Quantifying and Mitigating Couples' Co-Located Smartphone Usage
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Quantifying and Mitigating Couples’
Co-Located Smartphone Usage
by
ZIL E HUMA
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF SCIENCE
in
THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES
(Computer Science)
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
(Okanagan)
February 2021
c ZIL E HUMA, 2021
The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend
to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation en-
titled:
Quantifying and Mitigating Couples’ Co-Located Smartphone Usage
submitted by ZIL E HUMA in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the
degree of Master of Science
Mohammad Khalad Hasan. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science
Supervisor
Yves Lucet. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science
Co-Supervisor
Patricia Lasserre, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science
Supervisory Committee Member
Ramon Lawrence, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science
Supervisory Committee Member
Kasun Hewage, School of Engineering Faculty of Applied Science
University Examiner
ii
Abstract
There is a growing concern that many individuals overuse smartphones in
the presence of their family members, which sometimes creates frustration
and relationship stress among them. Though couples remain co-located
for a substantial portion of each day, very little effort has been made in
quantifying couples’ co-located smartphone usage and exploring ways to
reduce it. As such, I first conduct a two-week study quantifying couples’ co-
located smartphone usage. Results show that couples spend a considerable
amount of time on smartphones while being co-located than when they are
not with their partners. Inspired by the results, I conducted a four-week long
study exploring smartphone notifications as a medium to motivate couples to
limit their co-located smartphone use. The results suggest that notification
has potential to help couples in reducing their co-located usage. Based on
the findings, I present a set of recommendations for designing solutions to
limit smartphone usage among couples.
iii
Lay Summary
Smartphones have become an essential commodity over the past decade.
It has completely changed the way people access information and commu-
nicate with others. Prior research showed that people often overuse smart-
phones, however, there is a lack of studies conducted on exploring smart-
phones overuse in the presence of co-located individuals such as family mem-
bers, friends etc. Smartphone overuse in co-located context could potentially
disrupt the sense of community and add to the relationship stress. Therefore,
I first conducted two studies to examine the smartphone usage behaviour
among couples who spend a considerable amount of time with their partner.
With a four-week long study, I further explored the use of notifications to
motivate couples to limit their smartphone usage in the presence of their
partner. Based on our findings, I provided design solutions for future re-
search aimed at mitigating co-located smartphone usage.
iv
Table of Contents
Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Lay Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Chapter 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2: Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1 Smartphone Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.1 To Stay Connected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.1.2 Coordinating activities/Micro Coordination . . . . . . 5
2.1.3 To Access Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Smartphone Usage Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Consequences of Excessive Smartphone Use . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3.1 Relationship Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3.2 Social Disconnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.3.3 Impact on Parenting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3.4 Lack of concentration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.5 Mental and Physical Health issues . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4 Co-located Activity Awareness and Interaction . . . . . . . . 13
2.5 Mitigating Smartphone Over Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.6 Smartphone Notification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 3: Study 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.1 App Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.1.1 Installed apps on the phone: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.1.2 GPS coordinates: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.1.3 Currently running apps: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.1.4 Lock/Unlock events: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.1.5 App duration: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2 Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3 Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4.1 Basic Statistics on Individual and Co-located usage . . 23
3.4.2 Temporal Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.4.3 Gender-Based Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter 4: Study 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.1 Smartphone App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.2 Designing Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.2.1 Notification style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.2.2 Notification text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.2.3 Notification frequency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.3 Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.4 Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.5 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.5.1 Notification Received and Ignored . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.5.2 Effect of Notifications on Smartphone Usage . . . . . 36
4.5.3 Subjective Feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.5.4 Steps taken to reduce co-located smartphone usage . . 40
4.5.5 Perception on smartphone usage in couples . . . . . . 41
Chapter 5: Discussion and Recommendation . . . . . . . . . . 43
5.1 Considering the usage context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
5.2 Notification strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
5.3 Offering usage analytic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
5.4 Detecting precise co-location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5.5 Designing battery efficient solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 6: Limitations and Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6.1 Participant Pool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6.2 Family Dynamics and Usage Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
6.3 Accuracy of indoor locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.4 Pre-pandemic and During Pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Chapter 7: Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Chapter A: Implementation Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
A.1 App 1 Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
A.1.1 Background Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
A.1.2 Installed application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
A.1.3 Lock/Unlock events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
A.1.4 Currently running app . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
A.1.5 GPS coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
A.1.6 App use duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
A.1.7 Data Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
A.2 App 2 Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
A.3 Technologies explored for Co-location detection . . . . . . . . 57
A.3.1 GPS Data via Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
A.3.2 Bluetooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
A.3.3 RFID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
A.3.4 Wi-Fi Direct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
vii
List of Tables
Table 1 Top 10 most used app categories for WFH . . . . . . . 23
Table 2 Top 10 most used app categories for NWFH . . . . . . 24
Table 3 Top 10 most used app for WFH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Table 4 Top 10 most used app for NWFH . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Table 5 Top 10 most used app categories for Males . . . . . . . 27
Table 6 Top 10 most used app categories for Females . . . . . 28
Table 7 Top 10 most used app for Males . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Table 8 Top 10 most used app for Females . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Table 9 10 app categories of notifications received per day for
WFH couples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Table 10 10 app categories of notifications received per day for
NWFH couples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Table 11 Top 10 app categories of notifications per day ignored
for WFH couples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Table 12 Top 10 app categories of notifications ignored per day
for NWFH couples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
viii
List of Figures
Figure 1 An icon is always visible in the status bar to indicate
the app’ status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Figure 2 Once the user drags down the notification bar, it
shows details information about the app . . . . . . . 19
Figure 3 App interface showing the permissions and other fea-
tures about the app . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Figure 4 Average Smartphone usage by hours for NWFH couples 26
Figure 5 Average Smartphone usage by hours for WFH couples 26
Figure 6 Male vs Female Average Smartphone usage by hours 27
Figure 7 Smartphone usage for 28 days for NWFH couples . . 37
Figure 8 Smartphone usage for 28 days for WFH couples . . . 37
Figure 9 An icon is always visible in the status bar to indicate
the app’ status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Figure 10 User Interface of the app . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Figure 11 Data stored in files on smartphone . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Figure 12 Screenshot of programming work on Background service 56
Figure 13 Screenshot of programming work on Installed Apps . 57
ix
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Mohammad
Khalad Hasan who provided me with his invaluable guidance, encourage-
ment and generous help. I will always remember how patiently and calmly
he would listen and acknowledge my ideas during our long discussions and
brainstorming sessions at each phase of the thesis. His work ethics, immense
knowledge and enthusiasm for his work inspired me during the struggling
phases of the thesis. I would not have been able to complete the challenging
part of the thesis without his help.
