Managing media use: How young adults deal with information abundance

This study examines how young adults manage their relationship with media in an era of information abundance. Drawing on focus groups and in-depth interviews, we analyze young adults’ media use through the lens of management, focusing on how they plan, organize, motivate themselves, and control their media use. We identify five analytically distinct domains of media management: information flows, emotions, social relationships, attention, and self-presentation. Our key finding is that young adults do not primarily manage media by device or platform, but by the functions media serve in everyday life. Participants distinguish three core functions of media use: being in the loop about major developments, maintaining connection with friends and family, and zoning out through leisure-oriented use. Being in the loop involves balancing informational and emotional needs with social and moral expectations, using ambient news awareness to remain informed of important developments without becoming emotionally overwhelmed. Maintaining connection is characterized by the proactive allocation of attention to messaging apps, which is not experienced as intrusive. In contrast, media used for zoning out are experienced as unproductive and associated with guilt and frustration over perceived loss of self-control, prompting attempts to limit their use.