Skip to main content

Covid Stress influencing Media Addiction

 I found a study done in Beijing, China that could greatly support my research into Media Dependency. It surveyed over 200 college students and found a direct correlation between Covid-19 stress and an increase in social media addiction in individuals. 

Below are excerpts I am especially interested in:


"Due to policies to limit the spread of the virus, such as the “shelter-in-place” order (1), people, willing or not, are undergoing a transition from offline to online activities (2). In addition to remote work or remote learning, many people spent increased time on social media (SM), such as Facebook and Twitter, which could satisfy their need for disaster-related information, entertainment as well as interpersonal communication (3, 4)"

"The present study examined the relationship between COVID-19 stress, active use, SM flow, and addictive SMU in a sample of Chinese college students. Consistent with Hypothesis 1a, COVID-19 related stress was associated with a greater tendency of addictive SMU, higher level of active use, and SM flow experience."

"To sum up, the significant results in part confirmed our hypotheses and therefore allow a better understanding of why people who suffer from pandemic-related stress are at enhanced risk to develop addictive SMU."

"In sum, the study showed that COVID-19 stress was positively correlated with addictive SMU. Moreover, the relationship between COVID-19 stress and addictive SMU was significantly mediated by active use and SM flow, both individually and combined. Individuals who experienced higher level of COVID-19 stress were at a higher risk of developing addictive SMU as a result of increased level of active use and SM flow."


Zhao, N., & Zhou, G. (2021). COVID-19 Stress and Addictive Social Media Use (SMU): Mediating Role of Active Use and Social Media Flow. Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.635546/full#B42

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Psychology study on Fear Appeal

"Sixty years of fear appeal research: Current state of the evidence" This journal study gives an in-depth study of fear appeal theory including how it works in marketing and health settings, theories that contradict, and how to assess it effectively.  Abstract:  "Following a brief overview of the use of fear arousal in health education practice and the structure of effective fear appeals according to two main theoretical frameworks—protection motivation theory and the extended parallel process model—the findings of six meta-analytic studies in the effectiveness of fear appeals are summarized." "Threatening health messages are popular in health education design. For example, the introduction of health warnings on cigarette packages in 2002 was accompanied by wide-scale media attention on television, radio and in newspapers throughout Europe. Soon after the introduction of these messages, national polls were presented that suggested that people smoked less becaus...
Post a Comment
Read more

Assignment B Claim

For Assignment B, I've decided on the hypothesis that cable news networks use fear-inducing stories to gain more media attraction, but at the cost of their viewer's mental health; especially in women above the age of 30. I worked this into the claim below: Claim :  "Women above the age of 30 have increased mental stress when watching cable news due to its fear-inducing segments. " Media Dependency theory is used by media outlets as a tool to attract and keep high viewership. A key element of Media Dependency theory surrounds the idea that feeling like you are in a state of crisis leads a person to be more reliant on mass media for information.  Prototype :  I am still ideating the prototype I will use however I do know that I will be measuring Fear in this experiment, which I would need to somehow obtain from viewers of cable news.  In addition, I would need to figure out which cable news channels to choose from. I am considering just looking up who has the highest v...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fear Appeal In marketing

For the second section of my essay, I will be talking about how Fear Appeal is used in Marketing. As such, I compiled all of my findings together from various sources to help isolate the best way of explaining, and to communicate to the readers as efficiently as possible.  Fear Appeal In Marketing 1- Fear appeals have been employed in advertising of products and services. It dominated areas such as life insurance, road accident campaigns, promoting political causes, drug-prevention commercials, and in the development of social awareness of serious concerns (Latour & Zahra, 1988), such as the COVID-19 and other public health-related issues. (Addo et al., 2020) -When Should I Use the Fear Appeal? 2- "particularly if there are consequences for not purchasing a product. For example, if you sell fire extinguishers and your advertising strategy is to show how you may save your family members’ lives if you have an extinguisher during a fire, you are appealing to a fear in consumers t...
Post a Comment
Read more