal that using digital technologies seems to make our time feel denser, pass faster subjectively and increasingly dissolve our work-life boundaries. Regret and guilt about using digital devices characterise our relationship with them but most often coexist with positive lived experience of efficiency, entertainment and connection that digital devices afford us. While such experiences are widespread and similar across European countries, the extent to which we are able to derive temporal gains and benefits from digital technologies is affected by social and structural factors external to the individual. 

Three key conflicts of digital life

Relying on interviews conducted with 150 people from six European countries, Julie Papastamatelou and Marc Wittmann based at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg highlighted three key conflicts that arise in our daily interactions with technologies: By allowing us to work, socialise and access entertainment at virtually any time and creating an unprecedented level of choice over our time, digital technologies also bring along the possibility of permanent digital connection and contribute to pressures to engage digitally when we would prefer pursuing other activities. In fact, while we often desire spending our free time on non-digital activities, such as going for a walk or reading a book offline, we find ourselves consuming digital content. Such content can capture our attention to such a degree and provide short-term pleasure that we lose track of time and later regret the time spent on digital devices.

The cycle of unfulfilling digital engagement

The disconnection between the potential for fulfilling time that digital technologies afford and how we actually use digital devices was explored further by the UK team consisting of Ruth Ogden and Christine Schoetensack based at Liverpool John Moores University. Referring to findings of our newly published large-scale qualitative study with 300 participants from across Europe, it was highlighted that our desire for productive time use and to fill time often leads us to resort to digital technologies. This can occur during empty periods, such as when waiting or in situations of digital multitasking in our free time or at work. However, such behaviour can leave us with a perceived lack of time and energy. Therefore, the short moments that are left in our day are insufficient for us or to pursue what we consider as more “authentic” but effortful non-digital activities, ranging from outdoor leisure to in person socialising or offline reading. Such short periods are again spent on digital entertainment, which we view as “unproductive” or even “meaningless”.  

What the body and mind do during digital engagement

How our body and mind react to filling time with digital technology compared to the absence of any activity or engaging in a non-digital task while waiting was revealed by our Swiss research team consisting of Quentin Meteier, Sébastien Chappuis and PI Chantal Martin-Sölch from the University of Fribourg. In an experimental psychophysiological study, the researchers discovered that smartphone use during a waiting period can reduce boredom compared to doing nothing but involves less cognitive engagement and positive affect than keeping busy with a non-digital activity, i.e. sudoku. These results suggest that filling short waiting periods with non-digital activities can benefit us by providing enjoyment, relief from boredom and engagement.

Digital (dis)empowerment during times of crisis

The Polish PI Joanna Witowska and researcher Katarzyna Goncikowska based at The Maria Grzegorzewska University and the Polish Academy of Sciences respectively shared our findings on the role of digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic using qualitative data from 300 people from across Europe. This study revealed how digital devices were remembered as simultaneously supporting and interfering with the pursuit of autonomy, competence and relatedness during the pandemic: Autonomy-enhancing experiences of spatial and temporal empowerment among homeworking employees contrasted with accounts of involuntary interpersonal proximity, multitasking and overworking. While digital efficiency or innovation in work life could contribute to feelings of competence, poor digital infrastructure especially when combined with perceived “insufficient” digital skills reduced competence. Low levels of relatedness, i.e. social impoverishment or isolation due to the perceived transactional or impersonal nature of digital communication during the pandemic contrasted with social enrichment fuelled by the creation of digital communities, shared cultural experiences in online spaces or connectedness mediated by DT.

The Internet as a free space?

Our Spanish research team consisting of Núria Codina, José Vicente Pestana, Georgina Giner, Rafael Valenzuela and María Marentes based at the University of Barcelona also highlighted some important positive lived experiences of digital technologies and how these can be shaped by factors external to the individual and out of their direct control, i.e. the nature of digital spaces and algorithmic mechanisms. Happiness and enjoyment derived from digital engagement formed an important part of the first-hand accounts of the 300 people interviewed across Europe as part of our qualitative research. Yet, algorithmic content selection often encountered online meant that the Internet became a space where freedom to explore and choose content were restricted. Algorithms therefore appear to limit individual agency and control over digital engagement although the burden of responsibility for managing digital activity is still placed upon the individual.

Inequalities in the digital era

The impact of factors external to the individual on their digital opportunities and challenges as well as the inherently social nature of any autonomy that can be achieved through technologies were examined by our PI Vanda Černohorská collaborating with the researcher Tereza Klegr based at the Czech Academy of Sciences. Interviews with Czech individuals including trade union representatives on experiences and views of digital technologies revealed gendered aspects of remote work: Expected to view remote work as a privilege and handle both job-related and caring-related tasks from home, time poor individuals such as mothers felt pressured to engage in work and caring tasks simultaneously during the day and remain available outside of working hours. Individual control over time and empowerment of the individual through remote work are therefore unrealistic and unachievable to members of society subjected to social structures that do not acknowledge the time constraints of unpaid care labour.