6/25-7/1 Post 1: Uses and Gratification

I found this article, "Explaining Why Young Adults Use MySpace and Facebook Through Uses and Gratifications Theory," by Mark A. Urista, Qingwen Dong, and Kenneth D. Day to be interesting, informative and a refresher. At times I found myself having to reread some parts because I would lose my train of thought since already knew that information. First off, when they talk about needs and wants are satisfied instantaneously and constantly through the internet that made me think that is the reason why younger generations are impatient. Since the internet is instant, they think that everything else should be as well. I found the two categories that media gratification were sorted by to be intriguing: process and content. Process gratifications arise from the performance of the activity where as content is chosen according to his or her needs and synthesizes that content to satisfy those needs. I also found that the selection and usage of media being a goal-directed, purposive and motivated action to be an interesting concept. The desires for internet are said to be "relaxation, fun, encouragement, and status" according to Burkitt. Today, I feel like school and work has also taken over the function of the internet. Finally, I would like to know what the results would be of all these studies and researches if they were done today.