Media Psychology: Understanding Human-Media Interactions - Essay Sample

Introduction

Media psychology is a specialty and one of the branches of psychology that its primary focus is on human behavior interactions with media and technology. The interactions apply to both the whole society and individuals. In this field, professionals study people's interactions with the media and the media's influence on people. Media psychology includes applications and research which deal with all media technologies forms; that is, the traditional including mass media, for instance, magazines, video, art, and the emerging new technologies. This includes mobile media, educational technologies, social media, interface design, the interaction of the media technologies, blended and virtual environments. Media has negative and positive effects on people.

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There are different theories of media psychology which involve the cognition, perception, and components of human regarding what surrounds them and their experience. Some of the methods include the Affective disposition theory (ADT), where the approach differentiates different forms of media perspective, with the focus on attention (Neale, 2012). It deals with the opinions and emotions of a person toward a specific character, appreciation, and enjoyment from people. The feelings are either positive or negative, making the media focus on how people react and the conflict. Another theory is the play theory, which is psychological that plays essential role in media such as enjoyment. Therefore, these two theories play essential roles because they critically analyze how humans interact with the different media aspects, showing its impacts in both negative or positive to humans.

There are both positive and negative impacts of media when looking at media psychology. With the new additions of technology, the media plays a significant part in people's reactions to different situations. One of the great impacts of media psychology is helping in the professionals in the advertisement. Media is playing a significant role in the world in our daily lives today. Media is not all about blogs, video games, television, printed media radio, or YouTube. Also, it encompasses psychologists who appear on media, for instance, Dr. Paul Weston, who is known for the HBO treatment and his influence in our actions and thoughts. Professional psychologists take action of their accounts and use media for advertising their services or privacy practices. Over the recent ten decades, professional advertisements have jumped up to 63%, which makes it gain acceptance to psychologists such as dentists, doctors, and any other feedbacks and advertisements done by professionals through the use of media (Leeuw, 2015). Many of these people maintain their blogs and Facebook pages. They can use different apps, such as twitter, to book or schedule various appointments.

Media has also increased understanding and public awareness, which has brought positive behavioral changes. There are significant social issues that are applied from media psychology, which are a force of the good. The growth of new internet application technology has benefits in commercial areas, for instance, banking and online buying, which are contributing positively to the world economy at an astonishing rate. Teletherapy, telehealth, and telemedicine have yielded new information and a better understanding that has led to the improvement of public services. The positive messages from the media are improving general knowledge of medical and social consequences on issues that are affecting the public.

Communication barriers has also been reduced by the use of media. With media networks, people have a chance to raise out their perceptions and thoughts of different topics to broad and diverse audiences and raise out their voices. This sharing of ideas on social networks gives people time and space to give out their opinions about the intended topic making it reach many people. Many people get connected through social media and share different films, videos which may change someone's behavior. People also learn about different cultures from different societies. It has helped people to receive emergency news fast through the use of mobile phones or even through watching television.

As stated earlier, media psychological is the study of how individuals, groups, and technology interact trying to make sense from synergy. Recently in 1950, watching television was one of the popular forms which were used for entertainment, and this made media psychologist to be more concerned about the children's enthusiasm of watching tv and its impacts on their reading skills (Luskin, 2012). Later on, they started to study the violent effects of viewing TV on the change in children's behavior and if there was a possibility of asocial exhibition behavior. Dr. Sarah, one of the board-certified child and the adolescent psychiatrist, says that media is still consuming the ever-growing parts of people's lives. Many people, especially the young, do not have the time of face to face interaction, which they need so that they can learn social skills resulting in problems and difficulties of time interactions with others. This may lead to unsociable behavior among youths.

Despite positive effects, media psychology has a negative influence too on people. Too much media exposure, people's attention span has been decreasing over time. For example, in the latest news, people may often react to them or even respond slowly. This is because they have received the news through social media or television. Also, there are so many crimes assisted by media that are taking place. Some of the crimes include online theft, such as cyberbullying. There is anonymity, which is the main ill in social media today. The risk of violence, threats, and sexual abuse have increased, which results in long-lasting emotional scars that can be carried all through to adulthood.

Another negative influence of media is that the sleeping hours of different people have decreased. It is because people spend more of their time in the media than sleeping. The main people who are affected by sleep deprivation are the young people who stay online even for the whole night chatting and making new friends online. Social media tends to be so addictive, especially when there are trending topics. Lack of sleep has resulted in high levels of stress and anxiety. For example, some young teenagers stay online mostly comparing themselves with their friends, where they perceive inadequacies if they find themselves they are of different classes.

Internet addiction and other related media issues are a result of different online ideas. The young generation has been addicted, such that they spend more time on the internet instead of doing something productive. A good example is that when they are in school, they end up buying assignments from service providers. Even though media is used for professional advertisements, it has become a communication center where teenagers stalk, check updates, and reacting to their friend's activities. It brings about independence resulting in peer pressure. Media is not inherently wrong, even though it has negative impacts on our society, which brings more issues in some media cases.

People also have a significant influence on the media. In today's society, media is one of the people's lifeline. It is because it comes in different forms that match and meet their pleasure. Every day people get connected to media through the use of technology either by watching television, listening to radios, and the conventional way is through the use of the mobile phone. These advancements of technology have made people regularly check on media to hear and see what is happening at that moment. This media relationship has brought many effects; for instance, it consumes time and influences people's thoughts and opinions. The discussed topics in the media also make media a place for people to stay awake. Many scientists keep on discovering new apps that young people keep on using. Also, there are many uploads of movies that remain connected to the media. The growth of the population and many rising issues have brought positive impacts to the media.

Society cannot be left out on the influence of media on people. It is through the advancement of technology that people buy media devices such as televisions, mobile phones, and even radio to get updates of what is happening within. An increase in population has made societies to spill where many activities occur within the people who live there. Therefore, events that occur within the community are reported on television and radio, which makes people use media. Different stories are printed and published in the society, which influences the society to use media.

In the 21st century, the world has become digitalized, such that even education or any information that needs to be communicated to people has to be done through social media (Janicke, 2016). People often stay indoors to know what is happening instead of interaction with the others in the events showing a negative impact on media. This has decreased human interaction, making them give out their ideas through social media. There is a lot of independence among young people because of less productivity.

Conclusion

In conclusion, media psychology is a branch that studies how humans interact with new technology. In the early 21st century, media studies, culture and communication, and media are the central things in the world. Media has influenced people in positive and negative ways. The positive ways include reducing communication barriers, increasing public awareness, and professional advertisements. There are also negative impacts on people, such as it has diminished people's attention span, and the sleeping hours have reduced. Also, people have influenced media through how they are using it, and lastly, the society has changed media psychology on negative and positive ways to people.

References

Janicke, S. (2016). How positive media can make us better people. Retrieved from. https://www.greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_positive_media_can_make_us_better_pepeop

Leeuw, R., N., H., & Buijzen, M. (2015). Introducing positive media psychology to the field of children, adolescents, and media. Retrieved from. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17482798.2015.1121892

Luskin, B., J. (2012). Brain, Behavior, and Media. Retrieved from. https://www.psychologytoday-com.edn.ampproject.org/v/s

Neale, C. (2012). The media influence on society. Retrieved from. https://www.shoutoutuk.org/2014/10/01/media-influence-society/amp/?