Quality and Quantity: The Role of Gratification and Situation Variety when Measuring Mobile Media Use

Abstract

Mobile media use is usually measured through its quantity, particularly duration, in research. We argue that this approach overlooks how people use these versatile and complex devices. In this article, we explore the role of the variety of gratifications and situations as indicators of mobile media use quality. To investigate whether these dimensions can contribute to the measurement of mobile media use, we validate them against mobile vigilance. Using three waves of data (3,194 questionnaires) from a representative sample of 1,525 Spanish emerging adults (aged 19–25), we estimated a Multilevel Structural Equation Model. Our findings reveal that the variety of gratifications and situations are more strongly related to mobile vigilance an indicator of the relevance of mobile media in daily life than duration is. We advocate for considering both quantity and quality when measuring mobile media use to gain a deeper understanding of its dynamics and close relationship with mobile vigilance.