Abstract
The confinement of the population into their homes as a result of COVID-19 has entailed a notable increase in the consumption of diverse media. This exploratory study aimed to examine how the increase in media consumption was related to subjective happiness and psychological well-being. For this purpose, a questionnaire was administered to a sample of Spanish adults (n = 249; 53.8% women; aged between 18 and 75, Mage = 42.06, SD = 12.37) to assess their consumption of different media before and during confinement. Moreover, participants were evaluated for hedonic, eudaimonic, social, and experienced happiness by using the Pemberton Happiness Index (PHI). The results underlined the great increase in the consumption of TV for entertainment and social networking sites (SNS) during confinement. Furthermore, it was found that higher consumption was negatively correlated with the level of happiness, so that, people who reported greater well-being, both subjective and psychological, spent less time watching TV and using SNS. In contrast, no association was found between the level of happiness and the consumption of news (regardless of the media) and radio. Therefore, it seems that far from cultivating greater happiness, those who engaged in heavy consumption of TV entertainment and SNS during confinement were less happy than those who did so more moderately and spent more time using other media or performing other activities.
Highlights
The main tragedy of COVID-19 has been the death and illness of millions of people around the world
The aim of the present study was to explore whether the supposed increase in media consumption, as several sources have already indicated, during the weeks of confinement at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic was positively or negatively related to the level of happiness and well-being
The time spent in watching TV series and movies increased the most, around half hour during confinement
Summary
The main tragedy of COVID-19 has been the death and illness of millions of people around the world. The pandemic has led to an unprecedented situation for most of the world population: home confinement for many weeks at a time. Individuals and families across were suddenly forced to rethink a daily routine to be carried out entirely inside their homes. It was necessary to reconfigure the daily habits that characterized the previous normal life. Some daily behaviors disappeared, while new ones would emerge, and in most cases their duration changed. Media consumption was one of the habits with a greater increase during confinement. Various studies confirm this result (Casero-Ripollés, 2020), as well as reports from the media
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