Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The steady increase in time spent on smartphone applications and particularly on social networks, raises questions about the environmental and societal sustainability of such a phenomenon. Utility and enjoyment have a key role in such practices, but other factors such as passing time may also contribute. From May to November 2023, 5,028 people took part in a web survey aiming at producing durations prospectively using mobile applications like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reading. The protocol introduces variables known to have an effect on time perception. On average, the produced durations were underestimated. This result is in line with the notion that tracking information and tracking time compete for the brain's limited attentional resources and, hence, that attention plays a critical role in time estimation. Significant differences emerged between the applications tested. TikTok and Reading tasks appear the most underestimate but with opposite dynamics as the level of satisfaction and familiarity are lower for the first compared to the former. Among the variables studied to explain the difficulties in evaluating time spent, the importance of familiarity with the activity is undoubtedly something worth exploring in the context of the race between new algorithms and cognitive adaptability.