Quiz — Chapter 39: Technology, Social Media, and the Digital Self
Instructions
25 multiple-choice questions. Select the single best answer. Answer key with explanations follows.
Questions
1. The "attention economy" describes digital business models in which:
A) Users pay for access to high-quality information content B) User attention is the product sold to advertisers, creating incentives to maximize engagement C) Companies compete for talent by offering premium salary and benefits D) Advertising revenue funds the production of educational digital content
2. Herbert Simon's observation about information abundance and attention poverty predicts that:
A) People will increasingly pay for high-quality curated information B) As available information increases, the cognitive resource of attention becomes relatively more scarce and valuable C) Wealthy people will always have access to better information than poor people D) Information abundance improves decision quality by providing more options
3. The variable-ratio reinforcement schedule is particularly effective at producing compulsive behavior because:
A) It provides large, predictable rewards that motivate sustained behavior B) Rewards are delivered at fixed, predictable intervals that become expected C) The unpredictability of reward timing maintains high response rates more effectively than predictable schedules D) It is the only reinforcement schedule that activates the dopaminergic system
4. Gloria Mark's research on workplace attention found that the average time spent on a task before switching decreased from 2.5 minutes in 2004 to approximately:
A) 2 minutes B) 90 seconds C) 47 seconds D) 15 seconds
5. In Adrian Ward and colleagues' (2017) "brain drain" study, the presence of a smartphone on the desk (face down, notifications off) compared to the phone being in another room was associated with:
A) No difference in cognitive performance B) Reduced performance on working memory and fluid intelligence tasks C) Improved performance because of familiarity and comfort D) Higher stress but no difference in cognitive performance
6. Research on social media use and wellbeing consistently distinguishes between passive and active use, finding that:
A) Active use (messaging, creating) is more consistently associated with negative wellbeing than passive use B) Both forms of use are equally associated with negative wellbeing outcomes C) Passive use (scrolling, viewing) is more consistently associated with negative wellbeing outcomes D) Neither form shows consistent associations with wellbeing when controlling for personality
7. Goffman's dramaturgical analysis describes the "front stage" as:
A) The most important aspects of one's authentic inner life B) The public performance context in which impression management occurs C) The professional setting where formal roles are enacted D) The part of social interaction that is most honest and unguarded
8. Research by Przybylski and colleagues on FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) found that it was associated with:
A) Higher overall life satisfaction and positive affect B) Lower need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, relatedness) and higher social media use C) Primarily adolescent populations and not adults D) Passive social media use specifically, not social media use generally
9. Amy Orben and Andrew Przybylski's large-scale analysis of screen time and adolescent wellbeing found that:
A) Social media use was strongly and consistently associated with reduced wellbeing across all age groups B) The association between screen time and wellbeing was comparable in size to activities like eating potatoes C) Boys showed stronger negative wellbeing effects from social media than girls D) No significant association between screen time and wellbeing was found
10. Eli Pariser's "filter bubble" concept describes:
A) The tendency of social media users to limit their friend lists to people they agree with B) Personalized information environments in which recommendation algorithms filter out contrary content C) The psychological mechanism by which people ignore information that contradicts their beliefs D) The selective attention people apply to social media to avoid distressing content
11. Research by Brady and colleagues on moral-emotional content on Twitter found that:
A) Factual, accurate content receives more retweets than emotional content B) Each moral-emotional word in a tweet was associated with approximately a 20% increase in retweet rates C) Outrage content is effective at generating engagement only in politically extreme users D) Emotional content spreads more on left-leaning than right-leaning social media networks
12. The mechanism by which passive social media use is hypothesized to reduce wellbeing is primarily through:
A) Reduced physical activity as users spend more time sedentary B) Upward social comparison with curated, edited presentations of others' lives C) Exposure to distressing news and negative world events D) Reduced time for face-to-face social interaction
13. Aza Raskin, inventor of the infinite scroll, has estimated that the feature produces approximately how many additional hours of scrolling per day globally?
