Research On Media Time Anxiety

Since time is a limited,scarce,and non-renewable social resource,time anxiety has become a universal psychosocial condition that cannot be ignored in the current macro-social context of increasing social competition,rapid social change,and social acceleration.In this process,the media,as an important part of the social system,an indispensable structure in people’s daily life,and an important technological facility with close relationship with human beings,has continuously broken free from the boundaries of space and time during its development,bringing about a continuous innovation of people’s daily life and the way of social interaction,a constant change in the media culture of time,and a gradual deepening of the media’s control of power.Media time has become the dominant social time frame,the traditional concept of time and time structure is gradually declining,almost all media users are difficult to get rid of the control and constraints brought by the media in the time dimension,and the sense of time anxiety is gradually deepening in this process.This paper focuses on media time anxiety,takes communication science as the theoretical foundation,and at the same time introduces the relevant theories of sociology and psychology,comprehensively utilizes in-depth interview method,text analysis method,case study method and other methods to sort out the historical evolution of the view of media time and the degree of media time anxiety,elucidates the specific ways of media time anxiety,analyzes the root causes and internal logic of its emergence,reflects on the possible social impacts of media time anxiety,and explores the possibility of paths to counteract the anxiety.In this paper,we retrace the evolution of media time anxiety from a historical perspective,analyze in depth the association between dominant time concepts,dominant media and media time anxiety in different historical periods,and summarize the intensity and characteristics of people’s media time anxiety in different periods.Generally speaking,with the development of society and the innovation of media,people’s media time anxiety is characterized by deepening and intensifying.Nowadays,media time,characterized by fragmentation,transience and disorder,has become the main social time frame,and media time anxiety is manifested at the macro level as the media mapping of the social macro time context;at the meso level,it involves the time competition of media organizations;and at the micro level,the refinement of the media time scale,the time order of media socialization and dissemination,and the weakening of the user’s personal time management ability are the specific manifestations of media time anxiety.The micro level involves time competition among media organizations.Then,this paper introduces two micro-analytical perspectives.On the one hand,it takes the cell phone as a specific media terminal as the entry point,collects research data through in-depth interviews,and analyzes in-depth the use of cell phone users’ time patterns,the reasons for the generation of time anxiety,as well as the practical ways to fight against cell phone time anxiety;on the other hand,it takes the digital rituals,which is a concrete symbol of media time anxiety,as the object of the study,and elucidates the manifestation of the digital rituals,the consequences of the improper use of digital rituals,as well as the corresponding methods of resolving the problem.This paper then starts from a macro social perspective,explaining the construction process of media time anxiety by multiple subjects and structural forces such as political power,economic power,social culture and technological development,and analyzing the underlying logic and deep-seated motives of media time anxiety.At the political level,time is an important dimension for the state and government to carry out social governance,and the political subject shapes the spatial and temporal concepts of social subjects and achieves the governance goals through the construction and use of time media,the formulation and dissemination of time rules,the expression and emphasis of time discourse,and the shaping and appropriation of media practice schedules.In the economic dimension,on the one hand,profit-seeking is the nature of capital,and capital subjects conspire with the media to accelerate the market process,promote consumption,and transform the relationship between production and daily practice;on the other hand,the media,as an economic organization,develops and devours the audience’s attention time,and monitors and exploits the time and labor of the audience,which all continue to intensify the audience’s sense of time anxiety.At the cultural level,time anxiety in the social context is stimulated and deepened in the media space,influencing people’s behavior of media use and time value judgment,and at the same time,the temporal characteristics of the media itself also form a unique cultural logic.At the technical level,the information anxiety caused by the rapidity and convenience of media information transmission,the confusion of time perception caused by the process of media use,and the time and space disorder caused by the overlapping of media tenses are all potentially aggravating users’ time anxiety.This paper argues that appropriate media time anxiety is conducive to social progress,media change and personal development,but over-enhanced media time anxiety may have unpredictable negative effects.Media time anxiety beyond a certain limit will cause the gradual demise of the traditional linear time structure,the alienation of interpersonal relationships,and the escalation of capital slaughter.Under the pressure of time,the main body of communication is unable to ensure the quality of communication content,resulting in the disorganization of the information environment.Individuals gradually lose the ability to reflect in depth,and their subjectivity gradually dissolves.To counteract the adverse effects of media time anxiety,the state and the government should emphasize the value of time,create a good social time atmosphere,and strengthen the time supervision of media platforms;the media should maintain a balance between social benefits and economic interests,disseminate contents of contemporary value and social significance,and continuously improve the time rules;and the individual users need to take the initiative to adjust their time rhythms and set up the correct time values.At the same time,they should recognize the essence of the media and capital,and keep a proper distance from the media.