The way that people consume media content is constantly evolving. Media is typically produced for their audience to consume on a television or a computer screen, with the neck straight up. But media consumption is now dominated by mobile devices. The way the body is angled, with the neck tilted downwards, to consume media on a mobile device has an impact on how media messages are received.
IU Professor Director of Graduate Studies Dr. Rob Potter researched the effect of the angled neck, called “tech neck,” has on the perception of media messages.
With the neck tilted down, there is a general sense of negativity, due to the pressure that is put on the back of the neck. With this sense of negativity due to the pressure and lack of comfort, some media messages are blocked out.
It occurs in a higher rate with negative media messages like the news.
“If you think about news that’s trying to deliver dire information about what’s happening around the world, you might have more of a tendency to not pay attention to that,” Dr. Potter said.
The motivation behind the research came from the changing ways in which media is consumed. With so many people consuming a large amount of media through their mobile devices, Dr. Potter wanted to test how that changes the perception of media messages.
He said there is plenty of research for how messages are received in the upright position, but not much in the “tech neck” position.
Dr. Potter answers questions about the motivation behind tech neck research his role in the research, and whether or not he was surprised by the results of the research.
While the way in which the neck is angled affects how media messages are processed, many people are not aware of it. Two students interviewed were not aware of tech neck or the research surrounding it, but they have experienced the effects.
“Sometimes I notice I just get a little bit of headache just from staring down for awhile, and I need to just take a second to stretch and kind of expand that out and I think that improves my focus a little bit,” IU Sophomore Wesley Miller said.
“I’ve definitely read a text and not understood it, and that [tech neck] might be the cause,” IU Senior Nadia Scharf said.
As for the future of media production, Dr. Potter said that tech neck findings could change the way that media is produced. With two separate audiences (one that would be watching a television with their neck upright, and the other one with their neck tilted down), two different types of stories could be produced, and the viewer chooses which way they are consuming the media.
“We’re a long way away from that, but that could be something this leads to,” Dr. Potter said.
Dr. Potter answers questions about the effects of the tech neck research, how it will change how media is produced, and the timeline for future research.
Dr. Potter wants to continue the research on tech neck but change up the type of media that is used in the research. For this first round of research, Public Service Announcements (PSAs) were used, like anti-drunk driving announcements that are supposed to evoke an emotional response. Next, he wants to use media that is more commonly consumed while commuting, like movies and TV shows, when people are likely to be engaged in tech neck.
The next step in research, Dr. Potter said, would be to see how messages can be changed to see if message processing can be improved with the neck angled down.
He expects this research to happen in the next two to three years.