I would like to thank my co-supervisor Dr. Yves Lucet, for his invalu-
able input and support throughout this thesis. His inputs were enlightening
and nudged me in the right direction. From Dr. Yves I learnt the value of
hard-work, patience and dedication. His contribution to the various brain-
storming sessions helped in shaping the thesis. I am indebted to him for his
help during the demanding part of thesis.
I would like to acknowledge helpful suggestions from my committee mem-
bers: Dr. Ramon Lawrence and Dr. Patricia Lasserre.
I owe a huge gratitude to my loving family. Their love and confidence
in me encouraged me throughout the course of thesis. I would also like to
thank my siblings Khalaf Hassan and Zahanat for providing me with a sense
of escape when everything got a little bit overwhelming.
Lastly, but not the least I express my gratitude to my friends and col-
leagues especially Mayeesha Mariam, for her constant love, understanding
and encouraging words.
With regards to my experience a quote by Rumi sums it all up “As you
start to walk on the way, the way appears.”
xDedication
I dedicate my thesis to my loving parents, Zahoor Hussain Khan and
Halima Kar. I want to thank them for supporting me through thick and
thin and standing like a rock beside me.
xiChapter 1
Introduction
Smartphones continue to play a pivotal role in daily communications
with family and friends [6]. Besides voice calling, these devices offer connec-
tivity through other communication channels such as text messages, video
calls, and even virtual reality simulations of face-to-face interactions. More-
over, these devices provide easy access to information and help people with
their day-to-day activities. For instance, people use smartphones to ac-
cess their email, social media accounts, maps, news and other information.
Thus, the devices enable not only seamless communication without impos-
ing physical constraints but also allow access to information anywhere, any-
time. However, there is growing evidence that the convenience of smart-
phones (e.g., notifications and updates) can sometimes be counterproductive
and foster unwanted excessive device usage behavior [81, 99]. Additionally,
smartphones are typically considered to be personal devices where the ac-
tivities that are happening on them often remain unknown to co-located
people. Further, often people get absorbed into their “virtual interactions”,
thus ignoring or taking little notice of co-located persons (e.g., family mem-
bers) in the “real world” [45, 108].
Prior research explored smartphone overuse and its consequences [4, 60,
122]. Researchers have shown various negative effects associated with co-
located smartphone usage, especially among family members. They have
suggested that smartphone usage in the presence of family members can
sometimes negatively affect family relationships [51, 109, 123]. Additionally,
smartphone usage in the presence of one’s partner can sometimes contribute
to relationship dissatisfaction and frustration [97, 111]. To overcome such
situations, researchers investigated different strategies such as creating co-
located awareness [38, 57, 69], facilitate collaboration in group through smart
devices [31, 42, 59], and supporting face-to-face interaction while being co-
located [23, 52, 102]. These studies have shown promising results in bursting
the bubble created due to the smartphone usage thus, creating a sense of
togetherness and nurturing the social interaction.
There are extensive studies that highlight the smartphone usage pattern
in different groups such as teens [7], adults [44], college students [75] etc.
1Chapter 1. Introduction
However, only few studies talk about the smartphone usage behaviours in
couples [29, 88, 116]. These studies mostly support the data through con-
ducting qualitative studies such as interviews, questionnaires, and surveys.
Therefore, there is a lack of quantitative data to establish the smartphone
usage pattern among couples. To reduce the negative effects of excessive
smartphone usage, various strategies have been explored by the researchers
ranging from lock-out strategies [83, 124] to allowing users to monitor their
smartphone usage [65, 66, 140]. However, due to the lack of self-control from
users, the success of these strategies often became challenging [81]. Other
researchers aim at regulating smartphone usage as a group [18, 70] which
has received positive response as well. However, much less attention has
been devoted to possible solutions to mitigate smartphone overuse among
couples.
In this thesis, the aim was quantifying individual and co-located smart-
phone usage among couples and exploring the use of notifications as a means
to reduce couples’ smartphone usage activities. Consequently, two studies
were conducted where, in a two-week long first study, I investigated couples’
smartphone usage patterns such as what type of apps they use, how long
they use them, and the average usage duration, both when they were alone
and co-located. In the second follow-on four-week long user study, I explored
smartphone notifications as a medium to remind couples about the presence
of their partner and encouraged them to reduce their co-located smartphone
activities.
I developed two smartphone apps with the purpose of (i) logging couples’
smartphone usage behaviour (e.g., what apps they use, how long they use
the apps) and (ii) sending notifications on their smartphones to reduce their
smartphone usage when they were co-located. The app developed for the
first study was written as a background service and was capable of auto-
matically logging users’ smartphone usage activities. Thus, users used their
smartphone without any interference from the app. The second app devel-
oped for the second study was also written as a background service with
automatically logging smartphone usage activities. In addition, this app
sent a notification to the participants when they spent more than 5 minutes
continuously on their smartphone while being co-located with their partner.
