21st century media, fame, and other future aspirations: A national survey of 9-15 year olds

Abstract

Past research found that messages in popular television promote fame as a top value, while social media allow anyone to reach broad audiences (Uhls & Greenfield, 2011; Uhls & Greenfield, 2012). During a sensitive developmental phase, preteens are the largest users of media, consuming over seven-and-a-half hours a day, seven days a week, outside of school. A nationwide survey in the United States asked 315 youth (M = 12 years; range: 9 -15 years) about their media habits as well as their aspirations for the future. Participants’ answers about their future goals clustered around two factors, representing individualistic, self-focused and collectivistic, other-focused aspirations. Fame, image, money and status were items in the former; helping others in need, helping family, and living near family were items in the latter. Watching television and using a social networking site each predicted self-focused aspirations, above and beyond the influence of control variables of age and maternal education, while the two media activities together predicted a larger portion of the variance than either alone. Collectivistic, other-focused aspirations were associated with nontechnology activities, most of which had an important social component. The implication is that individualistic, self-focused aspirations are related to 21st century media, whereas more collectivistic, other-focused aspirations are related to nontechnology activities, particularly those with a social component.

Social Media Use and Empathy: A Mini Meta-Analysis

“…To reconcile the media-empathy paradox, some social media researchers have emphasized specific online activities as an explanatory factor. For example, social digital interactions like chatting may be linked to higher empathy [20] [24]. Similarly, a meta-analysis of prosocial media suggests that exposure to prosocial media is linked to higher empathic concern and prosocial behaviors [25].…”

College students in the western world are becoming less emotionally intelligent: A cross‐temporal meta‐analysis of trait emotional intelligence

“…Due to its nature, social media has been implicated in facilitating the rise of individualism through its encouragement of self-display and fameseeking. Indeed, research has demonstrated that social media is directly tied to self-focused aspirations such as fame, image, money and status (Uhls, Zgourou & Greenfield, 2014).…”

Cultural Change Over Time: Why Replicability Should Not Be the Gold Standard in Psychological Science

“…A follow-up survey of 9- to 15-year-olds showed that individualistic, self-focused aspirations, such as fame, were tied to watching TV, as well as to actively using a social networking site, a recipe for the narcissism that is part and parcel of the fame motivation. In contrast, collectivistic, other-focused aspirations were associated with older nontechnology activities, most of which were intrinsically social (Uhls, Zgourou, & Greenfield, 2014).…”