Lectures Adolescent Development Exam 3
Lecture 11: Media use
Adolescents spend enormous amounts of time using media. Important to understand what
drives this media use and how it impacts the development.
Moderate discrepancy hypothesis
- Central to the notion that developmental characteristics determine the media
preferences
- Children and adolescents are predominantly attracted to entertainment that deviates
only moderately from the things they know, understand and are capable of
- They are not or less interested in entertainment that deviates too much from their
existing framework and experiences
- Challenged, but not too much. It explains why media preferences differ among
different age groups.
The uses and gratification theory
- Media can be used to gratify certain needs
- Individuals select media to gratify needs they have
- Need to lift your mood→ putting on a happy song. Using media to boost the mood
- Needs are determined by their developmental level. Needs of adolescents are
different from those of adults and younger children. Needs depend on different
situational and individual factors, including development
-
Main developmental characteristics that inform needs and gratifications
- Identity exploration
- Autonomy and self-efficacy
- Peer orientation
- Emotionality and sensation seeking
Physical development
- Changes in appearance
- Interest in sex
- Impact on mood
, ➔ This impacts the needs they have which translates in media preferences. As a result
of these changes adolescents have a need for information about their bodies, sex,
etc. social media and the internet can provide this information. Seeking advice.
A risky consequence is boys asking girls for nude selfies. Inexperienced, difficult to oversee
the consequences.
Pruning→ decline of grey matter which results in more efficient processing. Cells that have
not been used will be eliminated. Explains why after this process it becomes harder to learn
new things.
Cognitive development
- Formal operational thinking→ logical, abstract, hypothetical, problem-solving,
interest in future. Only completely in place at the end of adolescence.
- Adolescents will switch between concrete and formal operational thinking
Egocentrism: imagining the perspectives of others on ‘overdrive’. What do others think of
me? Need to know what others think of you can be gratified by social media→ Instagram,
facebook, likes, comments, sayat.me (anonymous questions)
1. Media implications
- More complexity in story lines
- More complex characters
- Topics that deal with big world issues (war movies, scifi).
- Liking more fast-past media which stimulates problem-solving skills; games are useful
in satisfying these needs. Not easily getting bored.
2. Sensation seeking
- The tendency to seek out novel, varied and highly stimulating experiences and the
willingness to take risks to attain them
- Focus on immediate rewards
- Peaks during adolescence and then decreases
- Highest between 12-17 years old
➔ The need for excitement and risktaking can be gratified by media. Gambling, sexting,
omegle, chat roulette.
Socio-emotional development
- Autonomy→ independence of their parents.
- Identity→ need to know who you are or who you want to be
- Intimacy→ relationships with friends and partners and how to maintain them.
, ➔ Determine the needs that adolescence have that can be gratified with media
Adolescents need to learn communication skills to form autonomy, identity and intimacy
- Self-presentation→ learning how to present yourself to others, given the normative
values of the audience. Presenting for students is different from presenting towards
friends. Taking into account the audience
- Self-disclosure→ what information are you willing to share, how much?
- → learning these through feedback from others
Affordances of social media
➔ Provide opportunities; social media provides a sense of control
Autonomy
- Social media provide control over communication
- Media allow individuals to be producers of content
- Media provide information about how to solve problems
Identity
- Adolescents need to develop a clear sense of self and self-esteem
- Identity formation relates to:
o Need for identity-relevant information: what kind of aspects of their identity
matches mine, do I feel different?
o Need for role models→ people they admire and wanting to become like them
o Need to identity experiments→ related to exploration, trying out different
identities
Identity exploration
Media provide relevant identity information, vlogs, blogs providing information about
themselves, can be used as relevant identity information.
Media also provide role models. Identifying with celebrities.
Social media can be used for identity exploration: social media is built to provide feedback.
Facebook version of yourself and realistic version of yourself.
Intimacy
- Relationships
- Formation of cliques and best friends
, - Strong need to fit in & validation
- Subcultures
- Practicing for later sexual relationships
- Fear of rejection
- Need for intimacy
Media can help in information about how to form relationships and how to deal with
problems in relationships
Initial assumption of social media introduction: social media offer poor communication
because you can’t see the other person. Misunderstandings. Less personal.
This idea has changed. Bijv. Use of emoticons that can change the tone of the message.
Hyperpersonal theory of communication
- Online communication is friendlier, more social, more personal and more intimate
than face to face communication because of the reduced cues
- It surpasses normal interpersonal levels
- 4 effects when there is online communication
Text messages might result in an overevaluation of the other person. In the text only
condition social attraction was highest, this remained even after face-to-face interaction
Texting can be more intimate or personal than face to face.
Effect of social media on self-esteem
- Social media is making us insecure, especially young girls.
Social media and body image
- Social media use influences body dissatisfaction
- Social comparison
o Downward comparison (with people who are worse off)
o Horizontal comparison (with people who are equal)
o Upward comparison (with people who are better off)
- Upward comparison is stronger on social media that with tradition forms of media
Social media and social self-esteem
- Cross-sectional findings show that social media is related to more self-esteem
through positive feedback.