Both the apps stored the smartphone usage activities of users in files in-
side their smartphone. As the research was interrupted due to COVID-19,
there were couples working from home (WFH) and not working from home
(NWFH). Thus, I provide the results in terms of WFH and NWFH couples.
My thesis makes the following contributions:
2Chapter 1. Introduction
− design and implementation of a smartphone app that tracks couples’
individual and co-located smartphone usage
− quantification of smartphone usage pattern among couples
− exploration of notifications as a way to reduce co-located smartphone
usage
− design guidelines for future research at nurturing co-located interper-
sonal interaction.
The chapters of this thesis are structured as follows. First, chapter 2
discusses the work related to smartphone usage statistics, merits and de-
merits of smartphone usage and their associated consequences. Chapter 2
also includes the work conducted on various strategies for increasing co-
located activity awareness and co-located communication, reducing smart-
phone over-use and smartphone notifications. Then, chapter 3 presents the
study goals, app design procedure, study design, participants, results and
discussions based on the results. Chapter 4 provides an overview of the
second study, including the goal, app design, study procedure and results.
Moreover, chapter 4 also discusses factors explored while designing the notifi-
cation. Chapter 5 discusses the recommendations to design similar strategies
that aim at reducing co-located smartphone activities. Chapter 6 includes
the limitations of the work and future work. Finally, chapter 7 provides a
conclusion.
3Chapter 2
Related Work
This section discusses prior research that focus on smartphone usage
statistics, merits and demerits of smartphone usage and their associated
consequences. In this section, I also review the work conducted on various
strategies for increasing co-located activity awareness and co-located com-
munication. Finally, I conclude with a discussion on previous literature on
mitigating smartphone over-usage as well as a review on smartphone notifi-
cations.
2.1 Smartphone Usage
2.1.1 To Stay Connected
Smartphones have reformed the ways we communicate with one another.
They have become a central part of our everyday lives by supporting con-
nections with friends and families that are far away [47, 77, 95]. Devitt et
al. [28] conducted a semi-structured interview with 60 families to explore
the merits and demerits of mobile phones in family communication. The
result showed that mobile phones played a key role in ensuring the safety
and whereabouts of family members. However, the demerits showed that
mobile phones often gave a false sense of security in youngsters in addition
to becoming addicted to it. Toke Christensen [20] conducted a qualitative
interview with families in Denmark to explore the role smartphones played
in closeness while the family members are physically separated. The results
suggested that the sense of togetherness was based on the calls and messages
exchanged between the family members. A study conducted with Taiwanese
college students by Wei et al. [134] made similar observations regarding the
use of cell phones providing a sense of togetherness and strengthening the
family bond.
Furthermore, smartphone use has transcended from being a connectivity
tool to maintaining security and safety [77] and social interaction. A study
by Ling et al. [79] proposed that the use of cell phones had two forms: social
interaction and expressive. Social interaction included phone calls done for
42.2. Smartphone Usage Studies
staying connected, safety and security whereas expressive forms of cell phone
usage included self-presentation and expressing one’s views.
2.1.2 Coordinating activities/Micro Coordination
Smartphones play a significant role in coordinating activities among im-
mediate family, friends as well as colleagues [77]. Brush et al. [11] in their
study showed how smart devices were used in a family dynamic by conduct-
ing a home visit to the 15 participating families. In these home visits they
conducted a demographic questionnaire followed by a sketching exercise,
tour around the house, and final interview. Their study result suggested
that family members often shared the use of technology such as computers,
and laptops in family setting. Martin Hand [46] argued that smartphones
were rendering devices like calendars, clocks, cameras as temporary devices
within every social context. They conducted a semi-structured interview to
explore how users coordinated and organized using their personal devices.
In their paper they highlighted the ways that the smartphone scheduling
applications often mediate in synchronizing daily life.
2.1.3 To Access Internet
Use of a smartphone to access internet services is becoming more and
more common. Internet-enabled phone activities include social networking,
online gaming, communication, shopping, and video watching anywhere [60,
133]. Nylander et al. [96] conducted a diary study and interview with 19
participants and found that most of the participants preferred use of internet
on cell phones rather than computers. The participants reported that they
found cell phones quicker and more accessible since they carried cell phones
with them most of the times. A survey conducted by Smith, Aaron [121]
suggested that most of the users preferred the use of cell phones for their
online activities. The use of the smartphone throughout the various home
settings has also been expanding into areas such as the kitchen, living room,
and even the bathroom [60].
2.2 Smartphone Usage Studies
As smartphones become more prominent, there has been growing re-
search in the recent decades exploring peoples’ smartphone usage pattern.
Böhmer et al. [10] conducted a large study with 4100 smartphone users to
52.2. Smartphone Usage Studies
explore their smartphone usage. They reported that users spent on an aver-
age 59.23 minutes per day on their phones and an app usage session lasted
for an average of 71.56 seconds. They also found that app usage time differs
extensively between app categories and also differs based on their location
and the time of the day. Falaki et al. [37] conducted a similar study with
255 smartphone users to explore their smartphone usage patterns. Their
results showed that the mean number of interaction with the smartphone
ranged between 10 to 200 per day and the number of applications used var-
ied between 10 to 90. Smartphone usage pattern has also been investigated
among older adults [44], teenagers [7], and students [4, 75].
