Effects of media multi-tasking with Facebook on the enjoyment and encoding of TV episodes

Abstract

The study examined the consequences of media multi-tasking involving Facebook and TV sitcoms. Experiment 1 had participants watch TV episodes of their choosing while interacting with Facebook, or on their own, and assessed their enjoyment of the episodes, their overall mood, as well as memory for the episodes. It also examined how these variables were affected by the participants’ prior media multi-tasking experience. Experiment 2 manipulated the degree to which participants had to interact with Facebook while watching TV episodes. We found that participants enjoyed the episodes more under single task conditions than under dual task conditions, and they recalled more details of the episodes under single task conditions. Moreover, the participants who had to engage in more interactions with Facebook had less enjoyment and worse memory than those with less Facebook interactions. Finally, those participants that reported frequently engaging in media multi-tasking outside of the experiment benefitted the most from watching the TV episodes under single task conditions.