hafeezanwar
Junior Member
TV pushes away loneliness
Watching television might not make you happy, but for some viewers it beats being alone.
Four studies done researchers at the University at Buffalo and Miami University of Ohio found that watching TV can drive away feelings of loneliness and rejection.
The findings, reported in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, suggest that watching TV provides viewers with the illusion that their social needs are being met.
"The research provides evidence for the 'social surrogacy hypothesis', which holds that humans can use technologies, like television, to provide the experience of belonging when no real belongingness has been experienced," said Shira Gabriel, one of the researchers said.
"We also argue that other commonplace technologies such as movies, music or interactive video games, as well as television, can fulfil this need," she added.
The first study showed that people felt less lonely when they watched their favourite TV shows. The second found that viewers whose "belongingness needs were aroused" wrote longer essays about their favoured TV programmes.
Drops in self-esteem
In the third study the researchers said that thinking about favourite TV programmes buffered people against drops in self-esteem, increases in negative mood and feelings of rejection.
People is the final study verbally expressed fewer feelings of loneliness after writing essays about their preferred TV programmes.
The researchers believe a fictional bond with TV characters can help ease the need to connect with others.
But they added "it remains an open question whether social surrogacy suppresses belongingness needs or actually fulfils them".
They acknowledge that "the kind of social surrogacy provoked by these programmes can be a poor substitution for 'real' human-to-human experience".
Although technology may offer comfort for people who have difficulty interacting socially because of physical or environmental constraints, the researchers said turning one's back on family and friends for the solace of television may leave a person with fewer resources over time.
A previous study found that unhappy people watch more TV, while those who consider themselves happy spend more time reading and socialising.
----Agencies
Watching television might not make you happy, but for some viewers it beats being alone.
Four studies done researchers at the University at Buffalo and Miami University of Ohio found that watching TV can drive away feelings of loneliness and rejection.
The findings, reported in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, suggest that watching TV provides viewers with the illusion that their social needs are being met.
"The research provides evidence for the 'social surrogacy hypothesis', which holds that humans can use technologies, like television, to provide the experience of belonging when no real belongingness has been experienced," said Shira Gabriel, one of the researchers said.
"We also argue that other commonplace technologies such as movies, music or interactive video games, as well as television, can fulfil this need," she added.
The first study showed that people felt less lonely when they watched their favourite TV shows. The second found that viewers whose "belongingness needs were aroused" wrote longer essays about their favoured TV programmes.
Drops in self-esteem
In the third study the researchers said that thinking about favourite TV programmes buffered people against drops in self-esteem, increases in negative mood and feelings of rejection.
People is the final study verbally expressed fewer feelings of loneliness after writing essays about their preferred TV programmes.
The researchers believe a fictional bond with TV characters can help ease the need to connect with others.
But they added "it remains an open question whether social surrogacy suppresses belongingness needs or actually fulfils them".
They acknowledge that "the kind of social surrogacy provoked by these programmes can be a poor substitution for 'real' human-to-human experience".
Although technology may offer comfort for people who have difficulty interacting socially because of physical or environmental constraints, the researchers said turning one's back on family and friends for the solace of television may leave a person with fewer resources over time.
A previous study found that unhappy people watch more TV, while those who consider themselves happy spend more time reading and socialising.
----Agencies