Observational Studies

An observational study was conducted with five subjects including myself, in order to understand the relation between the usage of old media and new media simultaneously. Old media is known as any source that entails the usage of television, books, newspaper, and radio among several other examples. New media on the other hand, is related to the use of cellphones, computers with access to social networks, and it is an evolving word along with the technology involved with it. This observational study was conducted in passive observation because not all subjects were approachable for permission and debriefing of the experiment. Therefore, this short paper will discuss the similarities, differences, and significance of the behaviours observed.

Furthermore, the main focus of this paper is indicate that new media has the ability to distract and alienate people from their surroundings without conscious consumption.
There are significant similarities and differences amongst all observations conducted.

As for the similarities, all subjects had a main task at hand until they were interrupted by cellphone use. The use was to primarily contact other people, while conducting the task with old media in the background. The longer the interruption took place, the longer it took for all subjects to get back to the primary task of using old media. In extreme cases where the interruption was more than a few minutes, the subjects cessated the use of old media altogether. In retrospect, the old media that was adopted by the subjects in this study mainly consisted of television, newspaper, and books. Thus, with the interruptions mentioned, it took the subjects extra time in order to focus on watching, reading, or studying from old media sources. Even though there are strong similarities amongst the subjects mentioned, the differences will now be

mentioned.
Differences concerning the usage between old media and new media involve a few parameters. Firstly, how distracted and alienated the subjects were from their surroundings concerns with the conscious consumption of media. Across all subjects involved with the observation, they were all at some point distracted with the use of new media. However, only one subject presented conscious consumption given that their primary task was to watch his favourite show. Thus, the amount of distraction seemed to relate to how important the old media was being used. Secondly, procrastination was observed when there was a task concerning old media usage such as reading a book or newspaper. The two subjects observed had a hard time concluding the task or reading a newspaper article or finishing a chapter from a book, because of the distractions of being surrounded by new media such as the cellphone. The light and vibration queues that involves with the use of the cellphone were not always acknowledged by all subjects, because their different tasks concerning old media had different levels of relevance.
Even though all subjects have differences and similarities, they all seemed to have a primary purpose of consuming old media.

Either watching the tv, reading the newspaper or a book, all these activities were primarily conducted by the subjects. Interestingly enough, conscious consumption was hardly observed because of all the distractions that new media involve. The distractions were mainly extended due to communication being established amongst the subjects observed and the people involved with the subject. In addition, the vibrating aspect of cellphones was also significant enough to deter all subjects from their primary task. A quantitative research conducted by Yahoo! and reported by Mike Melanson, concluded that over 86% of respondents claimed to watch Tv while also handling their own phone. However, the numbers go up to 92% amongst young adults and teenager users. With these thoughts in mind, the significance of these behaviours was that conscious consumption does not naturally happen, unless one is aware of the social and personal alienation that the use of new media can impose. However, further research into these aspects go beyond the scope of this

paper.
The conclusion drawn from these observations is that responsible consumption of old media and new media require careful deliberation. While no communication was established with the utilization of old media, new media required an active and responsive input from subjects. Though all subjects actively sought communication during the observed time frame, not all subjects actually established the communication wanted. That is due to inactivity of the subjects’ personal contacts or the subjects’ wish to complete their primary task of consuming old media. The main similarities involved the usage of a cellphone across all subjects and the similar amount of distraction of cellphone handling. Differently enough, once the importance of a task such as watching a favourite show was established, full attention was given, while minimal cellphone manipulation was observed. With these aspects considered, this passive observational study drew on the important conclusion that new media possess an increased capacity of distraction and alienation without careful deliberation upon the means of consumption.