TV pushes away loneliness
2009-04-28 19:03
Los Angeles - 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.