Most students said they watch YouTube to ‘kill time’. (image: Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent study showed that spending more time watching YouTube as a way of killing time during the coronavirus era results in a higher sense of helplessness and loneliness.
A research team from the Kookmin University School of Communication conducted a survey of 149 college students and how they use social media, which revealed that students spent more time on social media each day following the coronavirus outbreak.
Time spent on YouTube jumped by highest rate, increasing from an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes in the pre-coronavirus era to 3 hours and 23 minutes after the outbreak.
Most students said they watch YouTube to ‘kill time’.
A statistical analysis showed that students become more exposed to the sense of helplessness and loneliness if they spend longer hours on YouTube just to ‘kill time’.
There was a positive correlation between watching YouTube to kill time and a sense of helplessness (standardized coefficient of β=0.354), which indicates that students feel more helpless if they spend longer hours on YouTube just to kill time.
The sense of helplessness grew by how long the students stay at home (β=0.239) or watch YouTube (β=0.149).
“It doesn’t become a problem if they watch YouTube for a short period of time, but the coronavirus is prompting many to spend most of their time watching YouTube, which is a problem,” said the research team.
“It can become a serious social problem if it continues.”
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
