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REPORT
Study finds many ‘hooked’ on social media
By Jon Gingerich
Students who abstained from social
media and cell phones reported
experiencing “withdrawal” symptoms,
according to a recent study conducted
by the University of Maryland.
A class of 200 UM journalism students
took part in the study, which was administered
in the form of an “assignment” that
stipulated students spent a 24-hour period
free of all media — no iPhones, iPods, laptops,
televisions or radio. Students got to
choose which day they would spend
media-free, and were then asked to write
about their experiences, their successes and
failures.
Students participating in the experiment
reported a number of withdrawal symptoms
not unlike those suffering from chemical
addictions, listing specifics like anxiety
and “fidgeting.”
One student concluded having the realization
of feeling “incredibly addicted”
after the experiment.
“Although I started the day feeling good,
I noticed my mood started to change
around noon. I started to feel isolated and
lonely,” wrote one student. “By 2:00 p.m.
I began to feel the urgent need to check my
email … I felt like a person on a deserted
island …. as if I was addicted to my iPod
and other media devices.”
While students reported abstaining from
mediums like TV or newspapers with relative
ease, they found that becoming technological
teetotalers from devices like
BlackBerries or iPhones was noticeably
more difficult.
“I clearly am addicted and the dependency
is sickening,” said another student. “I
feel like most people these days are in a
similar situation, for between having a
BlackBerry, a laptop, a television, and an
iPod, people have become unable to shed
their media skin.”
Susan Moeller, Professor of Media and
International Affairs and Director of the
International Center for Media and the
Public Agenda, said she was surprised at
the level of distress and “extreme difficulty”
many students reported while on the
media wagon.
Moeller said the study was also telling of
how we parse our social interactions
around technology: students who typically
walk around campus with ear buds, for
instance, found themselves forced to speak
with others. Students who prefer texting
friends now found they had to reconfigure
the customs surrounding how they communicate.
“We didn’t ask students to go live in a
tent for 24 hours. People reported feeling
lonely, sad or depressed but they weren’t
reporting any fewer social contacts, just different
kinds of social contacts,” she said. “It
became clear that students were forced to
address the different ways they interact with
people face-to-face versus text messaging,
and they found the results distressing.”
One particular student admitted that:
“texting and IM-ing my friends gives me a
constant feeling of comfort. When I did not
have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone
and secluded from my life.”
Moeller said perhaps the most interesting
aspect of the study was that students
remained up-to-date on current events even
as they were disconnected from media
sources.
She found the students to be generally
news-savvy, though perhaps less reflective
about their media consumption habits.
Moeller said students are able to discuss
current events but typically don’t retain the
source or network branding from where the
news originated, a virally-influenced consumption
habit she described as “disaggregated.”
“They’re following news but they’re following
it in a different way,” she said.
“When you ask students how they heard
about the Chilean earthquake, they don’t
talk about going to TV or the Internet, but
maybe a blog that might have picked it up
from the New York Times, or even a conversation.
They don’t track the links back, and
they’re seemingly just as happy to take
information that came from a personal
passing on as from the news.”
Media Briefs
Rolling Stone adds paywall
Rolling Stone has re-launched its website
and become one of the first major magazines
to put most content behind a subscription
paywall.
A pay structure set up offers a $29.99
yearly subscription bundled with the magazine
or $3.95/month for online users to
view editorial content and multimedia from
current and past issues dating back into its
43-year archive.
Free access remains in place for breaking
news and some photo content.
Rolling Stone’s magazine circulation is
about 1.5M and its website attracts about
1.3M million unique visitors.
10 MAY 2010 WWW.ODWYERPR.COM