The CERI OECD/National Science Foundation International Conference took place in Paris, at the OECD Headquarters on 23-24 January 2012. Here the presentation of Session 6, Technology, Item 2.

1. Media use, face-to-face communication,
media multitasking and social well-
being among tweenage girls !
Roy Pea, Cliff Nass, Lynn Meheula,
Marcus Rance and Aman Kumar
Stanford University
Supported by NSF Grants
#0835854 and #0841556

3. Issues !
• Key developmental period in tweenage
years of 8- to 12-years old for socio-
emotional development
• Emerging values & choices of a new
“always-on” generation for media use and
multi-tasking?
• Socio-emotional correlates for profiles of
media use and media multitasking?

4. Overview of Study Questions
!
• Age
• Access/ownership of technology (TV, computer,
cellphone)
• About friends
• Media use
• Media use while using media
• General social outlook
• Comparison of online and offline friends
• Miscellaneous behavioral questions (e.g. sleep)

5. Survey!
• 3,461 girls, age 8-12
• Population was over 1M girls who read
Discovery Girls magazine
• August/September 2010
• Web-based - 20 minutes to complete

6. Issues of Representativeness
!
• Participants had to be aware of
Discovery Girls magazine
• Quite a large fraction of tweens
• All participants had web access and
95% of the respondents had computers
in their homes
• Higher than average

7. Nonetheless, an Excellent Sample!
• All 50 states
• Comparable levels of cell phone use and
media use to national samples
• Highly reliable measures
• Bottom Line?
• Excellent dataset for looking at
relationships between variables (far better
than experiments)
• Absolute rates should be viewed with more
caution

8. Categories of Media and F2F!
1. Watching video content, inc.
videogames
2. Listening to music
3. Reading or doing homework
4a. Emailing or sending messages/posting
on Facebook
4b. Text or instant message
5. Talk on the phone or video chat
6. Participate in face-to-face conversation

9. Categories of Media and F2F!
1. Watching video content, inc.
videogames
2. Listening to music
3. Reading or doing homework
4a. Emailing or sending messages/posting
on Facebook
4b. Text or instant message
5. Talk on the phone or video chat
6. Participate in face-to-face conversation

10. Determining Media Use,"
Determining Multitasking!
• Question 1: “On an average day, how
long [do you X]?” (e.g. watch video content:
TV, YouTube, movies, etc.)
• Six-point scale: from ‘never’ to ‘more than 4
hours’
• Question 2: “On an average day, while
[doing X], how often are you doing the
following other things at the same time?
• Same six-point scale

11. How Media Multitasking Index"
(MMI) is calculated!
• Media Multitasking Index for each person:
• Calculates (on average) how many
additional media streams are being
consumed when one is consuming any
given media stream.
• Sum of answers to Question 2 for five media
categories, not including F2F communication
(“How often are you also doing Y?”) divided
by sum of answers to Question 1 for the five
media categories (“How often do you do X?”)

12. How F2F Media Multitasking Index"
is calculated!
• F2F Media Multitasking Index:
• Calculates (on average) how many additional
media streams are being consumed when one is
interacting F2F.
• Sum of answers for F2F and the five other media
categories (“On an average day, while participating
in face-to-face conversations, how many hours are
you also doing Y?”) is divided by # hours for “How
often do you F2F communicate?”

13. Index 1: Social Success
!
• “Please rate how much you agree with each
statement”
• Strongly Disagree (=1) to Strongly Agree (=6)
• “I feel like I have a lot of friends”
• “I find it easy to make friends”
• “People my age understand me”
• “I feel like I have a lot of close friends”
• “I find it easy to keep friends”
• “I feel like I’m important to my friends”
• “I feel accepted by people my age”
• Very high reliability: Cronbach’s alpha=.87

14. Index 2: Normalcy Feelings
!
• “Please rate how much you agree with each
statement”
• [Strongly Disagree (=1) to Strongly Agree (=6)]
• “Compared to people my age, I feel normal”
• “I often feel like I’m not normal compared to
people my age”
• “I often feel rejected by other people my age”
• Reliable index: alpha=.68

15. Online vs. In-Person Friends
!
• For list of questions about sources of positive or
negative feelings, participants answered on a
six-point scale:
• Definitely Online Friends (=1) to Definitely In-Person
Friends (=6)
• Using this definition:
• “’Online Friends’ are the friends that you interact with
MOSTLY online…
• ‘In-Person Friends’ are friends that you interact with
MOSTLY in person.”

16. Index 3: Source of Positive Feelings
!
• Definitely Online Friends (=1) to Definitely Off-line Friends (=6)
• Extremely reliable: alpha = .94
• Who do you share more • I feel closer to …
secrets with?
• I feel more comfortable with …
• Which do you want to be more
• In which group do you have
like?
more close friends?
• Which do you trust more?
• Who makes you feel more
• Which do you value more? accepted?
• Which understands your • I feel better after talking to …
feelings more?
• I feel more supported by …
• I fit in better with …

17. Index 4: Source of Negative Feelings
!
• Definitely Online Friends (=1) to Definitely
Offline Friends (=6)
• Extremely reliable: alpha = .94
• “I feel more judged by …”
• “I feel more stressed by …”
• “Which can hurt your feelings more …?”

