The Everydayness of Late-Night Media Use

A Quantitative Study

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of technology in society has been paralleled by the public's eagerness to become more immersed in media. It is evident that varying forms of media surround people at most times of the day. However, there has been little research about the usage of media in the evening, specifically late-night media usage. Through a quantitative study, this paper explores the effects late-night media usage has on college students’ everyday lives. The results indicate 91% of the participants studied engaged in late-night media usage at least five nights a week. Furthermore, the results reveal that 99% of the college students studied have a cell phone in their bedroom within one hour of going to sleep and have more than one social media platform. There was a significant positive correlation between media features and addictive behavior in college students. However, the majority of the college students did not experience major disruptions in sleep quality or daytime functioning. This elicits the growing commonality of people engaging in late-night media and possible implications and reasons of this engagement. This study promotes further research focusing on late-night media usage in relation to the metropolis, power, space, and rhythms of daily life.