A) 20,000 hours B) 100,000 hours C) 200,000 hours D) 1 million hours
14. Cal Newport's "digital minimalism" approach differs from standard "reduce screen time" advice in that it:
A) Recommends complete elimination of social media B) Focuses on selective, values-driven use of technology rather than quantity reduction C) Addresses smartphone use only and not other digital devices D) Is primarily designed for professionals, not general users
15. Research on notification frequency and wellbeing has found that:
A) Notifications are only problematic when their content is negative B) Notification frequency is associated with stress and attention fragmentation, largely independently of content C) Only unexpected notifications produce stress; expected notifications have no effect D) Vibration notifications are more disruptive than sound notifications but both are harmless overall
16. According to the chapter, experimental studies of social media abstinence (one to four weeks) typically find:
A) No significant effect on wellbeing, suggesting adaptation effects are rapid B) Modest improvements in wellbeing and life satisfaction C) Large, dramatic improvements in wellbeing comparable to major life changes D) Mixed results with no consistent direction
17. The group polarization mechanism described in Chapter 37 is relevant to echo chambers because:
A) People in echo chambers become more politically extreme through the mechanisms of social comparison and one-sided persuasive arguments B) Echo chambers produce groupthink by eliminating dissenting opinions C) Social media algorithms specifically select for politically extreme users D) Group polarization only occurs online, not in face-to-face communities
18. Valkenburg and colleagues' research on social feedback (likes and comments) and adolescent self-esteem found that:
A) Social feedback had no significant relationship with adolescent self-esteem B) The relationship between quantified social feedback and self-esteem was stronger for adolescents than adults C) Negative social feedback was the only type that affected adolescent self-esteem D) The relationship was strongest for boys, not girls
19. The "brain drain" effect (Ward et al., 2017) is explained by which mechanism?
A) Smartphones emit electromagnetic radiation that directly impairs neural functioning B) Habitual phone monitoring captures partial cognitive attention even when not actively using the phone C) Phone-checking behavior produces cortisol release that impairs working memory D) Smartphone screens cause eye strain that reduces focus on other tasks
20. Research on adolescent wellbeing and social media suggests that which group shows the strongest negative associations with social media use?
A) Adolescent boys B) Adolescent girls C) Young adult men (18–25) D) The associations are equally distributed across demographic groups
21. Which of the following represents the MOST consistent research finding regarding digital technology and sleep?
A) Blue-light blocking glasses fully mitigate the effects of evening screen use on sleep B) Screen time during the day is more disruptive to sleep than evening screen use C) Evening screen use disrupts sleep through blue light effects on circadian rhythms and arousing content D) Sleep disruption from screens is limited to individuals with prior sleep disorders
22. The practical recommendation that phones should be removed from the desk during cognitively demanding work is based on which research finding?
A) The phone's electromagnetic signal interferes with neural processing B) The mere presence of the phone captures partial attention, reducing available cognitive capacity C) Phone-related anxiety is triggered by device visibility even when not in use D) Workers with phones on their desk check them more frequently than workers without phones present
23. The filter bubble effect, as documented by research (Guess, Nyhan, and colleagues), is described as:
A) Absolute and total — most social media users see only confirming content B) Real but somewhat less extreme than Pariser's original framing; most news-consuming users see some cross-cutting content C) Primarily a problem for users who explicitly seek out confirming content D) Limited to political content and not present in other domains
24. Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge's argument about social media and adolescent mental health is BEST characterized as:
A) There is no credible evidence linking social media use to adolescent mental health trends B) Social media is entirely responsible for rises in adolescent depression and anxiety C) Social media use is a significant contributing cause of the rise in adolescent mental health problems observed since approximately 2012 D) Social media has primarily positive effects on adolescent mental health through increased social connection
25. The chapter's recommendation to distinguish between "deep work" and "shallow work" is primarily relevant to:
A) Reducing the amount of time spent on social media B) Protecting the conditions required for cognitively demanding, high-value tasks from the fragmentation produced by email and notification management C) Identifying which digital platforms provide genuine value versus shallow entertainment D) Improving the quality of social media content creation
Answer Key
1. B — The attention economy: users are the product, not the customer. Advertisers pay for access to users' attention; the platform's revenue depends on maximizing the time and attention users direct toward it. This creates a fundamental misalignment between platform and user interests.
2. B — Simon's 1971 observation: information wealth produces attention poverty. As the supply of information increases without bound, the scarce resource becomes not information but the attention required to process it. Digital abundance has made this observation dramatically more relevant.
3. C — Variable-ratio schedules produce higher and more persistent response rates than fixed or predictable schedules. The unpredictability of reward timing is the mechanism: the possibility of reward on the next response maintains behavior more robustly than the certainty of reward at a predictable interval. Slot machines and social media feeds share this design.
4. C — Mark's research: average on-task time before switching fell from approximately 2.5 minutes (2004) to approximately 47 seconds (2023). The dramatic decline over less than 20 years suggests environmental rather than purely dispositional causes — the digital environment has changed faster than human cognition.
5. B — Ward et al.'s "brain drain" finding: the mere presence of the smartphone on the desk — face down, notifications off — was associated with reduced performance on working memory and fluid intelligence tasks compared to having the phone in another room. The mechanism is habitual phone-monitoring capturing partial attention.
6. C — Passive use (scrolling, viewing others' content) is more consistently associated with negative wellbeing outcomes; active use (messaging, commenting, creating) shows less consistent negative or sometimes positive associations. The primary mechanism for passive use harms is social comparison.
