Media Use

You’ve heard it many times before: “Violent video games spark aggressive behavior in players and lead to violence in real life…” But, have you ever stopped to look at the facts and consider the validity of this statement? Heather Ness, a psychology professor and blogger who specializes in the psychology…

People debate about whether watching violence makes us more likely to engage in violence ourselves—of which was precisely explored in the Bobo doll experiment. In this experiment, Albert Bandura and his team of researchers studied 72 kids who experienced either an aggressive or non-aggressive model. In the aggressive model, the…

Addiction is a strong word, and the scientific community has not yet determined whether individuals can be “addicted” to sites like Facebook and Instagram in the medical sense. However, whether or not an individual meets the criteria for an addiction disorder may not matter as much as the consequences of his…

A recent survey found that the majority of Americans use streaming services like Netflix and Hulu in bed, and it’s disrupting their sleep. Users often don’t know when to log out of these services, which leads them to veer from their healthy nightly routines and disrupt their circadian rhythm. Instead…

We’re all guilty of it—scrolling enviously through our feeds, staring at all the pretty pictures and reading about our friends’ “glamorous” lives. But here’s the thing: the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Have you ever heard someone refer to social media as a highlight reel? This means…

If you’re an avid social media user—say of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, or all of the above—you’ve probably wondered at some point in your life if your habits would be considered healthy… or if there might be some room for improvement. Fortunately, Licensed Professional Counselor Julie Williamson is here to…

When my ex and I broke up, I immediately unfollowed him on Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. Not because I was resentful or petty—but because I knew I needed a clean break. Seeing his photos and status updates would only upset me and prevent me from moving forward. So, much to…

Social media is in one word powerful. It allows us to connect with and build relationships with people all over the world in a matter of seconds—which I think we can all agree is truly amazing. But is it too powerful? Since the development of social media platforms, like Instagram…

Have you ever listened to the same song over and over and over again? Maybe it’s your first time hearing it, and you love it so much that you can’t resist playing it a few more times. Or maybe it’s a classic that’s been around for decades and every now…

When I was a junior in college, I studied abroad and taught English to hundreds of kids in Rwanda for five weeks. Those five weeks were the most exciting and influential weeks of my life—but they came with a fair amount of difficulties. Among those difficulties: learning to communicate with…

A popular topic of conversation (at least in the world of psychology) is whether or not video games make people more aggressive. For years, the bulk of research said yes, they certainly do; even the American Psychological Association declared violent video games—such as Halo and Call of Duty—a danger to…

I’ve never had the best of luck with technology—but these past couple months have been particularly horrible. To start, my iPhone went haywire: it started dying at a 50% charge, it would turn off any time I tried to listen to my Pandora app, and it froze whenever I typed,…