Online interviews
After street interviews turned out to be a flop, we decided to try online interviews.
We had asked some of our friends who also filled in the survey if they wanted to elaborate on their answers in a one on one interview.
We hosted this interview as an open conversation. You can read more about out techniques.
We interviewed 2 people, both female, aged 20-23, who will hereafter be referred to as person A and person B.
Do you use social media? #
There was a clear difference in responses. Person A uses social media for very short periods, rather as a primary form of communication for keeping tabs on family. Person B uses social media more often, because they didn't want to miss anything (FOMO), because they're stressed and can relax when browsing through socials, or because they're used to checking socials during breaks for example.
Which platforms do you use? #
Both used Facebook and Twitter. Instagram, Messenger, TikTok and Tumblr were also used on a daily basis. The average time ranged from about 55 minutes to about 6 hours in total per day.
Why do you use social media? #
Person B uses social media for inspiration, to look for aesthetics and nice photos. Person A uses social media less
often, but also for inspiration.
When asked wether social media impacts their mood, they both answered yes. They told us that they both got a mood boost from looking at photos they liked, or that set the mood for studying, or relaxing.
Podcasts were also mentioned as being helpful to help with studying.
But they told us this also went in the other direction, and actually worsens their mood when seeing negative things.
They both said that negative posts have a much longer lasting effect on their mood than positive posts.
Do you follow news on social media? #
Both people answered with a strong no. They'll read what's on their timeline if they're interested in it, but they'll avoid most of the news. They gave two main reasons why.
One of them was because the news they see is mostly negative and they'd rather not see that, or have it impact their mood. Person B mentioned a few more specific reasons why: the articles they deemed important were mostly paid. (Which in itself is a bit of an ethical dilemma. Do you, as a news source, lock important info behind a paywall or do you allow everyone who wants to get that important info...) What also bothered Person B is that other people tell you if something is important or not. You have little choice to form your own opinion about topics. They also said that there is a lot of news that's not important when there's more important topics to cover.
Do you read/watch/listen to news on tv, the radio or the newspaper? #
They both didn't actively get news from theses sources. Person A does watch the news on tv if it happens to be on. They get the most important news from Social media, but not via news sources. Rather people talking about important topics.
Person B reads the news while commuting. Also gets important topics from friends, or people online who talk about it.
Have you noticed a change in news? #
Person A said that the last few months there was a heavy focus on Covid-19 and much less on other topics. It felt like other things weren't important anymore.
They also shared their vision on news itself; They find news very "constructed". By this they mean that news isn't a list of facts, but there's a certain perspective connected to it which steers your opinion about that topic. They also mentioned that they noticed that there's a preference towards a white perspective on things.
Person B told us that, compared to the sensational news in America, the news in Belgium is more fact based, and helps people understand the topics.
What would news have to change to make you actively watch it? #
For Person B it needed to be less sensational. They told us that when something big happens, a lot of people will talk about it and they'll look it up and find out what it's about. Person A said that the current generation seems to want to make a difference in the world, and thus has a critical view on everything they see and hear. They don't trust anything straight of the bat and they think it's going to take a lot to get them to trust news sources. They mentioned that this might not be possible since news sources can never cover everything in the world, or everything that people find important.
Insights #
Both people we interviewed used social media to actually boost their mood, which wasn't something we expected. Especially setting a mood to help study or relax was an interesting insight we found.
They both responded with a strong no when asked if they follow the news on social media, they even try to avoid it. This was mainly because either they weren't interested in it, it didn't give an objective view or they did not want any negative news to decrease their mood.
We did not expect people to almost actively avoid news on social media.
During the interview, it became clear that they did not actively watch the news. When asked what needed to change for them to actively watch the news, they responded that a lot had to change and that was basically impossible in their eyes. For them to watch the news actively, they had to trust it, which, as described above, is hard when you come from a generation where you're a critical thinker.
There might be a place between absolutely trusting the news and critical thinking that makes the youth want to actively watch the news but not trust everything they say. This will need more research to determine and is possibly an interesting topic for future research.