7. B — Goffman's dramaturgical metaphor: the "front stage" is the public performance context — any interaction context where one is aware of an audience and managing impressions. The "backstage" is the private context away from the audience. Social media is an unprecedented front stage because it is public, persistent, and documented.
8. B — Przybylski et al. found FOMO associated with lower need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, relatedness) and higher social media use, particularly in contexts of lower need satisfaction. The causal direction is likely bidirectional: unmet needs → more social media use → comparison and inadequacy → reinforced unmet need.
9. B — Orben and Przybylski's widely discussed finding: the association between screen time and adolescent wellbeing was very small — comparable in size to associations between wellbeing and everyday activities like eating potatoes or wearing glasses. This challenged the dominant narrative of dramatic harm but has itself been challenged on methodological grounds.
10. B — Pariser's filter bubble: recommendation algorithms personalize content based on prior engagement, filtering out contrary content and creating an information environment where most content confirms existing interests and beliefs. Not equivalent to motivated reasoning (C), which is an individual cognitive process.
11. B — Brady et al.: each moral-emotional word in a tweet was associated with approximately a 20% increase in retweet rate. This finding explains the systemic amplification of outrage and tribal content by algorithms optimizing for engagement.
12. B — The primary mechanism hypothesized for passive social media → reduced wellbeing is upward social comparison with curated content. The curated presentation, global comparison pool, and algorithmic amplification of aspirational content create an unusually intense comparison environment.
13. C — Aza Raskin's estimate: the infinite scroll produces approximately 200,000 additional hours of scrolling per day globally. Raskin, who invented the feature, has publicly expressed regret about the design.
14. B — Newport's digital minimalism is not primarily about quantity reduction but selective, values-driven use: retain only tools whose benefits substantially outweigh their costs and use them in ways that serve your values rather than platform engagement incentives. The question is whether each tool earns its place in your life.
15. B — Research on notifications: frequency is associated with stress and attention fragmentation, largely independent of content. The interruption pattern itself, not just the content of specific notifications, is the source of harm. This supports notification management even for neutral content.
16. B — Experimental abstinence studies (1–4 weeks) consistently find modest improvements in wellbeing and life satisfaction. Not dramatic (C), not null (A) — modest improvements comparable to other wellbeing interventions.
17. A — Echo chambers and group polarization: like-minded people in echo chambers encounter primarily content supporting their existing views (one-sided persuasive arguments) and see each other's extreme positions as the comparison standard (social comparison mechanism), pushing average positions toward more extreme versions. This is the group polarization mechanism from Chapter 37 operating in a digital social context.
18. B — Valkenburg et al. found the social feedback — self-esteem relationship stronger for adolescents than adults. For adolescents whose identity is still forming and who are more dependent on social approval, the quantified social feedback of likes and comments is a particularly salient self-relevant cue.
19. B — Ward et al.'s mechanism: habitual phone-monitoring behavior (developed through years of phone use) continues to capture partial attention even when the phone is present and not being used. The monitoring is largely automatic and consumes cognitive resources that would otherwise be available for the task at hand.
20. B — Adolescent girls show stronger negative associations with social media use than adolescent boys or adults in most of the relevant research. The mechanisms are not fully established but likely involve greater engagement in appearance-based social comparison, more sensitivity to social feedback, and greater use of platforms structured around visual and social performance content.
21. C — Evening screen use disrupts sleep through two well-established mechanisms: blue light emission suppresses melatonin production, disrupting circadian rhythms (Chapter 30); and stimulating content produces arousal that delays sleep onset. Both effects are documented across age groups.
22. B — Ward et al.: the mere presence of the phone captures partial attention through habitual monitoring. The practical implication is direct: if you want full cognitive capacity for demanding work, your phone should not be in the room, not just face-down on the desk.
23. B — Guess, Nyhan, and colleagues' research found that the filter bubble effect is real but somewhat overstated in popular accounts. Most people who consume news at all encounter some cross-cutting content; the more significant problem may be the amplification of outrage-generating content rather than the complete filtering of contrary information.
24. C — Haidt and Twenge argue for a significant causal relationship between social media use (particularly among girls) and the documented rise in adolescent depression and anxiety in the United States and United Kingdom beginning around 2012. This is contested by researchers like Orben and Przybylski who argue the effect sizes are small and causality is uncertain.
25. B — Deep work vs. shallow work is Newport's distinction between tasks requiring sustained concentration (analysis, creative work, genuine relationship building — highest cognitive value) and tasks that can be done in fragmented attention (email, social media, quick responses). The recommendation to protect deep work contexts from shallow work interruption is the practical application.
Score: 23–25 = Excellent | 19–22 = Strong | 15–18 = Review flagged sections | Below 15 = Re-read the chapter