{
  "abstract": "Digital media refers to smartphone use, social media, video-gaming and artificial intelligence among other forms, which are becoming increasingly integrated across platforms. Whilst there are widely recognised benefits, their documented harms, especially pre-adulthood, are leading to statutory restrictions across the world. For most adult users exempt from any bans, it is critical to understand the contexts and vulnerabilities within which digital media use is experienced as problematic, to inform individual, community and device-focused interventions. We critically review contemporary research and theories to develop an integrative model across digital media based on perceptual control theory. Through conceptualising digital media as a closed-loop extension of the self via hyper-efficient, dynamically adaptive and digitally amplified feedback pathways, we illustrate the mechanisms through which restricted attention utilises neural reorganisation to entrench habitual control. This entails a range of additional vicious cycles maintaining distress. As an exit from this state, we specify the factors that support the development and maintenance of a mindset of metacontrol flexibility (MCF) associated with tolerance of goal conflict and the effective use of fringe consciousness. The seeds of the MCF are the diverse opportunities to attend to, and meet, basic needs via restorative factors in the offline world.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 7,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Warren mansell"
    },
    {
      "name": "Amy Mowle"
    },
    {
      "name": "Louis Trouchet"
    },
    {
      "name": "Mehdi Zemestani"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jason Sharbanee"
    },
    {
      "name": "Tauseef Gulrez"
    },
    {
      "name": "Danielle Einstein"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a8jadnn6svwar.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.31234/osf.io/kdyc3_v1",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "a8jadnn6svwar",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/kdyc3_v1/",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "bepress",
      "Industrial and Organizational Psychology"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Innovation and Technology"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Neuroscience"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Psychiatry"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Social and Behavioral Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3312|Impact of Technology on Adolescents"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7204768542",
  "pdf_url": "https://osf.io/kdyc3/download",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-08-31",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a8jadnn6svwar.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:26:41Z",
      "native_id": "kdyc3",
      "source": "osf",
      "url": "https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/kdyc3_v1/"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "bepress:Neuroscience",
      "subfield": "neuroscience"
    },
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "bepress:Psychiatry",
      "subfield": "psychiatry"
    }
  ],
  "title": "The Conflict Device: A Control Theory Model of Problematic Digital Media Use",
  "title_text": "The Conflict Device: A Control Theory Model of Problematic Digital Media Use",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:26:41Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/a8jadnn6svwar",
  "venue": "PsyArXiv",
  "versions": []
}