Built on the previous studies on the negative effects of watching TV on materialism and the culture of overconsumption, an assumption was made in this study on the effects of using personal media which is a popular format of self-expression on the ove...
Built on the previous studies on the negative effects of watching TV on materialism and the culture of overconsumption, an assumption was made in this study on the effects of using personal media which is a popular format of self-expression on the overconsumption tendency. Such assumption was to be verified through an experiential examination. The psychological phenomenon revealed during the process of showing one's daily life through photos can be interpreted as vanity. Accordingly a hypothesis was made that the frequency of watching TV and entertainment programs, involvement in TV, degree of using personal media, and involvement in personal media will affect the overconsumption tendency. Survey were administered to 432 respondents in their 10's and 20's, followed by multiple regression analysis and stepwise regression of the data. The results of this analysis are as follows. No significant correlation was found between overconsumption tendency and the frequency of watching TV and entertainment programs, and involvement in TV. Regarding personal media, no significant correlation was found between overconsumption tendency and using personal media. However, regarding the involvement in personal media, the higher one's attention level and degree of engagement for the personal media were, the higher the tendency of overconsumption became. The result was statistically significant. As for the age of the survey participants, no significant result was found between the media usage and overconsumption tendency both for the participants in their 10's and 20's. However explanatory variables were found in ATSCI and personal media involvement in the 10's and in ATSCI, gender and TV involvement in the participants in their 20's. Based on the result of this study, it was found that an individual tendency to compare oneself with others had more effects on the overconsumption than the media usage had.