Gordon et al. [44] investigated smartphone usage in older adults where
they found that older adults use fewer apps with long durations and their
phones were most active during early hours in a day. Bentley et al. [7] inves-
tigated smartphone usage patterns among teenagers where they showed that
this population group spent approximately 3 hours per day on their phone.
Their study results also revealed that teens were mostly active on their phone
in afternoon (between 3 pm and 5 pm) and in the evening (between 8 and 9
pm). Similarly, Lee et al. [75] conducted a study to investigate smartphone
usage among college students where they separated the participants into two
self-reported groups: risk group where participants use smartphones exces-
sively and non-risk group who use smartphones moderately. They observed
that the risk group spent more time (i.e., 253.0 minute per day) on their
smartphone than the non-risk group (207.0 minutes per day). In addition,
their results also indicated that the risk group had more online presence to
provide them with instant pleasure or engagement during their leisure.
Though smartphone usage has been extensively explored for different age
groups, few studies reported on couples’ smartphone use patterns. Salmela
et al. [116] explored the use of mobile devices (e.g., smartphone and tablets)
by couples in bed where 74% of participants reported using mobile devices in
the shared bed at least once a week and 18% reported using a shared smart-
phone or tablet together in bed. Other studies explored couple’s smartphone
usage in leisure and impact of the excessive use on the quality of relationship
[29, 89]. However, most of the studies were focusing on qualitative evalu-
ations through interviews or online questionnaire. Hence there is a lack of
quantitative data outlining smartphone usage among couples.
62.3. Consequences of Excessive Smartphone Use
2.3 Consequences of Excessive Smartphone Use
A number of studies analyzed smartphone over-usage and its conse-
quences. The unhealthy attachment with smartphones can lead to physical,
mental and emotional health issues in a person. The following sub-sections
discuss various research done on this subject.
2.3.1 Relationship Satisfaction
The use of smartphones have reformed the experience of a romantic rela-
tionship. They play a role of moderator when it comes to the interpersonal
relationship by providing easy communication to couples. This has drawn
the attention of the researchers on the impact that smartphone use has on re-
lationship satisfaction. Relationship satisfaction comes from the degree that
the partner feels that their desires and expectations are met [105]. Addi-
tionally, interpersonal communication between the partners is also identified
as one of the factors for relationship satisfaction [2].
The ever-increasing importance of smartphone has made it difficult to
separate our smartphone use from our relationships [17]. This has led to
the “partner phubbing” which is an amalgamation of two words “phone”
and “snubbing” [111] which means when one partner is ignoring the other
in favor of the smartphone usage when co-located [111]. Consequently, such
a behaviour makes smartphone users inattentive to the conversation result-
ing in mishearing information. As such, smartphone user often asks their
partner to repeat the information. Therefore, rendering the conversation
less qualitative and creating a feeling of neglect in their partner [53].
Roberts et al. [111] explored the impact of the partner phubbing on the
relationship satisfaction by conducting two studies. In the first study, they
developed a 9-item phubbing measure by conducting an exploratory factor
analysis on the pre-test survey data. The result from the first study showed
that the scale developed could be applicable to different demographic groups
and different stages of relationship. In their second study, the participants
responded to their 9 item scale as well as other cell phone conflict and
relationship satisfaction scale. The result showed that partner phubbing
resulted in conflict which had a negative impact on relationship satisfaction.
This often affected their personal well-being as well.
Coyne et al. [22] conducted a user study to explore how the differ-
ent types of technology (computer-mediated and non computer-mediated)
is used among romantic partners. They reported that there was a corre-
lation between a stable couple and family well-being. Wang et al. [132]
72.3. Consequences of Excessive Smartphone Use
conducted a study with 243 married Chinese adults to explore the indirect
effect of partner phubbing on mental well-being. The results showed that
partner phubbing had an indirect negative effect on the mental well-being
since partner phubbing had a negative effect on relationship satisfaction, and
relationship satisfaction had a negative effect on mental well-being. They
also investigated the role of relationship length in this indirect effect and
found that this indirect effect was more common in adults married for more
than 7 years.
Furthermore, Przybylski et al. [108] conducted two experimental studies
to explore the effect that the presence and absence of mobile phone had in
shaping the relationship quality in a dyadic setting in a laboratory. The aim
of the first experiment was to investigate the general effects that the pres-
ence of mobile phone had on the relationship between the participants. The
second experiment explored the effects that the presence of mobile phone
had on the relationship between the participants when having casual ver-
sus meaningful interactions. The results from both experiments suggested
that the presence of mobile phones had the potential to interfere with the
connections, quality of conversation, and closeness of a human relationship.
The displacement theory [22, 129] also highlighted how there is a decrease
in the quality of meaningful conversation with one’s partner because of the
distraction caused by the mobile phones. Oudour et al. [97] conducted a di-
ary study and interview to understand the merits and demerits of co-located
smartphone use on the human relationship. The participants in the study
identified the feeling of frustration associated with the family members to-
wards the non-urgent use of smartphone while co-located with others.
2.3.2 Social Disconnect
Smartphones have resulted in an increase in the social disconnectedness.
Dwyer et al.[32] conducted two studies to see the effect that the use of the
smartphone has on face-to-face conversations. In the first study, which is
conducted as a field experiment, they randomly assigned phone or phone-
less condition to the participants during a meal with friends or family. The
result of this study indicated that the use of the smartphone caused dis-
tractions and reduced the enjoyment of sharing the meal with friends and
family members. In the second study, they conducted a series of surveys
over the course of a week that enabled them to capture the correlation be-
tween the phone use and interactions across a broad range of social contexts.
