It was November 7, 2007 and the electricity in the house went out completely. No warning, just an immediate feeling of silence. It was daytime, so it was of no concern that the lights were out, but it felt quite odd that the television was off—so much for watching the end of that movie. “Now what,” was the next concern? No television, no CD player, no noises. After waiting for about 20 minutes to see if possibly the electricity may nicely come back on—my attentions moved to the concept of entertaining my boredom until finally all my favorite pastimes would come back to life. Cleaning…filled my void. Sadly, the electricity was out for only two hours, and yet by my standards it felt like eternity. I was however, able to be very productive and get much needed cleaning completed and had time to work on homework. Maybe I should be thankful that the electricity went out—maybe I simply wet my lips to go longer without any electricity or media. Perhaps, I should blame this two-hour event, because in less than 15 days my Thanksgiving vacation took on a whole new meaning.
For the final project the focus targeted media dependency. Media dependency deals with how frequently people access or use media-related items and how they have come to use the items as part of their lifestyle. For the project, mainly newer media technologies were at the center of interest which includes: cell phones, television, the computer, mp3 players, GPS navigation systems, satellite radio, instant messaging, landline phones, the Internet and fax machines. Other forms of media-related items may include: newspapers, FM and AM radio, magazines, camcorders, billboards and advertisements.
The topic was chosen for three reasons, all of which greatly increased my interest level. My summer vacation played a large role. During the vacation, my family was in an area that was relatively remote. The entire time I observed my sister and her complete frustration at not being able to use the Internet for one week. I noticed that she seemed to be going through withdrawal without a television or daily access to the Internet. Every chance her cell phone was getting reception she would begin texting her friends frantically. This observation made me wonder if most people in our generation suffer from being addicted to the media. Granted, I missed checking my mail, but my sister really had a difficult time.
Another factor has to do with technology. The gadgets and gizmos that students across college campuses own, are phenomenal. Many of the gadgets have multiple functions and combine various technologies into a cohesive unit. Observation also played a key role here. Constantly you can spot students completely absorbed into these gadgets. You will find college students text messaging friends during lectures, during exams, while eating, while talking to a friend, and while working on homework. Students also seem to be obsessed with mp3 players and the Internet. These two technologies seem to have taken over the lives of many college students. This observation also made me curious about college students and their level of media dependency. Were the students that I observed a representative sample of the rest of the student body?
The final reason media-dependency became an interesting topic to study was an article I read in class, “The Longest Day”. This article directly pertained to my interest on the topic. The article focuses on a professor who made his college class go 24 hours with any media-related items. Their experiences and reactions tickled my fancy even further. How would an average college student feel if they had to go even longer than 24 hours without media?
For research on this topic of media-dependency the goal was to understand the various media outlets that people may be obsessed with. Mainly I looked at cell phone usage, Internet usage, television usage, and instant messaging usage. In addition I read various articles that dealt with media dependency; such as, “The Longest Day” and “Love Thy Blackberry, Love Thy Kids”. The articles each focused on a specific media area that I have observed college students to over-indulge in.
One area that college students indulge in, is the television. “I’m addicted to television: the personality, imagination, and TV watching patterns of self-identified TV addicts” by Robert D. Mellwraith (1997) dealt with problematic habits that form as the result of over-watching television. This study analyzed self-proclaimed television addicts and theorized about their dependence. Mellwraith, who headed this experiment, chose a topic that has had little research exploring the fundamental reasons for television dependency. His general purpose for the study was to discover the true meaning of a television addict, and what people mean when they say they are “addicted to television”. Mellwraith, analyzed previous studies about psychological behaviors with addicts, boredom studies, and other pertinent studies that have background knowledge about people with dependency issues. He uses one definition to sum up the meaning of a television addict, which is crucial to his study. “Television addiction can be defined as heavy television watching that is subjectively experienced as being to some extent involuntary, displacing more productive activities, and difficult to stop or curtail”
(Mellwraith, 1997, p. 2).
From this study TV addicts reported that they used TV for its mood-altering effects, as a coping mechanism and as background noise. The study indicated that people do feel that they can be addicted to television and that people may overuse the media. Mellwraith was able to show that a significant amount of people claim to be addicted to television. His research was able to identify the various ways in which TV addicts use the medium and how often addicts watch television on a weekly basis.
“Unregulated Internet usage: addiction, habit, or deficient self-regulation?” by Robert LaRose, Carolyn Lin and Matthew Eastin (2003) reviews the behavioral patterns of Internet users. This study analyzed college students and their Internet usage. The authors chose a topic that has had little research exploring the true definitions of a media or Internet addict. The general purpose for the study was to discover the true meaning of an Internet addict, and what behaviors actually signify problematic forms of Internet usage. LaRose, who led the project, analyzed previous studies about psychological behaviors dealing with addiction, boredom, depression and other pertinent studies that have a significant impact about people with media behavior issues. The research question for this study was, “What is the relationship between self-efficacy and deficient Internet self-regulation” (LaRose, 2003, p.238). Deficient self-regulation according to the authors is a state in which conscious self-control is relatively diminished (LaRose, 2003, p.232).
