*3.3. Key Measures*

The survey was programed in Qualtrics software (see Supplementary Materials for the survey items). About half of the items were previously validated psychosocial scales: The Need to Belong Scale [55], the Fear of Missing Out Scale [56], Perceived Attachment to Phone Scale [57], Habitual Smartphone/Internet Behavior Scale [58,59], the Self Regulation Scale [60], the Boredom Proneness Scale [61,62], and the Abbreviated version of the Big Five Inventory [63]. The rest of the survey items were developed by the authors and are detailed below.

### 3.3.1. Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

There were 6 questions about the ICT. ICT was defined as "the integration of telecommunications and computers as well as necessary software, hardware, and audiovisual systems that enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information and to communicate in a digital form." These questions were about (1) overall ICT devices used on a daily basis, (2) time spent using ICTs for obtaining news on a daily basis, and (3) the sources for obtaining news on a daily basis (e.g., news channels, radio, etc.). These questions were presented twice—for participants to indicate their answers from two time periods: before the pandemic and during the pandemic.