The second study results also showed that the participants felt distracted
when they were in a face-to-face conversations setting due to the presence
82.3. Consequences of Excessive Smartphone Use
of smartphones. Overall, the two studies showed that the use of the smart-
phone had an indirect negative effect such as distractions, boredom, and
mood swings. An empirical study was conducted by Rotondi et al. [114]
over a period of 4 years to determine the effect of smartphone use on con-
versations. Their results showed that the quality of conversation seemed to
decline in the presence of the smartphone.
Tateno et al. [125] studied the smartphone and internet addiction among
Japanese young adults by using a questionnaire with 478 college/university
students where they found that the young adults spent more time online as
compared to connecting with people in the real-world. Muhammad et al.
[94] highlighted the role smartphone and iPad use plays in creating social
disconnectedness by presenting results from various related literary works.
Oduor et al. [97] conducted a user study consisting of survey, diary study
and final interview to explore the effects of smartphone usage when in pres-
ence of others such as family members, and friends. They reported that co-
located smartphone use often caused the partner feeling excluded and hence
isolated. However, they also showed that at times, co-located smartphone
usage was preferred in some situations such as looking up places to have din-
ner, and contributors in a conversation. Moreover, Richard Ling [78] argued
that the interactions through the smartphones are sometimes given prefer-
ence over currently occurring face-to-face conversations that result in the
dissociation and disconnection from the people who are co-located. Misra et
al. [91] showed that the constant use of smartphone diverted one’s attention
from the ongoing interpersonal interactions to the interactions happening on
the screen thus rendering face to face interaction useless. Thus, the presence
of smartphone could hinder social etiquette and change human behaviours
as a result [73, 123].
Enez et al. [35] conducted a study with 367 Turkish university students
to investigate if there existed a correlation between smartphone addiction,
social phobia and loneliness. The result suggested that both social anxiety
and loneliness were found to be related to excessive use of the smartphone.
Increase in the online social presence often seemed to result in the decrease
in social support which has detrimental effects on the person’s well-being
[50].
2.3.3 Impact on Parenting
Various studies have explored the smartphone usage pattern of parents
in presence of their children. Adair et al. [122] conducted a series of in-
terviews with the children and reported that children often observed when
92.3. Consequences of Excessive Smartphone Use
their parents were distracted because of the smartphone use. Thus, resulting
in the reduced emotional connections with their parents that has negative
effect on their cognitive and social development.
Radesky et al. [109] conducted an observational study in a restaurant
to report on how the parents and caregivers used their smartphone in the
presence of their children while having lunch. They noticed that the care-
takers had minimum social interactions with their children due to their use
of mobile phone. They also observed that the children took notice of their
parents and demanded attention by misbehaving. A study conducted by
Hiniker et al. [51] that consisted of a secret observation of caregivers (117
adult caregivers) at seven different playgrounds, semi-structured interview
(25 adult caregivers) and a final online survey (N=154 adult caregivers).
They found that the caregivers engaged in mobile phone while watching
children in the playground which cause a delay in their responses to their
children needs. Kevin Moran [93] conducted an observational study followed
by an online survey to examine the behaviors of parents of young children at
the beach. Their results showed that around 27% of the caregivers present
at the beach were distracted due to their smartphones. Simon et al. [120]
in their paper explored the reason behind the parent leaving their children
unsupervised while in the bathtub. The results indicated that attending to
their smartphone was one of the many other reasons that contributed to this
action.
Hawi et al. [49] revealed an indirect relationship between smartphone
addiction and family relations and emphasized the need of developing strate-
gies to educate parents and children about the severances caused because
of smartphone addictions. McDaniel et al. [88] conducted an online survey
with 213 mothers having at least a child of age 3 years or younger to in-
vestigate their acknowledgement of the technology interference while caring
for kids, its frequency and effect on co-parenting. The results showed that
the frequency of interference from smartphone was greater in comparison
to other devices such as computers/laptops. Furthermore, they found that
playtime was often disrupted more in comparison to other activities with
their child because of the presence of technology. Kildare et al. [63] explored
the effect that the distractions caused due to smartphone use by parents had
on the parent-child relationships. Their paper highlighted that when chil-
dren noticed their parents distracted due to the smartphone, they would
often adopt dangerous attention-seeking behaviours. They also showed that
the use of the smartphone was often one of the contributing factors in family
conflict and tension. Alixandra Blackman [9] reported that children often
copy the behaviour of their parents and as such there was a positive rela-
102.3. Consequences of Excessive Smartphone Use
tionship between the parents’ screen time and children screen time. They
also found that parents were often non-responsive and distracted while on
their phones
Kushlev et al. [73] conducted two studies to explore whether smart-
phones use caused parents to distract thus resulting in compromising the
benefits of spending time with their children. The first study was a field ex-
periment conducted at a science museum in which they randomly assigned
the parents to either use their phones frequently or limit their phone use.
The first study result showed that the parents who were asked to use their
phone frequently were often distracted that affected the time they were
spending with their children. In the second study, they conducted a series
of surveys over the course of a week in a broad range of social contexts.
The result of their second study further proved that smartphones caused
distractions that resulted in undermining the enjoyment that they would
get by spending time with their children.
2.3.4 Lack of concentration
Various studies have shown that constant use of smartphone could im-
pede the concentration level thereby affecting the productivity. For instance,
Duke et al. [141] conducted a questionnaire to investigate whether there
existed any correlation between smartphone addiction, interruptions due to
smartphone, and productivity during working. They reported in their paper
that the constant use of smartphone resulted in less productivity at work-
place as well as at home. In a similar study, Montag et al. [92] reported
on decrease in productivity due to the smartphone and internet use. Other
studies have also reported that the use of smartphone at work could be one
of the factors in the decrease in productivity while working [30, 128, 131].