On average, the participants reported that they used the Internet 89 minutes on a typical weekday. This differed from weekend day use, which was 69 minutes a day. Deficient self-regulation had a significant relationship with Internet usage. Deficient Internet self-regulation was also positively related to Internet habit strength. Ultimately, this study determined that “Internet addiction” is not the proper terminology for excessive (or not excessive) Internet usage. In fact, the researchers believe the term should be “deficient self-regulation”.
“Comparing those meeting the criterion for ‘Internet addiction’ with those who did not, the ‘addicted’ respondents had higher levels of Internet usage, outcome expectations, Internet self-efficacy, and depression” (LaRose, 2003, p.245). The authors were able to show that “addicts” perhaps is not the suitable term for Internet users, and rather if someone seems to be using the Internet excessively, then trained clinicians need to evaluate rather than social scientists (as himself).
“More than just talk on the move: uses and gratifications of the cellular phone” by Louis Leung and Ran Wei (2000) explored the ways in which people use cellular phones. This study analyzed the uses and gratifications of the cell phone in Hong Kong. The general purpose of this study was to explore how people use the cellular phone and the benefits they seek from the wireless gadget. Also, in what capacity do the participants use the phones was another important concept they explored. The authors analyzed previous studies about the uses and gratification theory. They also analyzed research about the conventional (landline) phone and its significance with the theory. For landline phones, the study found that many people used the home phone for social uses; such as, chatting, gossip, family connections, and having a sense of security.
The study also found that on average the participants were making and receiving about 9.33 to 9.57 calls a day. On average participants spent about 3.35 minutes on each call. The authors also asked participants about their age, gender, professional status, income, education, and household size. They used those results and combined them with the use of the cell phone to discover what types of people are using the phone and for what reasons. For example, the authors found that “wealthy men who are in business tended to use the cellular phone more than their female counterparts for instrumental purposes” (Leung, 2000, 314). In addition the research showed that sales people with small households tended to use the cell phone to show affection to immediate family members because they were on the road often for business.
“Student instant message use in a ubiquitous computing environment: effects of deficient self-regulation” by Kevin Lee and Stephen Perry (2004) analyzed deficient self-regulation in correlation to instant messaging among college students. Instant messaging is an online text communication tool, which allows two (or more) people to chat at real-time via text. The research the conducted explored the specific reasons why people partake in instant messaging—sometimes to the extreme. The main purpose of this study “was to examine how heavy use, deficient self-regulation, and dependence on instant messaging can lead to preoccupation with the IM medium, and loss of control in other areas of life” (Lee and Perry, 2004, p. 400).
It was interesting that the authors found that 7% of students have skipped meals to IM, 47% have postponed sleep, 8% have skipped work, 8% have skipped class, and 6% have lied about their absences—all in the name of the IM. In addition, students reported that they felt guilty for spending so much time instant messaging. Also, students complained that it was difficult to stop IM activities. The results of this study are limited to a small and unique computer-savvy school. It is in a rural location with the nearest metropolitan area more than 2 hours away. This could have affected the results substantially, since most students had little to do in their free time. None-the-less, the students on the campus were instant messaging for an alarming amount of time.
In addition I looked at “The Longest Day” and “Love Thy Blackberry, Love Thy Kids” to also get additional information on this particular topic. “The Longest Day” by Danna Walker discussed how she required her undergraduate class go 24 hours without media. The class was very skeptical and anxious about not having their electronic possessions for a whole 24 hour period.
“Their faces looked skeptical when we finally got to the e-media fast about halfway through the semester. No television, computers, iPods, or other mp3 devices, radio, video games, CD players, records or cell phones (or land lines) for 24 hours. If they skipped up or cheated—I said with faked confidence that I’d be able to tell from their papers if they did—they’d have to start the 24 hours over” (Walker, 2007, p. 1).
The concept for many of the students was too overwhelming, however the results were substantial. Many students felt refreshed and at ease when their 24-hour experiment was completed. Many felt more productive and felt better that they were not attached to the media-related items for one day. One student said, “‘Your cell phone, like, it always rings at the most inopportune times, so it was nice for a day to not have it constantly ringing,’ someone piped up” (Walker, 2007, p. 3).
“Love Thy Blackberry, Love Thy Kids” by Nancy Gibbs (2007) dealt with the concept that we adore our Blackberry (or any other type of cell phone) almost as much as we adore our children. In her article she treats her gizmo with an air of love and care. She caries it everywhere she goes, recharges it (almost as it to give it nourishment like a child), and feels distraught if she drops it. “When my husband and I spent a weekend away, unplugged, unpinged, it felt a little like that first time we left the baby with her grandmother so we could go hiking for a whole day” (Gibbs, 2007, p.1).
