This mixed-methods study investigates whether online vigilance promotes mental fatigue, and whether this effect is greater when under pressure to be available online. Additionally, it examines whether passively sensed smartphone behavior can serve as a digital proxy for online vigilance. Data were collected from 1,315 adult participants, who received 84 experience sampling questionnaires over 14 days, providing 67,762 usable datapoints on individuals’ perceptions of momentary online vigilance, mental fatigue, and availability pressure. Additionally, the smartphone use of 834 participants was passively monitored. Findings revealed both a momentary and lagged association between self-reported online vigilance and self-reported mental fatigue. Availability pressure was not a significant moderator, but did predict mental fatigue directly and indirectly, by promoting online vigilance. We found behavioral smartphone use features were weakly associated with self-reported online vigilance and mental fatigue. Overall, this study provides initial support that online vigilance may play a role in the development of mental health conditions such as burnout via its tendency to promote one of its precursors, mental fatigue.

中文翻译：

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互联但认知枯竭？一项混合方法研究，探讨在线警惕性和可用性压力是否会导致精神疲劳

这项混合方法研究调查了在线警惕是否会导致精神疲劳，以及在面临上网压力时这种影响是否更大。此外，它还研究了被动感知的智能手机行为是否可以作为在线警惕的数字代理。数据收集自 1,315 名成年参与者，他们在 14 天内收到了 84 份体验抽样调查问卷，提供了 67,762 个关于个人对瞬时在线警惕性、精神疲劳和可用性压力的看法的可用数据点。此外，834 名参与者的智能手机使用情况受到被动监控。调查结果显示，自我报告的在线警惕性和自我报告的精神疲劳之间存在短暂且滞后的关联。可用性压力并不是一个重要的调节因素，但确实可以通过提高在线警惕性来直接和间接预测精神疲劳。我们发现智能手机使用行为特征与自我报告的在线警惕性和精神疲劳关系较弱。总体而言，这项研究提供了初步支持，即网络警惕性可能通过其促进其前兆之一——精神疲劳——而在精神健康状况（例如倦怠）的发展中发挥作用。