Interruptions due to the smartphones at times makes it hard to attain
a state of flow [110]. People have also developed a constant need to check
their smartphones even when they are not triggered by any external stimuli
(such as a notification) which makes smartphones persuasive [100]. Vari-
ous studies highlighted that though the use of smartphones could benefit
students; at the same time, the excess and unwanted use of smartphones
have a detrimental effect [12, 48, 61]. Samaha et al. [117] through an online
survey questionnaire with 300 university students reported that smartphone
addiction had a negative effect on academic performance and affected life
satisfaction as well.
112.3. Consequences of Excessive Smartphone Use
2.3.5 Mental and Physical Health issues
Excessive smartphone use is a serious issue which has negative effects
not only on a person’s behaviour but also sense of well-being. Excessive
smartphone usage could also contribute to the depression, loneliness and
sleep disturbances [35, 43]. A study by Lee et al. [74] used self-reported
questionnaires with 370 middle school students and suggested that smart-
phone addiction displayed itself in the form of preoccupation, lack of control,
withdrawal, mood modification, conflict, lies, and loss of interest. Another
similar study conducted by Alhassan et al. [3] also showed that an interre-
lation between smartphone addiction and depression.
Various studies have also highlighted a correlation between the smart-
phone addiction and negative well-being [86, 117]. Continuous use of tech-
nology is related to increase in psychological stress [17]. It was reported
that high levels of smartphone addiction had a positive relationship with
low self-esteem, loneliness, depression and shyness [8]. A study conducted
by Demirci et al. [26] reported the excessive use of smartphone among
university students resulted in depression, anxiety and poor sleep quality.
Thomée et al. [126] studied the compulsive smartphone usage behaviour
and found that it often affected mental health causing sleep disturbances
and depression. A study conducted by Lee et al. [76] with 325 Taiwanese
respondents, found that the compulsive smartphone usage has a negative
impact on user’s mental health.
We have seen in the earlier section how the use of smartphone leads to
relationship dissatisfaction. Researchers have reported that there is a direct
relationship between the personal well-being and relationship satisfaction.
According to Proulx et al. [107] frequent marital disputes tends to reduce
the spousal support and hence could lead to risk of stress and depression.
Various studies supported the claim that relationship satisfaction has a di-
rect relationship with the personal well-being [13, 103, 135]. Some other
psychological problems include Nomophobia (the fear of being without a
phone) [39], Phantom Vibration Syndrome (checking of phone frequently)
[113] and Textaphrenia (the fear of not sending or receiving any text from
someone due to weak signals and poor network) [130].
There are various physiological concerns related with the over-use of
smartphone ranging from musculoskeletal disorders to ocular discomfort and
disorders (itching eye, burning eye, dry-eye, blurred vision, double vision)
to headache to sleep-disturbances to exposure to the electromagnetic radia-
tions.
122.4. Co-located Activity Awareness and Interaction
2.4 Co-located Activity Awareness and
Interaction
There have been various studies related to encouraging the co-located
face-to-face interaction. One approach is to provide awareness about the
users’ activities to the co-located people through public or semi-public dis-
plays such as the work by Jarusriboonchai et al. [57] explored the use of
additional displays attached to the back of the smartphone to make the
co-located people aware of the users mobile activities. They conducted a
10-day field study with 13 participants and found that the display helped
in creating awareness to the co-located people about the user’s activities
and often triggered conversations. Cowan et al. [21] explored the use of
projectors attached to the mobile phones to increase the chances of face-
to-face interactions by making user’s mobile activity visible. Consequently,
they conducted an in-the-wild four week long study with 10 participants.
Their study showed that such projectors had potential to create a sense of
togetherness by sharing information and activities with the co-located peo-
ple. Kleinman et al. [69] developed a software that displayed the texts and
images on the outer screen of a two-screen laptop. They evaluated their de-
sign through an exploratory study and found that it helped in bridging the
gap between the user and the co-located people and enhanced the chances
of face to face interaction. The work by Lucero et al. [84] explored the use
of a large public display for sharing a comic strip with co-located people.
Their result showed that people enjoyed such an activity and it influenced
social interaction between them. The use of public displays for collaborative
photography between co-located people was also explored by Kim et al. [64].
They found that their approach promoted group awareness and encouraged
group coordination.
There has also been research to increase chances of face-to-face interac-
tions with co-located strangers such as Seeburger et al. [119] who developed
a mobile application called Capital Music that provided a way for sharing
music choices with co-located strangers and a channel to comment about the
music to create interactions between co-located strangers. They conducted
a study to explore its implication on co-located interaction. The results
showed that it helped in creating a sense of community between strangers.
Cuotto et al. [23] also studied the face-to-face interaction between co-located
strangers by implementing idliketoknow, a mobile application that allowed
anonymous interaction with nearby people. A similar work in this domain
by Paasovaara et al. [102] showed the increase in the face-to-face interac-
132.5. Mitigating Smartphone Over Usage
tions between strangers with the help of their prototype that nudged the
interactions through gamification. Some researchers have explored use of
collaborative games to engage social interactions among co-located people
such as Huang et al. [52] who explored the use of stitching the different
mobile phones to play games with co-located people. They found that it en-
hanced the social interaction among users. Paasovaara et al. [101] explored
how location-based mobile phone games encourage co-located social inter-
action between people by conducting an online survey. The results showed
that the game design contributed to the chances of social interaction be-
tween players such as some games allowed exchanging information in the
idle time during game play.
Furthermore, there are various researchers aiming at enhancing the inter-
personal interaction or to collectively engage families in co-located activities
which could result in meaningful and engaging interactions. Romero et al.
