Short Video Using and Emotion Regulation: an Empirical Study on Content Types and Usual Time Spent among University Students

Abstract

As the network information technology developing, short videos have become a popular way for university students to release pressure and relax. However, the characteristics such as fragmentation and complexity may have negative influence on the emotion regulation of them. Current researches have been conducted to detect some factors of the short videos and how they affect the emotion regulation ability. However, there lacks combined research of how the time spent and the content types of the short videos influence the emotion regulation and there needs to be more detailed types of the content. This research is conducted between 30 university students on their usual time spent and favorite types of short videos. The time spent is questioned from under half an hour to above three hours, with an interval length of half an hour, and the contents of short videos are divided into eight types, including food, pets, makeup, commentary, science knowledge, game, short dramas, and skits. It is found from the data analysis that the time spent on short videos does not show significant correlation with emotion regulation; while, the types like short dramas, skits, food, and makeup may have a relatively significant positive influence. Cute pets and film/anime commentary have relatively significant negative influence. Games and science popularization content showed no significant positive or negative influence. These results may indicate that under three hours, the time spent has no significant influence on emotion regulation, but the content types should be cautioned while university students watching short videos.