Media refers to any method of communication, other than one to one interactions, which is facilitated by some type of technology. There is a distinction between the content of the message and the means by which it is communicated although it is both important. According to McLuhan, the medium is an extension of the body. The medium has as much influence as the message itself. It influences how intensively someone processes a message. A cold medium is a medium which requires a lot of imagination to simulate one-to-one interaction. A hot medium is a medium which is very rich in information and does not require that a lot is added. Media literacy refers to sorting out reliable, useful information from junk, marketing and lies. Media blindness refers to being unable to locate the source of the information we acquire and confuse our actual experiences with mediated experiences. The media effects approach in research focuses on the effects media imposes on the individual. However, there is not a fully developed theoretical rationale and low ecological validity. The excitation transfer theory states that media raises adrenaline in people without people recognizing the source of heightened excitement. This leads people to overreact in certain situations. The hypodermic needle theory states that the media injects itself into the brain to influence an individual. This theory is based on the effects propaganda can have on a society which mainly uses one form of mass media. However, people become increasingly media literate.The uses and gratification theory (U&G) states that the individual is a media user rather than a passive observer. The media user is an active agent which seeks out certain media for gratification and rejects other media. Media dependency can be the result of seeking out gratification using media although group demands are often given priority in media use. The cultivation theory states that media gradually cultivate certain...

The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) states that there is a central and peripheral route to persuasion. Thoughtless processing refers to using associative processes. Thoughtful processing refers to using systematic and analytical processing. In the middle of this, there is peripheral processing, which makes use of heuristics. Attitude change based on central processing is more stable, enduring and predictive of behaviour. It focuses on the motivation that people have to process. This motivation can be due to personality factors (1), personal preference (2) or recognizing unreliable sources (3). Furthermore, it focuses on whether people have the cognitive capacity to process the message. One criterion for systematic and analytic processing is the availability of cognitive capacity. This is influenced by the cognitive load of the message. The cognitive capacity is influenced by distraction (1), fatigue (2), need for cognition (3) and prior knowledge (4). Another criterion is motivation. This depends on self-relevance (e.g. preferences). Chaiken’s heuristic-systematic model (HSM) states that accuracy motivated people may assess message validity through heuristics and systematic processing. Individuals base decisions on heuristics if they can be sufficiently confident in the accuracy of those decisions. The expectancy-value theory states that an attitude is influenced by our expectations about the characteristics of an attitude object and the value we attach to those characteristics. A change of attitude is the result of a change in the expectation of the value or by making specific beliefs more salient. The theory of reasoned action regards deliberate decisions and stable attitudes. It states that behavioural intentions predict volitional behaviour. The way messages are framed has an impact on the way it influences people. People are loss aversive, meaning that loss frames are generally more effective. The fit between the message frame and...

People use Facebook to fulfil the need to belong (e.g. connectedness) and the need for self-presentation (e.g. socially desirable profiles). Passive Facebook users experience more loneliness than active Facebook users. Facebook can contribute to feelings of loneliness but this depends on how Facebook is used. Loneliness can decrease following Facebook use if connectedness increases. It can increase following exclusion.People tend to use Facebook to combat disconnectedness and disconnectedness predicts Facebook use. However, the actual use of Facebook is not related to disconnectedness. This makes Facebook use a cause of connectedness and a consequence of disconnectedness. Disconnectedness is not affected by Facebook use. Exposure to information about oneself on Facebook leads to an increase in self-esteem. This effect is stronger with more selective self-presentation and compared to exposure to other’s pages. People have a fundamental need to see themselves as good and a threat to this positive self-image leads to attempts of self-confirmation (e.g. by putting self-related information more centrally). Facebook profiles could have a self-confirming influence by providing positive but accurate information about oneself. A social comparison with idealized online self-presentations is related to decreases in self-esteem. This also depends on whether social networking sites are actively used or passively used. People who spend more time on Facebook have the idea that others are happier. Asynchronicity (1), multiple audiences (2) and audience feedback (3) could increase idealized self-presentation. Individuals with lower self-concept clarity show a larger discrepancy between online and offline self-presentation. It is believed that the digital footprint (e.g. Facebook use) can be used to assess personality. The perception of a Facebook profile correlates with the actual self-personality traits of a person but not with the ideal-self personality...

It is possible that people are not addicted to the internet but to any of the following elements of the internet; availability (1), efficiency (2), reinforcement (3) and anonymity (4). Reinforcement is especially notable in gaming. Vertical gameplay includes continuous reinforcement and a game that continues without the presence of the gamer can lead to FOMO (i.e. fear of missing out). The online environment enhances or facilitates activities to such an extent that it becomes addictive. Internet addiction can only really exist if specific characteristics of the internet make a real contribution or if the activity is impossible online. People are almost always on the internet (i.e. permanently connected) which makes it difficult to say whether there is an internet addiction. It might be more relevant to call it pathological technology use (PTU). The focus of any internet addiction is always on general addiction characteristics that are also central to criteria for gambling addiction and substance abuse. Internet addiction shares symptoms with substance abuse and pathological gambling in which repeated behaviour plays a role. Addicted online gamers find it difficult to weight long-term benefits and short-term benefits and long-term costs and losses. Excessive gamers prefer a more risky but more attractive option in the short-term. There is high comorbidity with internet addiction. High comorbidity between ADHD and gaming could be due to the fact that both are related to attention issues.The permanence of being online (i.e. POPC) and the perception of continued closeness with the object of addiction is likely to overwhelm users with problems with self-regulation and self-directedness. POPC is likely to be less relevant for subtypes of internet addiction that require long, continuous sessions (e.g. gaming). The social function of mobile devices urges people to stay online. General internet addiction consists of loss of control (1), time...