Emotions and Media Multitasking Behaviour among Indian College Students

Abstract

Media multitasking, a simultaneous consumption of two or more media, is a ubiquitous and popular behaviour among the youth. One of the reasons for its increasing growth is the structural/market-level factors (known as media factors). Although India is a growing technology hub, there have been limited efforts to identify the media multitasking behaviour among the youth in this country. Thus, this study attempts to analyse the prevalence of media multitasking behaviour among the Indian college students and its relationship with their emotions through two methods: self-report and an android-based application known as ‘Affective Media Landscape Survey’ (AMLS). Previous studies have reported that continuous interaction with media diminishes face-to-face interaction, reduces empathy and increases the tendency to live in the virtual world. This raises the concern for emotional differences in everyday life, if any, between the high and low groups of media multitaskers. So the second objective of the study is to understand the emotional profile of the users that varies among media multitasking index. To achieve these objectives, the same two methods, the ‘self-report’ that involves questionnaires and AMLS (an android-based app to study the frequency of media multitasking behaviour and the emotions of the users) have been employed. The study gives an insight into the emerging behavioural patterns and hence is helpful for designing communities to cater to the growing needs of the young media users.