Information behavior patterns and subjective digital well‐being: An exploratory study on perceptions of adults living in Germany

This exploratory study examines patterns of digital information behaviors such as information seeking, use, sharing, evaluation, avoidance, and curation to determine how they relate to subjective digital well‐being. To explore adults' personal views on their digital well‐being, conceptualized here as subjective digital well‐being, this study examines individuals' emotional responses to specific lived experiences with digital information. Semi‐structured online interviews were conducted with 19 participants aged 18 to 67. The interviews incorporated activities with visual elements in Miro to stimulate reflection. Deductive and inductive coding were applied during analysis. The findings revealed that depending on the individual's experiential context, digital information behaviors elicit positive, negative, and ambivalent emotional responses, which affect subjective digital well‐being. For example, information avoidance can be an intuitive or strategic response to manage information (over)load and regulate negative emotions, supporting digital well‐being. Furthermore, curating digital information collections constitutes a means of regaining or sustaining subjective digital well‐being. The study adds to theoretical knowledge that agency and self‐regulation function as scaffolding mechanisms in digital information seeking, sharing, use, and evaluation, enabling individuals to build information resilience in digital enviornments, which in turn contributes to achieving and sustaining subjective digital well‐being.