18. Other Behavioral Variables
!
• Index 5: How many hours of sleep per
night?
• “Less than 6 hours” (=1) to “More than 10
hours” (=6)
• Index 6: How many friends do you have
that your parents think are bad influences?
• (Scale: 0, 1, 2, 3 or more)
• Do you own a cellphone?
• Do you have a TV in your bedroom?

19. Summary Statistics
!
• Avg media use@day: 6.9 hours (SD=3.40)
• Not too unlike Kaiser Generation M2 data (ages 8-19)
- taking into account that boys and older groups are
heavier users
• Average F2F@day: 2.1 hours (SD=1.49)
• MMI: When using a medium the average 8-12
year old girl uses 1.4 other media concurrently
• F2F MMI: is also 1.4 extra media @ medium for
F2F communication

20. Media Use Correlations"
and Media Multitasking!
• Only small to moderate correlations
between uses of media types (video,
music, reading, online interactions,
talking on phone, F2F interaction) -
suggesting they attract different persons
• Online communication use is most
strongly associated with media
multitasking (r= .44, p<.001)

21. Media Multitasking (MMT)
!
• Talking on the phone, online
communication, and music are all
positively related to MMT
• Cell phone ownership and having a TV
in one’s room positively related to MMT
• F2F communication negatively related
to MMT even when controlling for media
use

22. F2F Media Multitasking!
• Every category of media use but reading
is strongly and positively related to F2F
MMT (reading is negatively related)
• F2F communication is negatively related
to F2F media multitasking
• Younger children tend to do more
multitasking while face-to-face than older
children
• Presence of TV in the bedroom strongly
associated with more F2F MMT

23. Correlations Between Media Use & "
Types of Media Multitasking!
• Total Media Use and F2F Media
Multitasking are only weakly correlated:
• Suggests media use while F2F is a different
category of behavior than using media in
general
• Yet Media Multitasking and F2F Media
Multitasking are highly correlated when
controlling for media use:
• Implying that multitasking is a generalized
behavior

24. Social success
!
• Video use is strongly and negatively
associated with social success
• Face to face communication is positively
associated with feelings of social success
• Reading use is moderately and negatively
associated with social success (but this
correlation turns out to be due to extremity
effects)
• Older girls in the 8-12 year range feel less
social success

25. Feelings of Normalcy!
• As with social success, video and
reading use are negatively associated
with feelings of normalcy
• While face to face communication is
positively associated with feelings of
normalcy
• Both media multitasking and age are
negatively associated with feelings of
normalcy

26. Number of friends one’s parents
think are a bad influence !
• Video use, talking on the phone and
online interactions are all strongly
associated with a greater number of
friends perceived by parents as bad
influences – while face-to-face
communication is negatively related
• Media multitasking is very strongly and
positively related to this variable

27. Hours of Sleep!
• Video use and online communication use
are negatively associated with number of
hours of sleep
• Media multitasking is strongly and
negatively associated to amount of sleep
• But face to face communication is
positively associated to hours of sleep
• Age is strongly and negatively related to
hours of sleep, as is having a TV in one’s
room and owning a cellphone

28. Positive and Negative Feelings
!
• Even heavy online media users tend to
derive their positive feelings principally
from in-person friends
• No more than 10.1% of respondents for
even one item get their positive feelings
principally from online friends rather than
in-person friends
• In contrast – half of respondents
attribute their negative feelings to online
friends and half to in-person friends

29. Summary!
• Trouble 1: Quantity of video use is correlated with
various negative socio-emotional outcomes:
• Less social success, less normalcy feelings, less sleep,
more friends parents think are bad influences
• Trouble 2: Quantity of online communication*
correlated with the negative socio-emotional
outcomes studied
• Trouble 3: Quantity of media multiasking correlated
with the negative socio-emotional outcomes studied
• Ray of hope! Quantity of face-to-face communication
is positively associated with:
• Greater social success, more normalcy feelings, more sleep,
fewer friends parents think are bad influences

30. Limitations!
• Correlations don’t yield causal inferences:
• Effects may run either way - or both ways (media
<-> social)
• Strong negative correlations for video use &
positive social feelings…but we cannot conclude
watching high volumes of video is responsible for
that situation….
• It could be that due to low positive social feelings
(loneliness, awkwardness, autism spectrum…),
participants turn to video watching instead of F2F
interactions
• …and we also don’t know the content of their video
use either (presumably some uses could be more
positively related to social wellness)

31. Futures
!
• Longitudinal & intervention studies
• With fine-grained experiental methods
• Focused ethnographies of ‘critical events’
as media use & social experiences
‘collide’ (e.g. What are social reactions
to co-present texting, calls, etc.?)
• Studies of new media production and
engagement beyond consumption
• Summing up: Why these results are
important