As poor mental health levels rise, technology may provide healing and personal growth for people by affording them non-ordinary states of consciousness.This doctoral research will investigate the potential for Multi-Sensory Extended Reality (MSXR) to induce Peak Experiences (PEs) and altered states of consciousness (ASCs), contributing to therapeutic innovation and user engagement in interactive media.Drawing on Abraham Maslow's humanistic framework, and notions of PE, this study will explore whether immersive experiences combining sound, vision, and somatic interaction can evoke transformative states of consciousness and moments of PE.Using a qualitative phenomenological design, the project will capture participants' lived experiences through MSXR engagements and investigates perceived therapeutic benefits.By positioning MSXR within human-centred computing and Digitally Induced Altered States of Consciousness (DIAL), this research aims to expand the role of immersive technologies in mental health interventions, contributing to the fields of counselling psychology, interactive media, and consciousness studies.

Human interactions are guided by rules, guidelines, and social norms-a tacit understanding of what is adequate in a given context.With interactions being increasingly digitally mediated, understanding how behavior is regulated in these environments becomes imperative.In this paper, we provide an overview of the literature on netiquette and how usage of the term developed over time.We then present findings from five exploratory focus groups, discussing general characteristics of netiquette, how users acquire and adapt netiquette, as well as the social dynamics associated with netiquette.Findings suggest that netiquette dynamically interacts with social, psychological, and environmental factors.We thus propose integrating the netiquette literature with research on social norms and conceptualize netiquette as digital social norms.The paper identifies five areas for further research that will deepen our understanding of how netiquette evolves, how it is perceived by users, and how it impacts their everyday experiences.

Abstract Since the advent of social media, capturing and holding the attention of people has become paramount for the success of products, political messages and even research. The economics of attention is often seen as part of the market economy. We argue that a larger societal transformation is underway, which will see attention become the defining currency that moves individuals, exchanges, and many other elements of society. This paper connects the attention economy to the institutional foundations of modernity. It then discusses how attention can be accumulated and exchanged like a currency and proposes a dual-stream model distinguishing between calcified and flow attention. Based on this model, we investigate recent developments facilitating the use of attention as a currency, and their potential impact on our daily lives more generally. We conclude by providing an outlook and concrete questions for future research to understand where the economics of attention economy is heading.

Smartphone use usually refers to what happens after users unlock their devices. But a large number of smartphone interactions actually take place on the lock screen of the phone. This paper presents evidence from a mixed-methods study using a situated video-ethnography technique (SEBE) and a dataset of over 200h of first-person and interview recordings with 221 unique lock screen checks (n=41). We find eight categories contextual antecedents to locked smartphone use that influence the nature and the content of the subsequent smartphone interaction. Overall, locked smartphone use emerges as a means to structure the flow of daily activities and to balance between not getting too distracted and not experiencing fomo (the fear of missing out). It also appears as highly habitualised, which can cause over-use and disruption. Based on this analysis, we provide recommendations on how intervention and design approaches can leverage differences in context and purpose of locked smartphone use to improve user experience.