The aim of the presentation is to give a first insight into the mixed-methods design and the data of the research project “Excessive Digital Practices in the Late Youth (Exis)”, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project is conducted at the University of Cologne (Germany) from September 2024 to August 2027.

In the course of the social transformation process of deep mediatization (Hepp, 2020), more and more areas of life are being permeated by digital media. The self-regulatory limitation of digital media practices is becoming a serious problem for part of the population. The field of research in which this problem is addressed is characterized by its international and interdisciplinary focus. A dominance of studies from the Asian cultural area as well as research in the fields of addiction medicine and psychology can be observed (see also Duong et al., 2020). In our project the phenomenon of excessive media use is explored from an educational science respectively media pedagogical perspective. We are interested in how excessiveness is embedded in social, medial and biographical contexts and - in relation to the practical implications - which educational support requirements exist. This is based on an expanded definition of the concept of excessiveness compared to the concepts of addiction research. We understand criteria of addiction research such as mental absorption, withdrawal symptoms, tolerance development and unsuccessful attempts at abstinence (APA, 2013) as indications of a prevailing problem. From our perspective, however, the focus is on the problem perception of individuals themselves and/ or their social environment and the negative consequences for the lives of those affected (Smahel et al., 2012; Mikuska et al., 2020).

The following research questions are being addressed in the project:

1. How are excessive practices and episodes embedded in the structuring of everyday life?
2. How has the excessiveness of digital-media practice characterised the course of life?
3. What role does the intergenerational relationship play in the development and attribution of excessive media practices?
4. How is agency distributed between medium and person?

In this way, we illuminate various facets of a media biographical perspective and at the same time try to understand excessive practices as a socio-material phenomenon with a more materiality- and mediality-conscious approach. 

As the labelling of excessive media use is based on culture-, time- and generation-dependent notions of normality, the conceptualization of the research subject of excessive use must be sensitive to its changeability and context dependency. We therefore adopt a theoretical foundation that is based on societal analysis as well as youth and generational theory and also takes into account the implicit examination of norms and expectations. The praxeological perspective we have adopted also requires us to ask decidedly about the How. Besides the theories and interpretations of the researched persons regarding their own way of life, we focus on the experiential knowledge (Erfahrungswissen), which reveals the structures of their everyday social behavior (Bohnsack, 2010).

The presentation will focus in particular on the methodological potential and challenges of mixed methods designs (Green, 2007) in the research field addressed. So far, quantitative studies have dominated the field of research. In our study, however, we fruitfully combine qualitative and quantitative methods to answer the research questions through multi-perspectivity (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 2010). The focus here is on a theory-generating qualitative approach. Mixed methods studies which require a creative approach (Creamer & Schoonenboom, 2018) have also become increasingly important in the field of educational science in recent years (e.g. Hennessy et al., 2018; Klaß & Gläser-Zikuda, 2019; Scales et al., 2020).

The sample consists of 25 to 30 people aged 19 to 22 who have participated annually in the Germany-wide standardized questionnaire surveys of the longitudinal study “Trajectories of Excessive Internet Use in Families” (VEIF) (Wartberg et al. 2021) since 2015. For our project, we recruited from this sample those people who were identified as having indications of problematic internet use, internet gaming disorder and/or social media disorder based on different operationalizations in the questionnaires. With regard to the systematization of different mixed methods designs, a distinction can be made between parallel and sequential approaches (Schoonenboom & Johnson, 2017). The present study is conceived as a sequential design. The qualitative study based on the quantitative VEIF surveys. The innovative strength of the study lies in the multimodal-mixed methods-design, which not only mixes quantitative and qualitative results, but also uses different methods (see below) within the qualitative approach. A selection of the quantitative VEIF data is described in a cross-sectional and longitudinal descriptive manner with the aim of obtaining an overview of the intensity of the problem and making the severity of the excessive episodes’ tangible. In addition, narratives are formulated on the basis of the quantitative longitudinal data, initially independently of the qualitative data, and interpreted with regard to the role of the family and peer group, well-being and significant experiences. As part of the qualitative setting, the participants reconstruct their daily routine and media use using app-based media diaries, which they fill out for a week. In-depth biographical-narrative interviews, including a software-based laying technique, are carried out. The analysis is conducted using the documentary method (Bohnsack, 2010). The results of both approaches are systematically correlated with each other. This focuses on the question of how the biographical (remembered) narratives can be related to the quantitative data. In doing so, the comparison contributes to the question of how biographical narratives are formed. Conversely, gaps regarding factual stages and experiences of lived life in the biographical narratives can be filled using the quantitative data. In this way, both approaches form synergies that contribute to a profound understanding of the phenomenon (Schoonenboom & Johnson, 2017). While biographical survey methods are suitable for questions that aim for a comprehensive and non-reductionist insight into the social environments and personal perspectives of subjects in their temporal constitution (Vollbrecht, 2019), longitudinal studies like the VEIF survey capture individual transformations over a longer period of time (Field, 2011).

In the talk, we would like to report empirical results and practical scientific experiences both at the level of the research subject and at the methodological level. By then, initial analyses of the quantitative and qualitative data will have been accomplished. With regard to the object of research: By integrating both methodological strands, blind spots in the quantitative data are outlined through a biographical approach with its high degree of openness, detail and contextualization. The study reveals behavioral orientations (Handlungsorientierungen) and patterns and thereby identifies conditions that influence the development, maintenance or overcoming of excessive media use. In doing so, media diaries help to understand how the research subjects structure their everyday lives. The media biographical interviews trace the individual life course structures and provide an insight into how excessive phases are subjectively processed and reflected upon. The result of the laying technique used in the interview provides information about individual media repertoires and their relevance. The research approach thus enables a profound multi-perspective understanding of the phenomenon. Based on our empirical findings, we aim to identify indications for various pedagogical fields of action. Methodological: In times of digitality, the methodological approaches of qualitative educational and biographical research also require further development in order to integrate human and non-human entities. Therefore, methodological approaches to practices are needed that go beyond pure interviews. With our multimodal-mixed methods-design, we want to show how relations between people and media can be reconstructed by combining app-based media diaries and interviews and integrating digital artifacts. Research on excessive media use is dominated by (cross-sectional) questionnaire studies. The project presented here is intended to expand the existing discourse through the mixed-methods approach.

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