Can media use reduce procrastination? The effect of inspiring media content on academic motivation

In contrast to the distracting effects digital media use poses to attention and productivity, this study examines whether prescribing small doses of inspiring and comedic media content can mitigate procrastination by evoking the emotions of hope and amusement, respectively. In this five-wave panel pretest-posttest experimental design conducted over the course of 4 weeks, undergraduate students, who generally are known to be heavy media users and prone to procrastination, were randomly assigned to one of four groups, including two video treatments (comedic and inspirational), a social media condition, or a no-media control condition ( N = 252 enrolled; N = 241 eligible for analysis). Participants reported their level of school-related stress, academic motivation and procrastination both during and after the five-day media intervention. Results indicated that comedic media and social media significantly increased amusement during the intervention week, which predicted increased procrastination in the following week. In contrast, a detrimental effect was not observed in the inspiring media group. In fact, there was a significant indirect effect of inspiring media on reducing procrastination through increases in felt hope and motivation. This study contributes to the growing body of media use and procrastination literature and demonstrates that the emotional nature of media content can be harnessed for positive outcomes.