Evaluating technology engagement in the time of COVID-19: the Technology Engagement Scale

ABSTRACT

Our lives have drastically changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have replaced other media as the primary means of work, communication, expression, and entertainment throughout this time. As society's reliance on technology increases throughout and possibly after the pandemic, it is critical to fully understand the multifaceted nature of engagement with technology and develop reliable instruments capable of accurately evaluating its processual nature. Therefore, this study aimed at describing and psychometrically validating a novel instrument to measure the dynamics of engagement with technology, namely the Technology Engagement Scale (TES). Data were collected from a representative sample of 2021 participants in Italy. Results from both the confirmatory analysis and the Rasch model suggested the mono-dimensionality of the 5-item TES. Moreover, empirical ordinal alpha indicated a very good internal consistency. Findings provide also solid evidence for the convergent validity of the proposed instrument. Finally, it emerged that TES levels were able to predict the frequency of online activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, these findings suggest that the TES could be considered a reliable and valid tool, able to evaluate the complex process of engagement with technology in a simple, quick, and easy-to-administer manner.

KEYWORDS:

• User Engagement
• Technology
• Adoption
• COVID-19 Pandemic
• technology acceptance model
• user involvement

Acknowledgments

The preparation of this article was supported by the UCSC D3.2 2020 project ‘Behavioural change: prospettive per la stabilizzazione di comportamenti virtuosi verso la sostenibilità.’

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano: [Grant Number D3.2 2020] and partially supported by the Italian Ministry of Health.