Effects of Short Video Addiction on the Motivation and Well-Being of Chinese Vocational College Students

Abstract

While media use can be beneficial in some ways, excessive use of media has led to growing concerns about its potential negative consequences. With the popularity of Chinese video applications (apps) such as DouYin, TikTok, Kwai, and other short video apps sweeping through schools around the world. Due to the diversity and immersion principle of short videos, their popularity continues to grow, and the phenomenon of students being addicted to short videos also brings many hidden dangers to the learning effect. Among other things, the problem of excessive use of the Internet among Chinese youth has led the government to propose a series of control policies to strengthen the monitoring of harmful habits of youth in the use of online applications. In addition, the problem of youth addiction to short videos has become a major concern for education experts and the general public, thus demonstrating that short video addiction is indeed an ongoing research issue. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the causes of short-form video addiction and its impact on the psychology of learning, and to investigate the relationship between short-form video flow experience, short-form video addiction, intrinsic and extrinsic learning motivation, and learning well-being from the perspectives of flow experience theory and micro ecological systems. The questionnaire was sent via instant messaging software such as QQ and WeChat, and university students from vocational colleges in China were invited to complete the questionnaire. A total of 517 valid data were collected, including 222 (42.9%) were male students and 295 (57.1%) were female students. The collected questionnaires were analyzed for reliability and validity after removing incomplete data, followed by structural equation modeling for model verification. The findings showed that: (1) short video flow experience had a positive effect on short video addiction; (2) short video addiction had a negative effect on intrinsic and extrinsic learning motivation; (3) intrinsic and extrinsic learning motivation had a positive effect on learning well-being; (4) short video flow experience had an indirect negative effect on intrinsic and extrinsic learning motivation; (5) short video flow and short video addiction had indirect negative effects on learning well-being. According to the results, it is clear that addiction to short videos has a negative impact on learners' learning motivation and positive psychology of learning, so parents and teachers should effectively guide students to use short video apps in a self-controlled way.