Algorithmic Mood Management and Somatic Digital Fatigue among Kazakhstani University Students
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Objective: This theoretical study develops an integrative body–mind–culture conceptual model of algorithmic mood management among Kazakhstani university students and formulates five testable propositions linking algorithmic affordances, digital emotion regulation, somatic digital fatigue, and digital well-being.
Methods and Materials: The study employed a transparent interpretive conceptual review broadly aligned with SANRA reporting principles. Materials included peer-reviewed and scholarly sources on emotion regulation, digital emotion regulation, media coping, digital well-being, algorithmic culture, short-video platform use, somatic fatigue, AI-based student mental health, and Kazakhstan-specific sociocultural scholarship. The analysis synthesized literature on AI chatbots, TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, sleep disruption, digital eye strain, academic pressure, multilingual identity, family expectations, and moral-emotional norms such as «uyat» and «namys». No new empirical data were collected.
Findings: The conceptual synthesis indicates that algorithmic mood management among students operates through five interrelated pathways: algorithmic affective personalization, emotion-regulation-motivated content selection, attention capture and displacement, AI-mediated cognitive-emotional offloading, and somatic-temporal digital load. These pathways show how short-video scrolling and AI chatbot use may provide immediate emotional relief while also contributing to sleep delay, eye strain, cognitive fatigue, reduced offline agency, and culturally shaped patterns of emotional restraint.
Conclusion: Algorithmic mood management should be understood not merely as technology use, entertainment, or digital overuse, but as a body–mind–culture phenomenon. The proposed model reframes digital well-being as a culturally situated balance between emotional relief and bodily cost, offering a framework for future mixed-methods studies of Kazakhstani students’ digital coping, somatic fatigue, and culturally patterned emotional self-regulation.
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