[112] explored the use of an awareness system for domestic setting. As
such they developed a system called ASTRA, that connected all the devices
present in the household to promote awareness of activity among the family
members. To evaluate their system, they conducted a two-week user study
with 2 families and found that it helped families to stay in touch with each
other. They also reported that there was an increase in device activity
awareness, and it created a sharing experience as a family. Christensen et
al. [19] also contributed in creating a shared experience for the families
that could help in promoting togetherness and increase their bond. Yuill et
al. [139] explored the design of app on an iPad to create a shared space to
create and co-create drawings in a family setting. Their result showed the
devices such as iPads had a potential to be used for a variety of collaborative
activities as they allowed a smooth transition between individual and group
activities. Ferdous et al. [40] developed TableTalk, as system that combined
the personal devices into a single shared display during mealtime. Their
results showed that it helped in triggering conversations, increased their
bond thus, made a positive impact on their time together.
2.5 Mitigating Smartphone Over Usage
There have been various solutions explored by industry and academia
aiming to reduce smartphone overuse [83, 85, 118]. For instance, there are
different app-based solutions available in the market allowing users to mon-
itor their smartphone usage [83, 124] and limiting smartphone app access
after a certain amount of time [65, 66, 140]. However, the success of these
142.6. Smartphone Notification
strategies, in many cases, has proved to be challenging due to the lack of
users’ self-regulation. For instance Löchtefeld et al. [81] designed an app
that allowed users to create rules to restrict smartphone usage. They found
that users frequently broke rules that they had set before.
Researchers also showed that teenagers and young children are often
susceptible to smartphone addiction due to their low self-regulation [16,
54]. Consequently, there have been notable efforts in exploring various ap-
proaches regulating smartphone use through parental mediation. The study
conducted by Chang et al. [16] showed that the parent-child relationship
and the way parents restrict the smartphone use plays important role in
prevention against the smartphone addiction in children. A similar work by
Hwang et al. [54] also suggested that parental mediation could be beneficial
in preventing the negative impact caused by smartphones. Various apps
aiming at regulating the smart-phone usage through parental mediation in-
clude using remote monitoring and remote locking such as KidsManager
[142], xKeeper [58], Parental Control [36] and using remote locking apps
such as Kids Zone [104], Qustodio [80], and Parental Control Kroha [72].
Researchers also explored the use of intervention apps to limit smart-
phone usage in a group. For instance, Ko et al. [71] designed an app for
group-based intervention to regulate smartphone usage during activities such
as when studying and chatting. With a user study, they showed that the
app helped reduce smartphone usage time. Reducing smartphone use in a
group has also been explored by Choi et al. [18] where they used an ambient
design technology to gently intervene when anyone in the group was using
their smartphone. Their study results showed that the constant reminders
helped users to become more careful with their smartphone usage in a group
setting. In a similar study, Ko et al. [70] showed that participants coordi-
nated their activities better with others and felt like a unit when smartphone
usage was regulated in a group setting. These study results highlighted the
importance of having solutions that regulated smartphone usage both in
individual and group settings.
2.6 Smartphone Notification
Smartphone notifications are commonly used to provide users with infor-
mation such as reminders, information on the incoming emails or messages,
and system updates [27]. Notifications are considered as a direct line of
communication with people by sending real-time updates and reminders
that facilitates a strong engagement. Notifications are generally displayed
152.6. Smartphone Notification
in the notification bar which is located at the top of the smartphone screen.
Smartphone applications also rely on notification to grab attention of the
users such as reminding them of offers (like shopping apps, gaming apps).
A user is alerted about a notification arrival via sounds, vibrations accom-
panied by icons or badges of the app that the notification is from.
Notifications are commonly triggered either by apps or system. The
number of notifications depends on the apps users’ are using and other rel-
evant factors. Pielot et al. [106] on the mobile phone notifications with
15 participants by installing an app Notification Monitor. The app ran as
a background service and logged information related to notifications such
as the number of notifications received by the participants, when users re-
ceived notifications and, actions taken related to the notifications. Their
results revealed that participants received an average of 65.3 notifications
per day with a majority of notifications from apps related to communica-
tion such as WhatsApp, and email. Another study conducted by Sahami
et al. [115] collected information on the mobile phone notifications that
consisted of quantitative (i.e., logging notifications) as well as a qualitative
data (subjective feedback and comments from participants). Their study
showed that users received most notification from apps that belonged to
communication (messenger, SMS) and reminders (calendar). Their results
also revealed that the source of the notification (such as system, type of
the app) was considered to be a factor in determining the importance of an
incoming notification. Similar studies also revealed that some notifications
were given more preference than others such as notifications received from
messaging applications and updates on people or events (e.g. news) were
given importance over notifications received from system (e.g battery low or
download completed) [82, 90].
Prior research also showed that notifications are often considered to be
disruptive. For instance, with a study, Czerwinski et al. [25] concluded that
interruptions due to notifications made it difficult for workers to return to
their work. Similarly, Cutrell et al. [24] conducted a study to explore the
effects of the notifications on the participants’ performance and memory.
They observed that the disruption due to notifications had more effect on
cognitively demanding tasks. Though notifications were considered disrup-
tive users often welcome the awareness on activities (e.g., reminder, email)
that they provided [55, 85].
Smartphone usage is often triggered due to the incoming notifications
[97]. Consequently, various research aimed at reducing the notification such
as Okoshi et al. [98] conducted a three-week long study with 687,840 users.