Is this what society has become? Completely attached to various media-related items? The four research articles and two case studies broadened my knowledge about society and their uses and needs. After reviewing these many sources, it became apparent that there has been scant research into the specific behaviors college students have about all types of media-related items combined. Many of the articles discussed only one type of medium. It is clear from the research that many people develop certain behaviors over time after constantly using certain types of media-related items but how does this personally affect college students? One day without media…is that enough time without media for students to detach themselves from the parasitic technologies? In general, are college students dependent on all media-related items combined? This area of research definitely needed to be further examined, versus the one or two areas that the research articles focused in on.
The research question which helped to guide the experiment was, “To what extent is today’s college student media dependent”? After reading the articles and combining the data, I assume that it is anticipated that the average college student is dependent on the media.
My final project actually placed me into the position that I was the sample representing the average college student on campus. For this research project I personally went without media-related items for a specific period of time. I planned to attempt this part of the project over Thanksgiving break so that I was not completely inundated with homework. Specifically I went for five days without the many media-related items. I started on Tuesday November 20, 2007 at midnight and ended Sunday November 25, 2007 at midnight.
To reiterate the items that I decided not to use or look at was: no television, no video games, no computer, no Internet, no newspaper, no magazines, no mp3 player,
no cell phone, no home phone, no digital camera, no looking at advertisements, no looking at billboards, no XM radio, no regular FM or AM radio, and no CD player. For five days my goal was to survive daily life without having to partake in using any of these items.
The main way to gather data was to keep a journal of my activities. Often I wrote two entries because as I found, I had much more time to do many more daily tasks. Usually I wrote a small entry in the afternoon and a longer entry in the evening. Not every day was I able to write an entry—an example was Thanksgiving (which was my second day without media-related items).
During my five days of cruelty, I experienced a variety of emotions. Day one could be labeled as my neurotic day. Before the project I would have surmised that toward the end of the experiment I would be suffering, but in fact my first day was the most painful. Time seemed to slow-down considerably. I would put a task in front of me, only to find that it took up only 15 minutes of the 24-hour day. On this particular day, I was home alone because the rest of my family did not have off before Thanksgiving. Being alone on my first day was a mix between hell and…hell. There was no one to talk to (which diverts your attention), no one to play a game with, and no form of interaction. It also was painful not to know when my family was specifically coming home from work. This day I did many activities. I painted a watercolor piece for my sister, I washed dishes, did two loads of laundry, completely cleaned my room, sat in a chair for an hour staring at the cars going by, and read half of a book. Yes, I allowed myself the luxury of the written word. Technically speaking that is a faux pas. It is a form of media, but my project more closely examined the newer technologies and it did not occur to me until after the project that reading books probably should not have been permitted.
Day two and three can be thought of as my recuperating days. On both days I was preoccupied with Thanksgiving preparation and celebration. My mind was off of the concept of media-withdrawal. To make sure that I did not act as loopy as day one, I cooked a lot. I was in the kitchen most of the morning preparing the feast with my Dad. Afterward, all I had to worry about was eating. All of my extended family knew about my project and were quite good around me. They did not have the television on, and everyone answered their telephones in a separate room.
By day four and five I was feeling much better. I became used to the routine and knew my boundaries. I became aware that our family T.V. room was off limits because there were too many temptations in there. I also became accustomed to not going out of the house as frequently. Once out of the house, there were too many billboards or advertisements that could have ruined my project. Thus, I found it easier to stay indoors.
Specifically day five was easiest. I honestly did not crave media-related items like I did on days prior. In addition, I knew the experiment was to end that evening, so I also had something to look forward to.
Subsequently, it is plausible to believe that the average college student (me) is addicted to media-related items. If I were not addicted to the media-related items, then I predict my behavior would not have been so odd or uncomfortable on the first day.
Similarly to “The Longest Day” I was apprehensive at the start of the project but at the end concluded that I felt like I was much more productive. A problem I did encounter, however, was reading. I probably should have eliminated reading completely at the beginning of the project, but felt it was not as grounded in my concept of a media-related item as is the Internet. In addition, the only other problem I encountered was being in public. It was extremely difficult to feel normal in public because the media surrounds every aspect of life now. At the supermarket, ads are everywhere. Televisions show food items or delicious meals you can make. At a bar, televisions surrounded the entire room expect the pool table nook.
From this study I believe much more analysis is needed to specifically see if my generation or future generations are dependent on the media. I think it would be wise to even go longer without media to see if any other patterns emerge. Also, more college students would need to participate. It is difficult to have one student represent all of college students and I do not know if that is at all a practical thing to do.
