“It is a disease that has taken over not only our nation but the entire world. This disease is called Youtubeaholism” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBRBGd2Z5QQ). Youtube is an asynchronous video sharing website in which users can share, upload, and view a wide variety of video clips. It also has a feedback feature that allows users to post responses to videos. Many users spend a great amount of time making a clip, commenting on other clips, making a new clip as a response to a recently posted clip, and then waiting for feedback. It has become an everyday part of users' lives that people have gone into depression when a favorite youtube performer ceases putting up videos. As many of users themselves point out on their video clip posted on youtube, too much of it can lead to problematic internet use (PIU).
PIU is a “problematic behavior re
lated to too much time online,” which leads to negative academic, professional, and social consequences. Two characteristics associated with PIU is excessive use (quantity of time perceived by the participant to exceed normal time online) and compulsive use (inability to control one’s online activity along with guilt of lack of control).
Youtube is a psychological space that could lead to PIU due to a mixture of internet properties and individual differences. According to Wallace, one factor is the locus of control (the amount of control one perceives to have). On youtube users have complete control over their self-presentation. This power is amplified because it does not cost one anything to use youtube (affordability) and one can access youtube 24 hours a day. Another internet property that is a key ingredient in PIU is maintenance of virtual presence. Users have to constantly manage their online self-presentation by posting up new videos because if you want your name to be known you have to be consistently active. Wallace also mentions operant conditioning which makes a behavior difficult to extinguish due to the variable reward schedule. Because youtube is asynchronous, this factor does not apply because unlike synchronous chats, rewards are delayed (ex. Responses to videos).
The Theory of Problematic Use and Psychosocial Well-Being suggest that psychosocial issues may also lead to PIU. Caplan proposes that lonely and depressed who hold negative perceptions about their social competence prefer internet interactions because it is less threatening and more efficacious, which, in turn, leads to excessive and compulsive online interaction, which then only worsens their problem. In terms of youtube, those who are lonely/ depressed may rely on it for social interactions that they feel they cannot get ftf. Although youtube is asynchronous and the purpose of it is not for direct social interaction, people may develop relationships and networks through youtube, which can begin to replace ftf relations. This preference for youtube will then cause users to constantly check their ratings and post even more videoblogs, which will then make them even more depressed and lonely because having a top rated video cannot remedy the loneliness they feel outside of youtube.
A unique property that youtube has is that the rewards received from posting an original video are not perceived but real. Knowing that many veterans have moved to sign actual contracts increases the perceived benefits of constantly going on youtube, which is ironic because it is the “addiction” that led to success.
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6 comments:
Lina,
You make several good comparisons between Youtube usage and Caplan's theory. I like how you bring up the idea of user ratings posing a problem to people with psychosocial problems, and how, on some rare occasions, this can actually translate into success (which I think is an aspect of this example which does not support Caplan's theory). What do you make of the fact that many videos involve outside actors? In other words, some videos require the inclusion of other people besides the poster. Do these people also apply to the theory, or can we assume they have no psychosocial issues?
Maren's comment makes me wonder if these youtube posters really are depressed/lonely if they involve outside actors, and I also wonder if "this preference for youtube...will make them more depressed and lonely because having a top rated video cannot remedy the loneliness they feel outside of youtube" can be assumed true.
I look at youtube as a very social interaction even off the internet (but perhaps this differs because I am focusing on youtube watchers, not necessarily youtube posters). My friends are always watching youtube videos as a form of entertainment when we get together, and when one friend finds this "awesome video," he feels compelled to share it with us immediately. Now that youtube is a feature of facebook, my friends are constantly posting videos on each other's walls in addition to sharing them in person. I think that this can lead to PIU, but I am not too sure if Caplan's model really applies in this instance--I just don't see the depressed/loneliness aspect of her model which is a pretty important part.
I had never actually heard of “Youtubeaholism” before this post, but now that I’m aware of the phenomenon I must say I am intrigued. Your discussions of PIU, locus of control and the affordability of Youtube were on target and interesting. I liked your post a lot and came away with a few questions
First, you mentioned that you have to be active (posting videos frequently) on Youtube if you want your name to be known. This is definitely true of some of the Youtube stars, but what about the laypeople who just lurk in the background, watching and watching and watching? Do their intentions for use differ? Is it perhaps more anti-social, as their interactions with the real world are entirely one-sided (they watch others, no one watches them)?
In addition, I was thinking about why those with poor impressions of their own social competence would utilize Youtube to express themselves. Without FtF rejection cues, these people are free to express themselves however they please, free of any criticism unless a viewer chooses to actively insult the actor. Is it the air of safety and lack of consequence that makes the CMC medium so appealing?
And finally, I’m curious about the ‘relationships’ you mentioned that form throughout the various Youtube networks. I wonder how close these relationships can be given an asynchronous medium; how they might compare to interactions over, say, instant messaging; and how valuable they are in comparison to real life relationships.
Overall, you made some great points and shed light an area of study that I had no idea existed!
I do see the connection that you make between Caplan's model with YouTube users. There is a depressed/lonely aspect, especially in the teenage internet users of the YouTube generation. Depressed teenagers in many cases become couch potatoes, for lack of a better term, and need to look elsewhere then their own life, which is depressing, for excitement to share with friends. Another type of addicted user is the person who needs to constantly search YouTube to find the newest video that will become a mainstream phenomenon. These types of users, to some extent in my opinion, have a YouTube addiction in part to make ftf social interactions easier in the future.
I enjoy the topic you used for your blog. I definitely agree that YouTube can lead to problematic internet use. I do not know very much about YouTube but I feel as if YouTube could almost be seen as a site like Facebook where you can have a profile and comment on other people’s posts either via CMC or with a video of your own, and then with the whole wall posting or video commenting as a mode of Wallace’s “operant conditioning”, like you had stated. I also feel like not only can someone live their life through YouTube via their video/written comments, movies, etc. they could easily live vicariously through someone else’s life with their movies. I can recall seeing some news blurb signing onto AIM today on numerous accounts where it had seemed that so many people would just watch and comment on a certain person’s movies and were seriously interested in their life or outraged to find out it was a ploy of some sort. I find this quite interesting and am perplexed at why people become engulfed in things like that.
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