‘Problematic media use’ is a term that describes dysfunctional ways of engaging with media and encompasses many related terms, including Internet addiction, technology addiction, Internet gaming disorder, and others. Media users’ problematic relationships with media and devices, such as smartphones, could be characterised as compulsive, obsessive, or unhealthy.
Our digital lifestyles, which include frequent multitasking, may be harming our ability to remain focused.
Part of the concern around being constantly connected through technology and media revolves around how we multitask among different forms of media and between media and real life. Media multitasking is very common among children and adults, even though there is ongoing concern over how it affects our abilities to pay attention and avoid distraction.
Some young people don’t believe media multitasking is harming their ability to get things done. For example, the Common Sense Census found that high percentages of teens watched TV (51 per cent), used social media (50 per cent), and texted (60 per cent) while doing homework, but most of the teens did not feel that their multitasking harmed the quality of their work.1 However, multitasking may decrease productivity because users take time to reorient after a transition to a different activity and become cognitively fatigued from the effort, which slows their rate of work. Additionally, multitasking makes it more difficult to create memories that can be accurately retrieved later.2
Problematic media use may be related to lower empathy and social well-being.
Many researchers have noted that narcissism seems to be increasing, while empathic traits have been on the decline, and have pointed to social media as a driver for that change.3 Arguments for why this would be the case are compelling: Time spent with media could subtract from face-to-face time, so heavy media users would forfeit opportunities to deepen empathy by conversing and learning from human facial and vocal cues.
However, when it comes to evidence linking social media use to empathy, the results are limited and difficult to interpret. One study of adults between the ages of 18 and 50 found that commenting, viewing photos, and posting status updates on Facebook was related to narcissism but that higher levels of chatting on the site were positively related to perspective-taking, a key component of empathy.4 But, another study of 1,726 adults found that going online did not have any impact on face-to-face communication and did not reduce empathy.5
It should be noted that teens still place high value on face-to-face communication and don’t see social networking as harming their personal relationships. Common Sense Media found that children between the ages of 13 and 17 preferred face-to-face communication over all technological means of communication, because it was perceived to be more fun and because they could understand people better in person.6 In addition, 52 per cent of teen social media users felt that social networking had mainly helped their relationships with friends, as compared to 4 per cent who felt it hurt their relationships.