Their study results showed that the response time to incoming notifications
162.6. Smartphone Notification
reduced when notifications were delayed to a more appropriate time of the
day. Iqbal et al. [55] conducted a field study with 20 users for two weeks
to explore the notification usage preference and to reduce email notification
overload. Their study results showed that users kept frequently checking for
any notifications; as such disabling notifications to minimise the disruption
could prove to be counterproductive. Figueroa et al. [41] developed an
app named FamilyTime to limit smartphone usage in a family. The app
sent a notification to the users if they spent more than 10 minutes on their
smartphone via one of the features of the app called App Disrupt.
Prior research showed that people use smartphone activities when they
are co-located with their family member. However, none of the prior work
quantified smartphone usage among couples who often spend a significant
portion of their time in co-location. Hence, in this thesis, I tried to quantify
the smartphone usage pattern among couples when they are co-located and
when they are not around each other. Additionally, researchers revealed
a need for solutions to mitigate the negative impacts of smartphone usage
among close ones. However, not many studies have focused on mitigating
smartphone overuse in couples. Therefore, in this thesis, I leverage smart-
phone notifications to reduce co-located smartphone usage among couples.
17Chapter 3
Study 1
The goal of this study was to gain insights into couples’ smartphone
usage when they are alone and co-located with their partner. Relation-
ship satisfaction is a vital factor in building a healthy and nurturing family
dynamics. Prior research suggests that co-located smartphone usage could
lead to frustrations among couples and could have a negative impact on their
relationships [97]. Consequently, in the studies, I only focus on exploring
smartphone usage among couples rather than including other family mem-
bers such as their children or parents. In the context of this thesis, a couple
is defined as a co-located couple when they are in close proximity, i.e., within
100m from each other. I acknowledge that couples could be co-located either
in a face-to-face setting (e.g., both are in the same room in the same house)
or a non-face-to-face setting (e.g., they are in different rooms, however, lo-
cated in the same house). However, it is difficult to detect all these settings
through smartphones without any additional instrumentation. As such, I
only focus on distance-based co-location and leave the exploration of other
co-located settings as future work.
Figure 1: An icon is always visible in the status bar to indicate the app’
status
Note that I started the studies in January 2020; however, data collec-
tion had to be stopped from March to June 2020 due to the COVID-19
pandemic. This was done to ensure that the data was not biased as other
183.1. App Design
researchers have pointed to increased smartphone usage during the early
pandemic months [68]. The data collection was resumed in July 2020 as the
Canadian government declared Phase 3 of re-opening (i.e., opening malls,
offices, restaurants, etc.) [5]. Of course, there is a chance that because
many people remained working from home after July 2020, the amount of
co-located phone usage was higher than pre-pandemic times.
3.1 App Design
I developed an Android app to track couples’ smartphone usage in the
presence of each other. The app is compatible with Android version 7.0 (API
level 14) and above. I wanted the app to be less intrusive so that participants
would be able to use their smartphones without any interference from the
app. Therefore, the app was written as a background service to collect
the required information from smartphones. Figure 1 and figure 2 show
screenshots from the app.
Figure 2: Once the user drags down the notification bar, it shows details
information about the app
Once the app is installed and started on the smartphone, it continues
running in the background even if the phone is restarted. The app auto-
matically logs the following information on files inside the smartphones:
3.1.1 Installed apps on the phone:
I used Android’s Activity Manager to record the list of apps that are
installed on smartphones. It included both system applications that were
pre-installed on the smartphone (e.g., Google Play Store) and non-system
applications that were installed by the users either from Google Play Store
or through an APK file (e.g., Angry Birds).
193.1. App Design
Figure 3: App interface showing the permissions and other features of the
app
3.1.2 GPS coordinates:
Google’s Location Service API [27] was used to obtain smartphone users’
GPS coordinates (i.e, latitudes and longitudes). Whenever there was a
change in users’ location, the GPS coordinates were updated automatically
based on the user’s new locations.
3.1.3 Currently running apps:
Android’s Activity Manager was used to detect the app that was cur-
rently in use on users’ smartphone. Along with the app name, my app
also recorded date and time, latitudes and longitudes associated with apps
203.2. Participants
to establish the launches of each application combined with the time and
location that the application was active in.
3.1.4 Lock/Unlock events:
I used Android’s Keyguard manager to detect whether the phone was
unlocked or locked. This data enabled me to observe information about
whether a phone is in active use or not.
3.1.5 App duration:
An application session started when the user launched an application
and ended when the user closed the application, or when they pushed the
app to the background, or turned off the screen. This information was used
to calculate the total duration of app use.
All the above information was stored on the participants’ smartphone in
several files. For instance, the app stored participants’ aggregated smart-
phone app usage data in a file. Additionally, to ensure that I can simu-
late participants’ smartphone usage pattern, advanced information such as
aggregated data, and locked/unlocked information about the smartphones
were recorded every second. Note that my app did not collect details such
as the content shared within apps or data about who the participants were
communicating with, etc. Additionally, though the app does not require
any user interface, I created one to control the app (e.g., stop the service or
restart the service) or perform data management activities (e.g., export the
data from the smartphone to researchers) as shown in Figure 3.
3.2 Participants
I started recruiting participants before COVID-19, however, I had to stop
running the study due to the pandemic. I recruited 14 couples (13 male-
female couples, and 1 female-female couple) from various locations across
North America. Before COVID-19, I used on-campus flyers and advertise-
ments on online classified advertising services (e.g., Kijiji [62], Castanet [15])
to recruit participants. However, after the Phase 3 re-opening, I posted the
advertisements online. I only recruited those couples who were living to-
gether to ensure that they were co-located with their partners at least some
portion of every day. Six couples were married, and 8 were living together
(mean relationship length 7.9 years). Out of the 14 couples, 8 were working
from home due to the pandemic, 4 lived in homes with at least one child.
21You can also read
